Clubhouse was valued at $1 billion in January, and the live audio market has only gotten hotter since.

Spotify is joining the fray of live audio broadcasters with its acquisition of sports talk network Locker Room and parent company Betty Labs, a deal that values the company at around $50 million.

Like Clubhouse, Locker Room allows for live voice chats between listeners and hosts. Launched in October, the app has hosted conversations with NBA players like Andre Igoudala and Seth Curry. 

Igoudala participated in Locker Room’s initial $9.3 million fundraising round, along with Kevin Durant and former player Baron Davis. Spotify joins a crowded field of tech companies offering live audio content. 

• Fireside, co-founded by Mark Cuban, is a live audio app that allows hosts to record their conversations. It plans to launch later this year.
• Facebook is working on a live audio app, too.
• Twitter Spaces is being used for a blend of regular shows and spontaneous chats, per Twitter spokesperson Jen Santamaria. NBA personality Rob Perez has hosted Twitter Spaces conversations with as many as 44,000 attendees. 

Spotify plans to rebrand Locker Room and expand its topics beyond sports and into music and pop culture. It is open to various monetization models for Locker Room, including letting creators charge for content or as a funnel to Spotify’s broader network of audio content.

Some people have a hard time recognizing Tony Hawk in public, but he’s a fan favorite on Cameo, an app that allows fans to send and receive personalized messages from celebrities.

The company has seen great success since its launch in 2016, and its parent company Baron App announced this week that it completed a Series C $100 million funding round, putting Cameo at a valuation of over $1 billion. New investors include Hawk, United Talent Agency, and Google Ventures.

Cameo has now raised more than $165 million.

Aside from Tony Hawk, other athletes on the app include Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas, WNBA star Lisa Leslie, NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre, and Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner, who asks for $2,500 per video.

While the platform includes more than athletes, the company started with ties to sports. Cameo chief executive and co-founder Steven Galanis had a conversation with Baron App co-founder Martin Blencowe, who was an NFL agent at the time. Blecowe asked client Cassius Marsh, then a linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks, to record a congratulatory video for a friend who had just become a father, and the idea for Cameo was hatched.

Cameo now features more than 40,000 celebrities and generated $100 million sales in 2020, giving its talent 75%. Brian Baumgartner, who plays Kevin Malone on “The Office,” was the app’s top earner for the year, raking in over $1 million.

A new weekly studio show. An Adam Schefter or Adrian Wojnarowski for NHL news. A breakthrough to rival the groundbreaking yellow first-down line on NFL broadcasts. 

Those are just some of ESPN’s ambitious plans as it returns to NHL coverage this October via a new seven-year, $2.8 billion rights deal. It marks the first time in 16 years that the network will broadcast live hockey. 

Mark Gross, ESPN’s senior vice president of production and remote events, will lead all aspects of NHL coverage. He gave Front Office Sports a preview of ESPN’s strategy:

• ESPN may hire an uber news-breaker for the NHL similar to Adam Schefter (NFL), Adrian Wojnarowski (NBA), or Jeff Passan (MLB).
• Look for talent mainstays like Steve Levy, Linda Cohn, John Buccigross, and Barry Melrose to play key roles in the coverage.
• Yes, the popular ’90s-era NHL theme music will be back (but a redux of Fox’s “glowing puck” is not in the cards).
• A new NHL studio show on ESPN’s linear TV channels and an expansion of Cohn’s “In the Crease” on ESPN+.
• Will ESPN’s on-air talent talk about gambling? Don’t bet against it, Gross says.

Gross grew up playing hockey in Troy, New York. During his 33-year career at ESPN, he’s produced everything from the NFL and NBA to MLB and “SportsCenter.”

Now he’s ready to take up the challenge of televising hockey: a sport best viewed in person. “We’re not interested in sitting still,” Gross promised.