蓝牙通话音频 媒体音频
Last week, Product Tienda welcomed Midas Kwant, founder of Rodeo, an audio-first social app. In this piece, we captured that conversation while zooming out to cover the recent rise of audio.
上周， Product Tienda 欢迎 了音频优先社交应用Rodeo的创始人 Midas Kwant 。 在此片段中，我们在缩小范围以捕获音频的最新增长时捕获了该对话。
By Eshita Nandini & Abhi
Eshita Nandini和Abhi
As we near our seventh month of quarantine, limited physical interaction has started to take a toll on Americans. Early on, we turned to video-conferencing software to keep in touch with friends and family, but Zoom fatigue caught on quick — today, a mere 30-minute call tends to exhaust when months ago we used to enthusiastically attend 2-hour long happy hours.
当我们接近隔离的第七个月时，有限的身体互动开始对美国人造成伤害。 早期，我们转向视频会议软件来与亲朋好友保持联系，但是Zoom疲劳很快就出现了-今天，几个月前我们曾经热情地参加了2个小时的快乐聚会时，仅仅30分钟的通话就显得筋疲力尽小时。
There has been an uptick and audio platforms as they raced to replace in-person interactions. As new solutions flood the space, it’s worth taking a step back to look at the evolution of social media to understand how we got here and where we’re going. With a still uncertain future, new types of digital interaction aren’t just a novelty, they’re a necessity. At first, video seemed the obvious choice to replace in-person gatherings, but as time goes on, we’ve noticed people creating and using more audio-first apps.
他们竞相取代面对面的互动时，出现了升级的音频平台。 随着新的解决方案泛滥成灾，值得退后一步，看看社交媒体的发展，以了解我们如何到达这里以及我们要去往何处。 在未来仍然不确定的情况下，新型的数字交互不仅是新颖的，而且是必不可少的。 最初，视频似乎是替代面对面聚会的明显选择，但是随着时间的流逝，我们注意到人们在创建和使用更多的音频优先应用。
社交媒体概述和媒体捆绑 (An Overview of Social Media and the Unbundling of Media)
The evolution of media, and specifically of social media, is a story of bundling and unbundling. Namely, we’ve cycled through phases of decentralization and centralization of the creation, distribution, consumption, and monetization of information.
媒体(特别是社交媒体)的发展是一个捆绑和解包的故事。 即，我们已经经历了信息创建，分配，消费和货币化的分散和集中化阶段。
The start of social media can be traced back to the age of mass media in the latter half of the 20th century, which was characterized by large media organizations serving as the primary creators of content. In this time, people like Walter Cronkite gained fame by broadcasting content to nearly 30 million Americans every night. This era was followed by new media and then social media starting in the early 2000s. Social media enabled user-generated content (UGC), which created an intimate experience where everyone could be a consumer and a creator.
社交媒体的起源可以追溯到20世纪下半叶大众媒体的时代，其特征是大型媒体组织是内容的主要创作者。 在这段时间里，像沃尔特·克朗基特(Walter Cronkite)这样的人每天晚上向近3000万美国人广播内容，从而赢得了声誉。 这个时代之后是新媒体 ，然后是2000年代初期开始的社交媒体 。 社交媒体启用了用户生成的内容(UGC)，从而创造了一种亲密的体验，每个人都可以成为消费者和创造者。
Facebook and other platforms began unbundling mass media by allowing users to share articles, music, and video directly on their personal profiles. Being able to broadcast content directly to friends and family allowed for a feedback loop to form between creators and consumers and the ability to form community online. So while consumers became less reliant on central entities to provide information, algorithms leveraged these feedback loops to personalize content for both creators and consumers. These algorithms gave every user a unique version of Facebook; so while there was only one version of CBS Evening News in 1962, there were a billion versions of Facebook in 2012.
