Audio room apps connect fans with celebrities

These apps are another way for celebrities to reach out to their fans

New Delhi: Celebrity culture has come a long way in Bollywood. From an era where filmy magazines were the only source for fans to get a glimpse of their favourite stars, to TV interviews to paparazzi culture to social media ecosystem of Instagram and Twitter, every new medium is bringing the fans closer to their celebrities. The latest technology bridging the gap between celebrities and fans is the audio room apps.

Though the concept is at its nascent stage, with Clubhouse taking the lead followed by the recently launched competitor Spotify Greenroom, Twitter spaces, Facebook live audio rooms and Fireside, it’s said to be the next wave of social communication.

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Celebrity publicist Jashoda Madhavji, founder, Dream N Hustle Media, believes that the pandemic is one of the biggest factors for the shift in celebrity culture and social audio booming.

“I feel the need to acknowledge the “real-time” as a theory has become the need of the hour and the definition of stardom has changed drastically. “The elitist culture is being done away with this new decade and celebrities need to showcase a sense of authenticity to leverage their fan base. Clubhouse has been able to spotlight the voices of regular individuals and create a world of relatable influencers which I think is a great way of moving away from the over-hyped celebrity culture,” Jashoda said.

According to her, there is a ‘Zoom video fatigue’ and these apps manage to create a niche. “We’re all a bit worn-out of looking at each other’s faces over the computer screens. Audio, on the other hand, is hot and podcasts have grown over the last few years,” Jashoda added.

One of the creators at Clubhouse, Aniruddha Guha believes that audio room is only an extension of the already existing social media presence. “Unlike with other social media like, Twitter, IG and FB, where the content remains for an X number of hours or for eternity, the content created on Clubhouse is live, to be enjoyed in that very moment. I think there’s an inherent beauty to these conversations not getting recorded – the gratification is instant and more long-lasting in people’s memories.”

‘The Bollywood Film Club’ at Clubhouse is created by Aniruddha, the screenwriter of films like “Malang” and the upcoming “Rashmi Rocket”.

While Clubhouse audio chats are real-time, Spotify’s Greenroom is ahead of time and has introduced recording the audio chats in a certain way. Spotify spokesperson said, “Greenroom is a platform for live audio conversations that we’ve built, keeping the creators and artists in mind.”

Talking about the celebrities on Greenroom, he said: “It’s still early days, but we recently hosted a Greenroom session with Rajkummar Rao and Ranveer Allahbadia to talk about audio as a format as well as our recently announced ‘Ruk Jaana Nahi’ initiative, narrated and hosted by the Bollywood actor.”