Kylie Minogue is the latest start to help back a UK music streaming service called ROXi. The Australian pop star has given £13 million to the British streaming platform. She is joined by UK’s own Robbie Williams who also has backed the new music business. With the new cash injection, ROXi is well on its way to secure itself as a stable British business within the stock market. ROXi has seen investors from other big names, mainly in the business world with some music big names like U2’s former manager Paul McGuinness, and former EMI chairman Guy Hands.
At the rate it is going, the new streaming platform is on track to have enough investments that’ll make up to £200 million in flotation on London’s stock market. With the latest funding round (in which Minogue was a part of), it is believed to value ROXi at around £50 million, will help the streaming platform extend its user base and service to a new high of potentially 500 million devices that they hope will be met by 2022. This will be achieved by launching on other platforms such as smart TVs from Samsung and LG, gaming consoles like PlayStation, and Apple TV.
What is ROXi? ROXi boasts itself as the first “made for TV music experience”. It offers a massive catalogue of features and music Apps “products including karaoke and a 55m song” available to stream instantly. It also offers the ability to play music games. At present ROXi is available on Sky,s Q service as well as Google’s Android TV. It is available to purchase the hardware ROXi device here, which comes with its nifty remote controller that doubles up as a snazzy microphone for its voice commands, karaoke, and music games.
Kylie Minogue, when she’s signed up as an investor, is now in a three-year deal with ROXi. This includes being the face of its advertising campaign. Minogue is the most recent big name to invest in the new streaming platforming. as well as Robbie Williams, ROXi also has investments from firms like Sun Capital as well as “Henrik Holmark, the former finance chief at the music service Pandora, and Chris Wright, the founder of Chrysalis Records. Other backers include Lorna Tilbian, the chairman of Dowgate Capital and a former board member at the ad group M&C Saatchi, and Roxi’s chairman, Rupert Howell”.
ROXi’s founder Rob Lewis has commented on the new growth and traction of ROXi “We have seen huge growth during lockdown, with people using their TVs for more interactive entertainment at home, the fundamental thing is when you are looking at a potential initial public offering in the future you want to be growing as quickly as you possibly can be. And with this funding, Roxi is ready to start to roll out on other platforms and in other countries.”