Facebook和其他平台通过允许用户直接在其个人资料上共享文章，音乐和视频来开始捆绑大众媒体。 由于能够直接向朋友和家人广播内容，因此可以在创作者和消费者之间形成反馈循环，并可以在线形成社区。 因此，尽管消费者不再那么依赖中央实体来提供信息，但是算法利用这些反馈循环为创作者和消费者提供个性化的内容。 这些算法为每个用户提供了独特的Facebook版本。 因此，虽然1962年CBS晚间新闻只有一个版本，但2012年有十亿个版本的Facebook。
As social media usage grew, it became possible to both serve a niche interest and build a massive audience. UGC became professionalized and the experience became much less intimate. Soon, people were doing things on social media that couldn’t have been imagined in traditional media. Mass social media became defined by virality and virality became commonplace.
随着社交媒体使用率的增长，既可以满足利基市场的兴趣，又可以吸引大量受众。 教资会变得专业化，经验变得不那么亲密。 很快，人们在社交媒体上做的事情是传统媒体无法想象的。 大众社交媒体已被病毒式传播所定义，病毒式传播已变得司空见惯。
For the first 10–15 years of the millennium, as social media became the gathering place for the world at large, the technology of intimate, synchronous conversations stagnated. From the early days of social media, text-based communication dominated all synchronous and intimate interactions. People were texting each other in 2013 as they were in 2003, just through different platforms. This paved the way for new technologies to emerge and enable intimate, sometimes synchronous conversations, such as Snapchat which launched in 2011.
在本世纪的前10到15年中，随着社交媒体成为全世界的聚集地，亲密而同步的对话技术停滞不前。 从社交媒体的早期开始，基于文本的交流就主导了所有同步和亲密的互动。 2013年和2003年一样，人们通过不同的平台互相发短信。 这为新技术的出现铺平了道路，并实现了亲密的，有时是同步的对话，例如2011年推出的Snapchat。
We expected that phone calls would be made obsolete as there was innovation in all other media except audio, but phone calls increased since the start of the pandemic. According to the New York Times, “Verizon said it was now handling an average of 800 million wireless calls a day during the week, more than double the number made on Mother’s Day, historically one of the busiest call days of the year…In contrast, internet traffic is up around 20 percent to 25 percent from typical daily patterns”.
我们期望电话会过时，因为除了音频以外的所有其他媒体都进行了创新，但是自大流行开始以来电话数量有所增加。 据《纽约时报 》 报道 ，“ Verizon表示，现在一周平均每天要处理8亿次无线电话，是母亲节的两倍，是历史上一年中最繁忙的通话日之一……相比之下， ，互联网流量比典型的每日模式增加了20％到25％”。
The rise is stunning given how voice calls have long been on the decline. New needs are emerging in the crisis. “We’ve become a nation that calls like never before,” said Jessica Rosenworcel, a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, the agency that oversees phone, television, and internet providers, “We are craving human voice.”
考虑到语音通话长期以来一直呈下降趋势，这种增长令人震惊。 危机中出现了新的需求。 负责电话，电视和互联网提供商的联邦通信委员会 ( Federal Communications Commission)专员杰西卡·罗森沃尔瑟(Jessica Rosenworcel)说：“我们已经成为一个前所未有的国家，我们渴望得到人类的声音。”
音频的本质和Airpod的转变 (The Nature of Audio and the Airpod Shift)
So, why was audio left behind in the greatest and fastest upheaval of media since the printing press?
那么，为什么自印刷机以来，音频却在最大，最快的媒体动荡中留下来了？
In our conversation with Midas, we discussed the nature of audio itself and the ways people were predisposed to use it. First, phone calls had deeply embedded the idea that audio’s primary role was synchronous, 1-to-1 communication. Second, users can’t skim audio in the same way that they can skim text or quickly glance at images/videos. This made audio a bad match for mass social media where users became used to scrolling through and briefly looking at a large quantity of content.
在与Midas的对话中，我们讨论了音频本身的性质以及人们倾向于使用音频的方式。 首先，电话已深深植入了音频的主要作用是同步的一对一通信的想法。 其次，用户不能以与文本或快速浏览图像/视频相同的方式浏览音频。 对于大众化的社交媒体来说，音频变得不匹配了，用户习惯了滚动浏览并短暂地查看大量内容。
For these reasons, most progress in social audio at the start of new media anchored around long-form podcasts. However, the rollout of Airpods in 2016 was viewed as a potential tipping point for social audio. At the time, Josh Constine predicted that since Airpods remove friction and enable “always in” headphones, there will be a rise of snackable audio. In 2019 alone, there were 60 million Airpods sold.
