• Amazon on Tuesday launched Amp, a live audio app that makes DJs of users' own radio shows.
• The app comes as the live audio space continues to heat up, with companies like Twitter and Spotify featuring new content.
• Amazon has signed up popular artists including Nicki Minaj, Pusha T and Tinashe, as well as social media influencers and radio hosts, to create content for the app.

Amazon on Tuesday unveiled Amp, a new app that makes DJs of users' own radio shows, as a growing number of companies jump into the live audio space.

Demand for the services surged during the pandemic, and tech companies have raced to launch features to capitalize on the trend. Audio app Clubhouse last year spurred attention and investments from Silicon Valley, while Twitter, Facebook, Spotify and Discord feature content around live conversations.

It's not the first live-content play for Amazon, which owns livestreaming subsidiary Twitch and through Audible has beefed up its podcast library. Amp could provide additional content for users to access through Echo smart speakers, and it could potentially give a boost to the company's fast-growing advertising business.

Amp allows users to launch their own live show, where callers can join and request to speak. Hosts can play music in real time with their audience, as well as preplan and schedule their shows. DJs can choose from a library of millions of songs licensed by Amazon.

The company said in a blog post that Amp gives users the chance to "reimagine radio."

"Amp infuses what listeners love about radio with what's made possible by today's technology," John Ciancutti, vice president of Amp, said in the post. "People are looking for an evolution in how they discover and share music; Amp is reinventing how fans can go deeper into the experience of live audio, while giving the millions of people creating and sharing playlists today a new way to turn their love of music into live shows."

Amazon has signed up popular artists including Nicki Minaj, Pusha T and Tinashe, as well as social media influencers and radio hosts, to create content for the app, the company said.

The app is currently available for iPhone in beta, which requires an invitation to join, but people can sign up to join a waiting list for access.

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