simon cowell lounges.tv investment

Simon Cowell, who’s invested in a ‘new streaming platform’ called Lounges.tv. Photo Credit: Lounges.tv

As songs (some made by humans, others generated by AI) continue to pour onto leading streaming platforms in droves, Simon Cowell has invested in a new service, Lounges.tv, that’s designed in part to help emerging artists stand out from the crowd.

London-headquartered Lounges.tv, which says it “empowers creators to do what they love with engaging experiences, fair rewards and fast payouts,” announced the raise in a formal release today.

Founded and led by longtime entrepreneur Scott Green, Lounges.tv is said to boast “swift 24-hour” payments, ticketed livestreams, live chats with tipping, and an 80 percent payout rate for uploaders.

On the “uploaders” front, a cursory glance at the appropriate platform shows that music and related educational videos (“Supercharge Your Singing: Why ‘Good Enough’ Isn’t Enough!”) are accompanied by content pertaining to fitness, gaming, comedy, and much more.

Notwithstanding this variety of both paid and unpaid media, ad-free Lounges.tv stressed that it offers “exclusive content” from creators – while also emphasizing the many millions of videos arriving on TikTok and YouTube daily as well as the correspondingly low average payouts to uploaders.

“The global video streaming market size is expected to reach USD 416.84 billion by 2030,” elaborated Lounges.tv. “Yet, just under half (46%) of full-time creators make under $1,000 annual revenue, while 68% of part time creators bring in under $1,000, as rewards are built on an ad-based views system rather than genuine talent.”

Though higher-ups didn’t disclose the precise size of Cowell’s backing, they did indicate that Lounges.tv already has “thousands” of creator sign-ups and thousands of hours’ worth of videos to its credit. Additional investors in the emerging service include former Prince manager Kiran Sharma and Trustpilot chief product officer Ben Lavender, the creator of the BBC’s iPlayer.

In a statement, Cowell said he’s “proud” to support and work with Lounges.tv, pointing to the startup’s perceived discovery, compensation, and promotional benefits for artists and others.

“You never know where the next great talent will emerge from and I really believe that creating as many opportunities as possible for talent to be discovered and to build their own fan bases is great for everyone,” the 64-year-old communicated.

“The artists and the audience, rightly, are making 100% of the decisions and Lounges.tv is giving talent another new type of platform to promote themselves. I was really interested to learn that on Lounges.tv creators get paid within 24 hours and I thought that was a really good idea and hopefully will make a difference,” Cowell concluded of Lounges.tv, which is expected to launch Play Store and App Store apps “soon.”

Late last year, ROXi, a UK-based music-video and karaoke app designed specifically for smart TVs, added Cowell as an investor; April of 2023 then saw the business secure a reported $9 million or so in further funding. And in August of this year, Cowell’s Syco Entertainment and Universal Music Publishing Group announced the debut of Syco Publishing.