由于这些原因，在以长格式播客为基础的新媒体开始时，社交音频方面的大多数进步。 但是，Airpods在2016年的推出被视为社交音频的潜在转折点。 当时， 乔什·康斯汀 ( Josh Constine)预测，由于Airpods消除了摩擦并启用了“始终插入”耳机，因此将会出现零食音频 。 仅在2019年，就售出了6000万架Airpods。
Midas compared the impact of Airpods to what front-facing camera did for selfie culture. The introduction of front-facing cameras made selfies the “lingua franca for millennials.” This new hardware changed our roles as users: “By turning the camera on oneself, the user became the model, the photographer, the art director, the image retoucher, and the publisher of their image.”
Midas将Airpods的影响与前置摄像头对自拍文化的影响进行了比较。 前置摄像头的推出使自拍照成为“千禧一代的通用语言”。 这种新的硬件改变了我们作为用户的角色：“通过自带照相机，用户成为了模型，摄影师，美术指导，图像修饰者和图像发布者。”
Airpods will not only expedite innovation in audio, but they may enable companies to build new use cases and change the way users create, distribute, consume, and monetize audio content.
Airpods不仅会加快音频的创新速度，而且还可以使公司建立新的用例并改变用户创建，分发，消费和货币化货币内容的方式。
社交音频优先替代人际互动的方法 (The Social Audio-First Approach to Replacing In-Person Interactions)
Let’s take a brief look at in-person interactions and how these are emulated in audio-first apps.
让我们简要地看一下面对面的交互以及如何在音频优先应用中模拟这些交互。
At a high level, interactions can be divided into 1:1 and group interactions. The dynamics of the conversation differ greatly depending on which type of interaction we have.
在较高的层次上，可以将交互分为1：1和组交互 。 对话的动力因我们所进行的互动类型而异。
In 1:1 conversations, the participants can be close in relationship, mere acquaintances, or strangers. In almost all of these situations, conversations can take place in both asynchronous and synchronous settings. This could mean voice memos or hopping on a phone call to chat. Although 1:1 conversations do require coordinating a time to speak or waiting for a response, there is relatively little complexity since only two schedules need to be synced.
在1：1对话中，参与者可能是亲密的关系，纯粹的相识或陌生人。 在几乎所有这些情况下，对话都可以在异步和同步设置中进行。 这可能意味着语音备忘录或跳个电话聊天。 尽管1：1对话确实需要协调时间来讲话或等待响应，但是由于只需要同步两个时间表，因此复杂度相对较低。
Group interactions become a little more complicated as there are more than two schedules. However, some in-person group interactions don’t rely on coordinating ahead of time and instead rely on members indicating they are free. Imagine, for example, the college experience of sitting in a common area when you have free time and coming across a friend who was doing the same.
由于有两个以上的计划，因此组间的交互变得有些复杂。 但是，某些面对面的小组互动并不依赖于提前进行协调，而是依赖于表明其自由的成员。 例如，想像一下，如果您有空闲时间，遇到一个正在做同样事情的朋友，您会坐在一个公共区域的大学经历。
Additionally, the size of the group matters and can transform a casual conversation into a panel, where only a handful of people dominate the conversation. Recreating group interactions on a platform requires a bit more thought around appropriate features to serve them.
此外，小组的规模很重要，并且可以将随意的对话转变成小组讨论，只有少数人主导对话。 要在平台上重新创建小组互动，需要多考虑一些适当的功能来为其提供服务。
流动性与熟悉度之间的权衡 (The trade-off between liquidity and familiarity)
Every social media platform struggles with the tension between liquidity and familiarity, regardless of their focus on groups vs. 1:1 or synchronous vs. asynchronous communication. Liquidity refers to the requirement that a user is able to interact with someone else roughly when they are available. If a user cannot consistently interact with someone else when they are available, a platform has low liquidity. The second aspect, familiarity, is the requirement that when a user is available, they either find someone they are already familiar with or someone they share an interest with — this interest can be a topic (baking bread) or in an intention (simply wanting to meet new people).
