Facebook Hands Out Cash To Creators To Boost Clubhouse Rival

Facebook is offering to pay musicians and other celebrities tens of thousands of dollars to host sessions on its new live audio feature, as the social network beefs up its efforts to woo creators and the young people who follow them.

Production companies working for Facebook, owned by Meta Platforms, have contacted music artists and social media stars in recent weeks offering payment packages to host Facebook Live Audio Rooms, according to two people with direct knowledge of the outreach. The packages can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars over several sessions, they said.

At the high end, the proposed payouts are more than what social audio app Clubhouse has offered creators for its live audio accelerator program. They reflect Facebook’s ability to use its financial muscle to break into live audio, a market crowded by startups including Clubhouse and Discord along with larger tech companies such as Twitter and streaming giant Spotify.