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ROXi TV launches new karaoke app backed by pop stars

British karaoke streaming service ROXi has launched a new TV app, which allows singing fans to duet with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift.

Users will be able to stream 70 million tracks, and the app will feature all the latest releases and exclusive music video channels, with more added each time a new track is released. Karaoke fans, meanwhile, can sing along to ROXi’s 140,000 traditional karaoke and “Karaoke With The Stars” singalong tracks and test their music knowledge with ROXi’s “Name The Song” music game.

ROXi’s app is also backed by a raft of musical stars including Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, Sheryl Crow and Alesha Dixon who are on board as “celebrity curators” or shareholders.

The app will be launching on Sky Q, Fire TV, Android TV and Google TV on compatible Sony Bravia, Panasonic, Philips, Toshiba TCL, Hisense and Shield Smart TVs and set-top boxes with Samsung TV and others to follow soon. Those who don’t own a smart TV can instead purchase a console for £99.95 on the company’s website.

According to ROXi, it is one of only 10 companies in the world with global on-demand music streaming rights with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Merlin and other leading music labels and publishers.

ROXi founder and British entrepreneur Rob Lewis commented: “TV is the heart of home entertainment and now is the time for music to join film in this Smart TV App revolution. We’re bringing music videos, karaoke and games into people’s homes through a TV Music App for free so millions of households can enjoy music videos together, sing together, dance together and play together.

“When they create their music, most musicians hope their work is going to be experienced by people together, not just listened to alone on headphones. Yes, it’s great to enjoy music when you’re on the move or commuting, but it’s even better when enjoyed together on a TV as a music video – that way we feed off each other’s emotional reactions to the audio-visual experience. This next revolution in digital entertainment is about shared experiences that unite friends and family. The launch of our new TV Music App is just the beginning. We have a raft of exciting new ROXi innovations and experiences planned for the future.”

According to reports, Lewis is aiming for the app to become the “Netflix of Music” and the company is reportedly looking to raise £37m (€43m) to help pay for global expansion as it introduces a free version of the service funded by advertising. It is hoped that international expansion will help ROXi to reach 500m more TVs in America and Europe.

As well as the ad-funded free service, there will be an ad-free premium subscription service and those who sign up for this will get a free ROXi-branded microphone.

Mr Lewis said: “By the end of 2024, we will be accessible on 550m TVs across the world. How many subscribers does Netflix have? Just over 200m. How many does Disney+ have? About 110m. That is the kind of scale of opportunity we have on a worldwide basis as a smart TV app that is both free and paid-for.

“We expect 500% plus user growth by the end of this year. And significantly higher growth than that next year. Moving to a free smart TV app fundamentally changes your scalability.”

Lewis noted that there has been “a seismic shift in the way we consume and interact with digital entertainment on our TVs” and pointed to the fact that, over the past year, spending on digital video services has grown by 38% year-on-year to £2.9bn (€3.4bn).

“This is the fastest-growing sector of the UK home entertainment market by far. In Roxi we believe the UK will be a leader in this market too,” he said.

“With Brits spending a record £9bn (€10.5bn) on music, videos and gaming, we are now primed to tap into this cultural trend. We’re doing for music what the video-on-demand services have done for movies on the TV, but for free, and in so doing, consumers have a real free music alternative to YouTube for the first time.”

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