LiveXLive, a live-streaming platform for on-demand music audio, video and podcast content, has launched a channel on the free tier of Sling TV.

Sling TV has around 2.3 million users for its $30-a-month subscription “Orange” and “Blue” virtual MVPD tiers. It’s unclear as to how many folks are using the free iteration of the service, which also includes a compelling and largely undiscovered collection of linear and on-demand channels, including ESPN On Demand, Gravitas Movies and Docurama, just to name a few networks. 

As for LiveXLive (pronounced “Live By Live”), the Sling TV distribution only adds to reach in the OTT realm that also includes channels on popular device ecosystems including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Samsung smart TVs, as well as on streaming services including Xumo. 

With concert attendance—and live music in general—tough to come by amid the pandemic, the publicly traded LiveXLive says demand is up for its live-music-oriented content, which is delivered to consumers a number of ways—beyond OTT distribution of original shows built around name-brand artists like Pitbull, LiveXLive is also heavily into marketing podcasts these days. In fact, the company just acquired PodcastOne in May in an $18 million stock transaction, adding to its library of original content. 

LiveXLive also markets pay-per-view live music events. And it also operates an app-based subscription music service that it markets not only to consumers, but to commercial operations like fitness gyms. The service originates from Slacker, which LiveXLive acquired in 2017. The company touted 877,000 paid subscribers as of the end of its fiscal first quarter June 30.

More holistically, LiveXLive said that around 300 million users connect annually to its content, via subscription or through free ad-supported mechanisms. 

“We’re not a competitor to Spotify … We don’t want to be at the mercy of Apple and Android,” said LiveXLive Chairman and CEO Rob Ellin, touting the diversified nature of his company’s business revenue portfolio. Indeed, beyond ad-supported OTT channels and app-based subscription services, LiveXLive is also building an e-commerce component, selling licensed apparel and other swag connected to the famous musicians appearing on its platforms. 

The company mottos its business model as “listen, watch, attend, engage and transact.”

LiveXLive recently posted its strongest sales quarter to date, ending its fiscal Q1 with consolidated revenue of $10.5 million, up 11% year over year. 

Dermot McCormack, the former AOL, Viacom and Cablevision executive who serves as president of the Nasdaq-traded LiveXLive, sees live music and access to performers as an underserved niche in a OTT world which has plenty of sports and news content, but maybe not enough tunes. 

Indeed, take a scroll through Sling TV’s free service and you'll be hard pressed to find another music/lifestyle programming option. 

“We see music and music and artists as being at the center of all these emerging platforms,” McCormack said. “The Justin Biebers and Salina Gomezes of the world drive a lot of the interest.”

Verizon Digital Media Services (VDMS), the video cloud unit of Verizon Communications, said it is powering LiveXLive, Loton Corp.’s new premium, live music-streaming network.

Verizon Digital Media Services said its platform is handling the ingest, delivery and distribution LiveXLive’s streaming of global music festivals, concerts and other performances in high definition. VDMS said it will also enable LiveXLive to create clips from live events and publish them to social platforms and “syndicated outlets” via a unified workflow.

Working with VDMS, LiveXLive plans to broadcast three day-long music festivals across multiple stages this fall, reaching across multiple devices including mobile, tablets, laptops, gaming consoles and connected TVs.  The plan also covers live and on-demand “virtual reality experiences,” the companies said.

“We’ve been watching Verizon Digital Media Services expand its network while adding to and enhancing its suite of services, and we’re completely blown away by the turnkey, scalable offering of their video platform,” said John Petrocelli, president of LiveXLive, in a statement.

“Verizon Digital Media Services allows LiveXLive to give music fans everywhere an immersive experience to see their favorite festivals, concerts and backstage experiences on any screen, any platform and any device in HD,” added Ralf Jacob, chief revenue officer of Verizon Digital Media Services.

In April 2014, Loton acquired a 50% interest in KOKO, a one of London’s major live music venues.  The LiveXLive advisory board includes Andy Schuon, co-founder of REVOLT and former head of programming at MTV and VH1; Jason Flom, CEO of Lava Records; Chris McGurk, former COO of MGM and CEO of Cinedigm;  and Steve Bornstein, former CEO of ESPN and the NFL Network, among others.