MEDIA AND BROADCASTING
LiveOne, Inc. | May 16, 2023
LiveOne an award-winning, creator-first, music, entertainment and technology platform, announced today an exclusive content distribution deal with OTT Studio, a leading streaming technology platform and CTV app publisher. LiveOne will be OTT Studio’s exclusive music streaming provider, delivering LiveOne’s 600 expertly curated radio stations via OTT’s new Music Plus application. The deal will expand the distribution of LiveOne’s premium audio and entertainment content to an additional 47 million CTVs in North America via LG’s webOS and Vizio’s SmartCast platforms.
Patrick Markel, LiveOne’s Senior Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, said, “We’re excited to execute this multi-year agreement with OTT Studio to make LiveOne even more accessible to music lovers by leaning into OTT Studio’s unique ability to reach millions of customers on the most popular streaming TV devices.”
James Patrick, OTT Studio Co-founder, commented, ”The CTV ecosystem is ripe with opportunities for innovative audio-first destinations offered to consumers at no cost. Our advanced CTV technology and audience growth engine combined with LiveOne’s world-class offering will allow us to bring users an unparalleled free live streaming and on-demand music experience on devices that are often the best speaker system in the house.”
The Music Plus app is slated to launch in Q3 2023 on Roku and FireTV, and on LG's webOS, Vizio's SmartCast and other platforms later in the year.
About LiveOne, Inc.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, LiveOne, Inc. is an award-winning, creator-first, music, entertainment and technology platform focused on delivering premium experiences and content worldwide through memberships and live and virtual events. The Company's wholly-owned subsidiaries include Slacker Radio, a membership music streaming service, and PodcastOne, which generates more than 2.3 billion downloads per year, 350+ hours distributed weekly, and 14M+ monthly unique listeners. Nearly all new Tesla EVs sold in the U.S. come with a paid membership to LiveOne’s Slacker Radio which is paid by Tesla. As of April 11, 2023, the Company has accrued a paid and free ad-supported membership base of approximately 2.9 million*. The Company was awarded Best Live Moment by Digiday for its “Social Gloves” PPV Event, and has been a finalist for 8 more awards, including Best Live Event, Best Virtual Event, Best Overall Social Media Excellence, and Best Original Programming from Cynopsis
and Digiday. As of February 9, 2023, the Company has streamed over 2,900 artists, has a library of 30 million songs, 600 curated radio stations, over 300 podcasts/vodcasts, hundreds of pay-per-views, personalized merchandise, released music-related NFTs, and created a valuable connection between fans, brands, and bands. The Company's other wholly-owned subsidiaries include PPVOne, Gramophone Media, Palm Beach Records, Custom Personalization Solutions, and LiveXLive, and the Company’s other majority-owned subsidiaries are Drumify and Splitmind.
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APPLICATIONS
businesswire | March 24, 2023
Armanino LLP, a top 20 accounting and consulting firm in the United States, announced today that leading music business management team, Nashville-based Blue Sky Group, and music rights and royalty auditing firm, Royalty Compliance Organization (“RCO”), are joining Armanino effective April 1, 2023. The strategic additions of these two firms mark a major development that strengthens Armanino’s business management service offerings, broader tax and audit capabilities and gives Armanino a Nashville presence, which is the heart of the music industry.
The Blue Sky Group with Harlan Hallet and Steven McMillan and RCO with Wayne Coleman and Darla Crain will integrate into Armanino bringing a wealth of talented entertainment business managers and audit experts in royalty compliance, valuation services, and litigation support capabilities that propel Armanino forward in delivering the preeminent entertainment and business management services. Unique to business management firms, Armanino will continue to provide robust day-to-day business management services along with deepened tax, audit, and other service offerings relevant to the needs of the entertainment industry and ultra-high net-worth clients, all with a white-glove approach focused on client success.
"As far as industry-leading experts, we could not be more thrilled with the knowledge and talent that Blue Sky and RCO bring to our team, we know this will be incredibly valuable for our clients,” says Craig Manzino, Partner, Business Management at Armanino. “This will make Armanino one of the only business management groups in the world that will be able to offer the full slate of entertainment services while allowing us to deepen and expand our reach into Nashville, which we view as extremely important for our growth goals.”
Armanino’s Business Management team, which serves some of the leading musicians, entertainers and music publishers among other clientele out of their New York City and Los Angeles offices, will now have an office in Nashville. Music City is the country’s fastest growing entertainment hotspot and an office in Nashville gives Armanino’s team and its clients the trifecta of office locations to serve the entertainment industry.
“As the industry standard for royalty audit services, RCO is excited to join Armanino’s entertainment practice and tap into the synergies that our firms bring to the table,” says Wayne Coleman, Founder and CEO of Royalty Compliance Organization. Darla Crain, COO of RCO adds, “by combining forces, we will be able to better serve our clients while being able to bring best-in-class offerings to Armanino and Blue Sky’s client base.”
“Blue Sky, RCO and Armanino share a common vision for the future of entertainment advice and business management service, and believe that we can evolve into the leading business management firm in the country,” says Harlan Hallet, Partner at Blue Sky. “By combining forces, we are only adding to an already successful business practice but now have the benefit of RCO’s capabilities and the leverage and resources of Armanino’s team. We see this as a major win for the entertainment industry as a whole.”