每个社交媒体平台都在流动性和熟悉性之间挣扎，无论他们关注的是小组还是1：1，还是同步还是异步通信。 流动性是指用户在有空时能够与他人进行大致互动的要求。 如果用户在有空时无法与其他人持续交互，则平台的流动性较低。 第二个方面，熟悉性是要求当用户有空时，他们要么找到一个已经熟悉的人，要么找到一个有共同兴趣的人-这种兴趣可以是话题(烤面包)，也可以是意图(简单地想要)去与新朋友会面)。
While both of these characteristics are important, there is an important tradeoff: if a user can consistently find someone else to interact with, but if the interaction is consistently irrelevant, the platform will deliver a poor experience with high liquidity and low familiarity. This tradeoff is especially important for apps that focus exclusively on synchronous interactions and especially difficult for social audio.
虽然这两个特征都很重要，但有一个重要的权衡： 如果用户可以始终找到要与之交互的其他人，但是如果交互始终无关紧要，则该平台将以较高的流动性和较低的熟悉度提供差劲的体验 。 这种权衡对于仅专注于同步交互的应用程序尤其重要，而对于社交音频而言则尤其困难。
A synchronous, social audio platform requires spending time and effort to speak with another person or group, which is more taxing than texting synchronously or replying to a tweet asynchronously.
同步的社交音频平台需要花费时间和精力与另一个人或另一个小组说话，这比同步地发短信或异步回复推文要费力。
This tradeoff has a slightly different dynamic in a group setting, depending on the relationships between participants. A group can be characterized as being strong-tied or weak-tied: a weak-tied group includes people who gather and might not have pre-existing ties to each other, whereas a strong-tied group hosts people who have existing, close relationships with each other.
根据参与者之间的关系，这种权衡在小组设置中的动态效果略有不同。 一个群体的特征可以说是强壮或弱弱的 ：弱弱的群体包括聚集的人，可能彼此之间没有原有的联系，而强壮的群体则是拥有现有，紧密关系的人彼此。
In a strong-tied group, a higher level of familiarity usually allows for smoother, constantly evolving conversations. In a weak-tied group, new perspectives are more likely to be introduced and new relationships are more likely to form. Similarly, an app that focuses on strong-tied groups has an upper limit on liquidity because a person’s network is only so large.
在结实的团队中，较高的熟悉度通常可以使对话更加顺畅，不断发展。 在弱势群体中，更可能引入新的观点，并且更可能形成新的关系。 同样，专注于强势群体的应用程序对流动性也有上限，因为一个人的网络很大。
那么，应用程序通常如何解决上述问题？ (So, how are apps generally addressing the above?)
The evolution of social media has created dominant platforms like Facebook and Twitter that allow for conversations with many people at once, but are restricted by the medium of text or specifically by character counts. To fulfill the need for a high-context, low-latency conversation between a small number of people — audio-first applications make sense.
社交媒体的发展创造了占主导地位的平台，例如Facebook和Twitter，该平台允许一次与许多人进行对话，但受到文本媒介或字符数的限制。 为了满足少数人之间的高上下文，低延迟对话，音频优先应用程序才有意义。
Furthermore, Rodeo is a synchronous audio app, which gives a user the ability to indicate when they are free and people from their pre-existing, strong-tied groups who are available can jump in. Rodeo is reversing the dynamic where every group interaction requires coordinating schedules ahead of time. Midas notes that his goals was to make a mobile experience that captures mutual availability in friends groups. The app bootstraps usage by having people join as groups, completely separated from other groups that are using the app.
