Facebook announced a suite of new audio products, including new support for podcasts and a Clubhouse live audio competitor, which was an indication that it was taking the threat from other audio platforms more seriously. Now, barely a year after Facebook began its foray into podcasting and audio features, the company's interest in the space is reportedly starting to fade, a report claims.

Facebook is retreating from its podcasting foray, according to Bloomberg, and plans to review other initiatives it is doing in partnership with podcast partners. Facebook is "more focused on pursuing other opportunities with podcast partners — like events in the metaverse and e-commerce," its sources said. Meta, parent company to Facebook, is also reportedly prioritizing short video projects over others, likely because how fast the app for short-form videos is growing in popularity with TikTok.

In an email to TechCrunch, Meta said that it has been seeing good engagement with the audio features and believes audio is indeed one of the important mediums of expression. The company further said it has been getting feedback from creators on what's working and what it needs to work better on. Meta did not comment further on the matter.

Bloomberg says that Facebook at one point explored establishing a training program to coax creators to its platform but apparently dropped the plan. Additionally, following Facebook's sponsorship of Podcast Movement in August, Facebook didn't sponsor the Podcast Movement Launch event last month and wasn't represented by a Meta employee at the event either. According to Bloomberg, some of Facebook's early deals for Live Audio Rooms weren't renewed.

Of course, Meta's pivot on the metaverse side of things in its relationship with podcast partners isn't exactly a surprise, especially given the corporate rebranding of parent company and priorities regarding the metaverse over certain other things. For instance, Meta recently announced it won't hold its F8 developer conference this year and will focus on the metaverse instead.

Facebook couldn't afford to enter the audio space when Clubhouse was valued at $4 billion last year, as Spotify and Apple are already very much in front of everyone in podcasting. It will take an awful lot to try to wrest away market share of Spotify and Apple, even with loads of money to spend on its podcasting efforts. The metaverse will also be expensive-the question of how long Meta can even continue funding its investment here, given it reported earlier this year it's spent nearly $10 billion on the effort to date. And it's just getting started.

The live audio market remains dominated by Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces, which are both continuing to develop more features. Live audio, a niche space up until now, has suddenly gained tremendous popularity during the pandemic since most people confined themselves to their homes. With restrictions finally lifted for the most part around the world and in-person events are back on, Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces have had to find ways to keep the users sticking around by tweaking and updating their platforms.

For example, Clubhouse began testing a new in-room gaming feature, meant to generate conversation and make users more familiar with each other. Twitter continues to increase access to Spaces, after launching a number of new features, including Ticketed Spaces, plus the ability for anyone to host a Space.