The addition of these firms comes as the entertainment industry continues to show signs of growth and a greater need for royalty compliance and auditing. Armanino is well-placed to take advantage of this growth. With offices serving the entertainment industry now in three major US cities, clients can expect a high-quality service across all aspects of business management from Armanino.
About Armanino LLP
Armanino LLP is one of the 20 largest independent accounting and business consulting firms in the nation. Armanino provides an integrated set of audit, tax, business management, consulting and technology solutions to companies in the U.S. and globally. The firm helps clients adapt and change in every stage of business, from startup through rapid growth to the sale of a company. Armanino emphasizes smart technology, leading a cloud revolution of financial, operational, sales and compliance tools that are transforming the way companies do business. Armanino is an independent member firm of Moore North America Inc. (MNA), which is itself a regional member of Moore Global Network Limited (MGNL), one of the world’s major accounting and consulting membership organizations. All the firms associated with MNA and MGNL are independent entities, owned and managed in each location. Their membership in, or association with, MNA or MGNL should not be construed as constituting or implying any partnership between them. In addition to its core consulting and accounting practices, Armanino operates its division, AMF Media Group (www.amfmediagroup.com), a media and communications services agency.
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VIRTUALIZATION
businesswire | May 29, 2023
Strivr, the leading platform for enterprise-scale Virtual Reality (VR) solutions, announced the evolution of its offering to accelerate content and solution capabilities using Generative AI (GenAI) for enhanced storyline development, animation and asset creation, and optimization of visual and content-driven features. Staying true to its roots in using cognitive science, data science, and artificial intelligence, Strivr will also be using GenAI to intelligently derive unique insights from immersive user data to support HR and L&D leaders in making critical business decisions.
With nearly 60,000 hours of content creation experience, Strivr has driven measurable impact for its enterprise customers through a best-in-class content library in the areas of cost savings, increased sales, and faster onboarding. Along with advancements like the use of GenAI to accelerate the content creation process, Strivr is able to drive further value for customers with advanced capabilities and a broader library of experiences including a critical area of today's enterprise: employee well-being.
“The demand for high-quality, scalable VR experiences that deliver meaningful and impactful results is at an all-time high,” said Derek Belch, founder and CEO at Strivr. “Our customers are among the largest companies in the world, and they are seeing firsthand the impact immersive technology can bring to employee engagement, retention, and performance. They want more, and we’re listening. Along with GenAI to accelerate content creation, we’re also going beyond training and partnering with one of the world’s leading financial institutions to offer immersive meditation to support the mental health of its workforce. This is just the beginning of how VR will continue to impact the employee experience, and we're excited to see our customers embracing it."
“Immersive and generative AI technologies are taking over the corporate learning landscape,” said Josh Bersin, Global Industry Analyst and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company. “Strivr, through its deep experience with immersive and VR implementations in the market, is clearly a leader to watch.”
Expanding the Strivr Content Library
In recognition of Mental Health Month, Strivr is hosting its first in-headset mental health and well-being applications on the platform in partnership with Reulay and Healium. According to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, meditation can help reduce anxiety just as well as drug therapies, while practicing mindfulness has also been shown to help employee productivity, focus and collaboration. Strivr customers can now offer safe mental health “breaks” to their employees as part of their VR-based immersive programs and training curricula, addressing reskilling for emotional well-being to tackle increasing levels of employee burnout, depression, and anxiety.
Building on this newly expanded offering, Strivr also offers customers choice when it comes to sourcing content to build out their VR libraries. Whether it’s Strivr-created content, content developed by Strivr-certified partners, or content developed in-house, Strivr’s open platform enabled by the Strivr Software Development Kit (SDK) allows customers to choose how they want to source content. Similar to Strivr’s Solutions team, content partners have the potential to leverage Strivr’s enterprise-scale platform to impact millions of learners, and the opportunity to make a lasting impact on the global workforce. For content developers interested in Strivr’s assessment and certification process, please visit developer.strivr.com.
Introducing Strivr Home
Enabling learners to navigate their own experiential learning path, Strivr has also introduced Strivr Home, a virtual in-headset performance hub focused exclusively on employee experience. As the central hub to upskill, reskill, and recharge, Strivr Home simplifies, unifies, and personalizes the in-headset experience by transporting users into a tranquil home setting to access world-class immersive content. With features including single sign-on and a central hub where people can browse premium training content, Strivr Home is also designed to guide the user’s journey and will evolve to offer insights on learner performance and recommendations on future experiences.
Strivr Home is available today with the latest release of the company’s in-headset Player product. To experience Strivr Home and new content offerings.
About Strivr
With over 1M learners trained in VR, Strivr is transforming the employee journey through experiential learning. Incubated at Stanford, Strivr’s platform empowers enterprises to build, manage, experience, and measure VR-based learning to optimize workforce performance. With a premium content offering based on nearly 60,000 hours of content creation experience since its inception in 2015, Strivr customers gain unique learning and assessment data to measure training effectiveness and predict learning outcomes at scale. With nearly 2M sessions conducted in VR from hiring to training and upskilling, Strivr is proud to partner with elite sports teams and Fortune 1000 companies to elevate performance through immersive experience.
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