Amazon closed the live radio app Amp, which it launched just last year, and the shutdown will be implemented soon, and Bloomberg reported that Steve Boom, vice president of Amazon Music, sent a memo announcing the end of the app.
The Amp app appears to still be available for download and is still streaming live radio shows at press time, and The Verge has reached out to both Amp and Amazon Music to get more details on when the service will officially end.
“This decision was not made quickly or easily, and it only became clear after months of careful study to determine the investments Amazon wants to make for the future,” Baum wrote, according to Bloomberg.
Amazon's experiment with live audio lasted only about a year and a half, and the app was first launched in March 2022. It appears to be a competitor to Clubhouse and other live or social audio services that were launched during the pandemic, but unlike Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces, which allowed anyone to launch a room. Live chat about any topic.
Amp was geared toward fans of music and talk radio, and any Amp user with an Amazon account could launch a live show and access millions of licensed songs, which they could compile into playlists and play for their followers, and Amp users could "call in" to the shows and ask the hosts questions.
Amp attracted musicians, comedians, podcasters, athletes and other celebrities to host shows during its heyday with the likes of Nicki Minaj, Jason Lee, Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors, Joe Budden, Guy Raz of How I Built This Pusha T and others appearing in live shows on the service. But signs of trouble appeared early, and Amazon cut half of its current employees last year, to about 150 employees.
Amp's closure is the latest in a series of live audio services shutting down or pivoting after users stopped following the pandemic.
Last month, Clubhouse announced it was reinventing itself as a group messaging app, and Spotify also shut down its live audio feature earlier this year.
In response to questions from The Verge, Amazon Music spokeswoman Rebecca Silverstein provided the following statement: “We made the difficult decision to close Amp and in creating Amp we tried something that had never been done before and built a product that gives creators a place where they can build real connections with each other.” Some share a common love of music.
"We've learned a lot about how live music communities interact in this process, which we're using as we build new fan experiences at scale on Amazon Music," she added.