With a growing demand for online comedic content, SILICON VALLEY veteran David T. Scott today announced plans for a mid-summer launch of Laugh.ly, the first and only streaming app built from the ground up for stand-up comedy.
Laugh.ly - which will pitch at the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt in New York and Vator Splash in Oakland, Calif. - is the result of a partnership between Scott and Funny Or Die founding investor and board member Randy Adams. The technology and platform features:
"While Spotify and Pandora have changed the fabric of music streaming, there is an untapped opportunity to deliver high quality stand-up comedy content to millions of fans," said Scott, a serial entrepreneur (founder of marketing automation tool - Marketfish and comic book e-commerce platform - NextPlanetOver.com) and marketing executive with companies such as Livefyre (which was acquired by Adobe earlier this week) PeopleSoft, AT&T, Gigya and Foresee. "Through Laugh.ly, we'll provide comedy fans with the means to explore comedic libraries and access material from well known and emerging comedians. It's a comedy lovers dream."
Upon launch later this summer Laugh.ly will be able to be accessed through any web browser or in Apple or Android app stores for free. Early beta users can sign up at http://www.laughradio.com. Users will initially have two primary listening options - commercially sponsored listening free of charge or a premium service called "Front Row Seating" for $7.99 per month.
"I'm immensely excited about the launch of Laugh.ly," said Adams. "It has all of the elements that made Funny Or Die successful and I'm excited to be working with Dave on this new venture."
In addition to Scott and Adams, Laugh.ly's founding management team is comprised a variety of entertainment industry veterans with decades of experience in media licensing and a talented software engineering team from Google, Microsoft and other prominent technology companies in the San Francisco Bay area.
"Laugh.ly represents an opportunity to meet the needs of a $10 billion market," added Scott. "Top comedians have hundreds of millions of followers on social media, and even 60 percent of Facebook users state 'Stand Up Comedy' as one of their top interests. We are going to deliver a unique listening experience that does not currently exist."
Laugh.ly is expected to go live later this summer on iTunes and Google Play.
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