此外， Rodeo是一个同步音频应用程序，它使用户能够指示何时有空，何时有空的，有强固力的可用人群跳进去。提前协调时间表。 迈达斯(Midas)指出，他的目标是提供一种移动体验，以捕获朋友组中的相互可用性。 该应用程序通过让人们作为组加入来引导使用，这些组与正在使用该应用程序的其他组完全分开。
This strategy is reminiscent of how Facebook onboarded one university at a time so that students would join with their existing communities and peers. This allowed for a base of liquidity and familiarity, which automatically made its experience more sticky. Later on, as it expanded beyond universities and eventually other countries, Facebook observed that to get users to stick, it just had to get any individual to 7 friends in 10 days. It had to establish initial liquidity and familiarity to create stickiness, after which point it could expand the user experience. In a similar way, as long as Rodeo’s current strategy retains users, it will have the option to open its platform in the future, allowing users to discover other groups, communicate with other users separately, etc.
这种策略使人想起了Facebook如何一次入读一所大学，以便学生与他们现有的社区和同龄人一起加入。 这样就形成了流动性和熟悉性的基础，这自动使它的体验更粘。 后来，随着Facebook扩展到大学和其他国家以外，Facebook 注意到要吸引用户，它只需要在10天内将任何个人与7个朋友联系即可。 它必须建立起初始的流动性和熟悉度以产生粘性，此后它才能扩展用户体验。 以类似的方式，只要Rodeo的当前策略保留了用户，它就可以在将来选择开放其平台，从而允许用户发现其他群组，与其他用户单独通信等。
Let’s also take a look at Clubhouse — an app where the user is able to enter any room and join a conversation. Since it is in private beta and invite-only, the web of connections is still pretty condensed relative to how people are connected in real life. Clubhouse doesn’t worry about high liquidity since it has mainly all weak-tied tech and entertainment folks who are interested in generally similar topics and people and therefore, can strike up conversation and form new connections rather easily.
我们还来看看Clubhouse ，这是一个应用程序，用户可以在其中进入任何房间并加入对话。 由于处于私人测试版且仅受邀请，因此相对于人们在现实生活中的联系方式，联系网络仍然非常紧凑。 俱乐部会所不担心高流动性，因为它主要是所有对技术主题和娱乐都比较弱的人，他们对大致相似的话题和人们都感兴趣，因此可以轻松地进行对话并建立新的联系。
Many social-audio apps feature communities that are usually formed outside of the app and then shifted on the platform. As innovation in audio accelerates, there are many remaining questions: what is audio-first doing well that other social platforms can not? Looking ahead to the future, what are the additional opportunities for social audio?
许多社交音频应用程序具有社区，这些社区通常在应用程序外部形成，然后在平台上转移。 随着音频创新的加速，仍然存在许多问题：什么是音频优先的，其他社交平台却做不到？ 展望未来，社交音频还有哪些其他机会？
音频优先/仅音频期待什么 (What to Look Forward to with Audio-First/Only)
The future state of social audio will be defined by significant opportunities around which users are served and how users are served.
社交音频的未来状态将由为用户提供服务以及如何为用户提供服务的重大机会来定义。
In the short-term, we’re seeing audio-first social serving users based on relevance or familiarity: either they (1) serve niche communities with relevant, shared interests whether it be a topical interest or a functional interest (Clubhouse, QuarantineChat), or they (2) serve small groups with people that are familiar with each other (Rodeo, Chalk, Cappuccino).
在短期内，我们会看到基于相关性或熟悉性的音频优先社交服务用户：他们(1)为利基社区提供相关的，共享的兴趣，无论是主题兴趣还是功能兴趣(Clubhouse，QuarantineChat) ，或者他们(2)与彼此熟悉的人(Rodeo，Chalk和Cappuccino)一起为小组服务。
While some products are mainly serving the early adopter Silicon Valley crowd, others like QuarantineChat have broken through to different demographics by serving the common shared interest of wanting to meet new people during the pandemic. Similarly, in the future, social audio will serve a broad demographic. For example, older populations who find visual interfaces frustrating can be served with audio-only or audio-first interfaces. Less educated or illiterate populations in emerging markets can be economically empowered with audio interfaces, enabling social commerce and connecting people to markets.
