LinkedIn pulls the plug on live Audio Events

Remember when live audio took over during the height of the pandemic? It all started with Clubhouse, a short-lived viral hit before almost every major platform jumped on the bandwagon. But as the world moved on, so did the trend, leaving live audio as a quirky reminder of a time when endless streams of strangers chatting somehow counted as entertainment.

Now, LinkedIn — one of the later arrivals to the live audio scene in 2022 — has decided to pull the plug on its standalone live Audio Events feature. The company recently announced it is merging Audio Events with LinkedIn Live, marking the end of its audio-only streaming feature.


Launched in 2022, Audio Events let users host audio-only streams where participants could join and chat. Starting December 2, however, LinkedIn will no longer support streaming Audio Events natively, requiring a third-party platform instead. Events can still be recorded using LinkedIn Live.

For those with Audio Events planned before December 31, they can proceed as scheduled. However, if your event is set for after that, you’ll need to recreate it via LinkedIn Live by December 15, as original events will be removed.

As I mentioned earlier, LinkedIn was late to the party when it launched Audio Events, and now it’s equally late to shut it down. Facebook dropped its Live Audio Rooms in December 2022, while 2023 marked the end for Reddit Talk, Spotify Live, and Amazon’s Amp app. X Spaces still exists, though it frequently struggles with glitches during big chats. So, LinkedIn’s decision to retire the feature feels like a logical move.