Since launching last March, the invite-only audio-chat app Clubhouse has seen a surge in interest and new users as the pandemic has rendered in-person gatherings unsafe. Less than a year later, its founders are looking to grow the platform beyond its exclusive origins.

On Sunday, Clubhouse founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth announced a new Series B funding round led by Andreeseen Horowitz partner Andrew Chen (who also led their Series A) that will be allocated toward efforts to boost the app’s user base. These include developing an Android app; investing in technology and infrastructure; adding new “accessibility and localization features” to extend Clubhouse’s reach to new markets; scaling up the company’s trust and safety teams to prevent abuse on the platform; beefing up its support staff to allow for same-day approval for new clubs; and enhancing discovery so that users can easily locate individuals, clubs and rooms that are tailored to their interests.

Davison and Seth also revealed plans to foster the app’s growing community of creators. In addition to testing a direct payment feature on the platform over the next months — allowing for tipping, ticketing and subscription opportunities — it will also introduce a grant program to support emerging creators on the platform. This follows a paradigm recently established by social platforms including TikTok, which launched a $200 million Creator Fund last July, and Snapchat, which in November announced that it would pay $1 million daily to the most popular creators on the app’s new Spotlight page. This enhanced focus on the app’s most active users is an effort to incentivize existing creators while also luring in new customers.

Unlike TikTok and other social apps, Clubhouse remains invite-only for now, though Davison and Seth have been clear that they plan to scale the app in the tradition of Facebook, which started its life in 2004 as an invite-only social network for Ivy League college students. At the moment, Clubhouse remains a fairly exclusive platform, with a user base including a who’s-who of celebrities, politicians, top-level executives and other well-connected individuals. But it has broadened its reach: according to its founders, 2 million people used the app over the last week alone – a massive leap from a user base of just 30,000 reported last fall.

The focus on user safety will be important as the Clubhouse’s user base grows. Since the storming of the United States Capitol earlier this month, tech companies have been facing increased scrutiny about their moderation of content inciting violence or promoting hatred. And Clubhouse has already been plagued by complaints of racist, sexist and anti-Semitic remarks in its chat rooms since its inception, as well as controversy around whether to include participants who have been accused of abusive behavior in the past. Plans on tamping down abusive or offensive behavior on the app include beefing up features and training resources for moderators and investing in “advanced tools to detect and prevent abuse.”

As co-owner of Seattle’s popular independent venue Neumos in Capitol Hill, Steven Severin has been a staple in the Seattle music industry for more than 20 years. Roughly 10 years ago, he helped create the Seattle Nightlife and Music Association to bring together the area’s live event insiders, and for the past 16 years has helped run Neumos with its sister club Barboza and the accompanying Runaway bar.

As part of Billboard’s efforts to best cover the coronavirus pandemic and its impacts on the music industry, we will be speaking with Severin regularly to chronicle his experience throughout the crisis. (Read the last installment here and see the full series here.)

Did you see senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wearing his Save Our Stages mask at President Biden’s inauguration?

The picture of uncle Chuck wearing the Save Our Stages mask… I just. I watched Amanda Gorman and that, of course, got me a little teary. Then I saw the picture of Schumer and I just broke. I sobbed. The work that we have been doing, he is wearing on his face. I remember being on the phone call when we were talking about what our slogan would be that would encompass everything because we had been using “Save Our Venues” in Washington and we decided that wasn’t quite it for what we wanted to do nationally. To think of the amount of time and work and stress that we put in and then to see the majority leader wearing our slogan on his mask… It doesn’t compute. I know we did. I know how we did and I know how we worked really hard, but so many people do that and they get nowhere. We stepped in and nailed it. 

The Small Business Administration still hasn’t open up applications for the SOS grant. What have you been doing with NIVA to prepare?

We have a giant list of music venues that we’ve been working with. A lot of what we’ve done is compared that to the actual NIVA members to make sure that everybody knows about each other. I’ve emailed everybody I haven’t already been talking with to make sure they are members of NIVA so they can get the newsletters that have all the information. The newsletters are everything. Then we are talking with subgroups to make sure that, for instance, jazz venues know about the SOS grants. It’s a lot of emails with “this is what we do, here’s our links, become a member, if you know other people send this to them.” We want to make sure that everybody who wants to can apply for grants.

Has it been a successful process so far?

So much of it has been what counts as a venue and who is lying. There’s already people who have been caught lying. It’s like, come on. Everybody is going to check. People are going to check and make sure you really are a venue.

Whose job will it be to figure out if places are actual venues?

That’s SBA’s [Small Business Administration] job. But it has happened with NIVA and WANMA [Washington Nightlife Music Association]. We have a board that is checking for the WANMA to make sure that if you say you do this, you actually do this. There is somebody in particular that tried to slide something through and people caught it. We looked at their website. They were a wedding venue. Show me where there was a live show, let alone three times a week. That’s a requirement for both SOS Act and Keep Music Live grants. NIVA helped the SBA figure out what the requirements should be.

Has WANMA opened its Keep Music Live grants already?

In Washington, we just announced our first grants for the Keep Music Live campaign that we have been doing since October. Me and Craig Jewell who owns The Wild Buffalo have been reaching out and making sure that every venue in the state knows it is happening. There are all kinds of places that don’t know what we’re doing because they are in some small town in eastern Washington. The grants will help them between now and when they might get SOS money. It’s awesome to think about what we are able to do just locally in our state. We’re getting it out to people finally. It’s another thing that helps reinvigorate you. We are going to get hundreds of thousands of dollars off to people. 

Garth Brooks is the ninth country act (and youngest country act) to receive the Kennedy Center Honors. But who else in the genre is worthy of this distinction and hasn’t gotten it yet?

Billboard awards editor Paul Grein named 16 artists who have been voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame but have yet to receive Kennedy Center Honors: Alabama, Brooks & Dunn, The Everly Brothers, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Alan Jackson, Kris Kristofferson, Brenda Lee, Barbara Mandrell, Ronnie Milsap, The Oak Ridge Boys, Ricky Skaggs, The Statler Brothers, George Strait, Randy Travis and Hank Williams Jr.

Out of the nine country acts honored by the Kennedy Center so far, no country groups or duos have made the list. Alabama, Brooks & Dunn, The Statler Brothers and The Oak Ridge Boys are likely vying to become the first. Since the Kennedy Center rarely honors artists posthumously, late country legends Charley Pride, Kenny Rogers and Charlie Daniels, who all died in 2020, might not make the cut.

So which top country star should be up next to receive the Kennedy Center Honors? Vote below!