尽管某些产品主要服务于采用率较高的硅谷人群，但诸如QuarantineChat之类的产品却通过满足希望在大流行期间结识新朋友的共同利益而突破了不同的人群。 同样，将来，社交音频将为广泛的受众群体提供服务。 例如，发现视觉界面令人沮丧的老年人可以使用纯音频或音频优先界面。 可以通过音频界面从经济上赋予新兴市场中受过教育或文盲的人口，从而实现社会贸易并将人们与市场联系起来。
There will certainly be enterprise implications of social audio, as well. Consumer products have consistently shaped enterprise applications in the past since: employees have a poor experience at work if they are forced to switch from using intuitive personal applications on their iPhones to using outdated, frustrating enterprise applications on old hardware. For one, as consumers become comfortable with audio in their personal life, voice interactions will supplement and replace some of the interactions that currently happen through email or chat.
当然，社交音频也会对企业产生影响。 过去，消费类产品一直在塑造企业应用程序，因为：如果员工被迫从在iPhone上使用直观的个人应用程序转换为在旧硬件上使用过时的，令人沮丧的企业应用程序，他们的工作经验就很差。 首先，随着消费者对自己的生活习惯于音频的使用，语音交互将补充和替代当前通过电子邮件或聊天发生的某些交互。
Unlocking new technology capabilities and new demographics will enable new ways to serve users. For example, while audio-centric social apps today still require some form of visual interaction, audio-only applications are increasingly possible. What happens when audio is the primary way to navigate an app? Similarly, our always-on Airpods create a platform for new forms of content. In contrast to long-form podcasts, the frictionless experience of Airpods will allow users to seamlessly consume bite-sized audio clips.
释放新技术的功能和新的人口特性将为服务用户提供新的方式。 例如，尽管当今以音频为中心的社交应用仍然需要某种形式的视觉交互，但是纯音频的应用越来越有可能。 当音频是导航应用程序的主要方式时，会发生什么？ 同样，我们永远在线的Airpods可以为新形式的内容创建平台。 与长格式播客相比，Airpods的无摩擦体验将使用户能够无缝使用一口大小的音频剪辑。
Looking back to the evolution of media, it feels like we are in an unbundling phase where different types of interactions not being served on major platforms are beginning to be served by niche applications. And like the evolution of media, it is likely that we’ll see another rebundling soon enough.
回顾媒体的发展，感觉就像我们处于一个不捆绑的阶段，主要平台上不提供的各种类型的交互已开始由利基应用程序提供服务。 就像媒体的发展一样，我们很可能很快就会看到另一次重组。
For example, the nature of Airpods and the increasing comfort with social audio generally may result in a wave of user-generated audio content on social-audio platforms. Eventually, audio-based UGC will become professionalized as either social-audio platforms grow or as Facebook and Twitter adopt or acquire the same capabilities.
例如，Airpods的性质以及对社交音频的日益舒适，通常可能导致社交音频平台上用户生成的音频内容激增。 最终，随着社交音频平台的发展，或者随着Facebook和Twitter采用或获得相同的功能，基于音频的UGC将变得专业化。
Of course, the future depends on what we do as consumers and builders in the present. Social audio seems poised to transcend the phone call to enable a broader array of people to engage with each other through ways that better represent the range of our in-person interactions and enable new possibilities.
当然，未来取决于我们现在作为消费者和建筑商的行为。 社交音频似乎有望超越电话，从而使更多的人通过更好地表示我们的面对面互动的范围并带来新的可能性进行互动。
Product Tienda is an intimate community of product-focused folks gathering around conversation about exciting verticals + technologies.
产品Tienda是一个以产品为中心的人们的亲密社区，他们围绕令人兴奋的垂直行业+技术展开讨论。
Huge thanks to Nathan Baschez for his invaluable feedback in forming this piece!
非常感谢 内森·巴切兹 ( Nathan Baschez) 在 撰写本文时 提供的宝贵反馈！
翻译自: https://medium.com/@enandini/audio-first-becoming-the-next-player-in-social-media-dcedc6e190a9
蓝牙通话音频 媒体音频