Celebrity-Backed ROXi Music Video App Hoping to Steal Smart Speakers’ Dominance in Home Listening

ROXi Music is hoping you’ll kiss your smart speaker goodbye when the service launches in the United States in the first quarter of 2024. The company’s free voice-controlled music video streaming app is compatible with most smart TVs and provides access to an extensive catalog of music videos. The service is hoping to challenge the dominance of smart speakers with music that’s visually engaging, easy to control, and more fun to play. But the real question is whether this is something that consumers actually want.

• ROXi’s free music video streaming app will offer 100 million music videos on over 90% of smart TVs.
• The service integrates with TV interfaces, enabling voice and remote control searches, aiming to replace traditional smart speakers with a more engaging, visual music experience.
• Celebrities like Simon Cowell, Kylie Minogue, and Sheryl Crow will curate exclusive music video channels on the platform.

ROXi’s Comprehensive Offering

For many Americans, as they are doing choirs, cooking dinner, or just relaxing their smart home speaker has become the go-to for background music. ROXi is aiming to steal some of that reliability by offering a more entertaining and engaging musical option. When the app launches domestically in the next few months, it will offer access to 100 million music videos as well as games, video karaoke, and more. Additionally, major names from across the music industry, including Simon Cowell, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, and Sheryl Crow will curate their own individual music video channels.

ROXi’s app is set to be compatible with over 90% of smart TVs, including major brands like Samsung, LG, and Sony. LG has already integrated ROXi’s library into its TV interface on all new smart TVs, allowing viewers to use their voice to search ROXi’s music video options. However, one of the reasons that smart speakers have become so ubiquitous is because of how easy they are to operate. To combat this, ROXi has striven to make its app as easy to use as possible, relying on an accessible TV interface that it hopes customers will prefer over a screenless smart speaker. Being able to see the options will allow for more discoverability and fewer issues with the smart speaker not playing the right song.

The Appeal of an Audio-Visual Experience

For hardcore music fans, you can see the appeal. But does the casual listener want to watch their music badly enough to swap their speaker for the ROXi app? ROXi CEO Rob Lewis thinks so.

“The TV will overtake the Smart Speaker as the preferred music player in the home,” he said, “not only because an audio-visual experience is better in the home than audio-only but also because a TV provides for a much superior browsing experience.”

Lewis cites an independent research poll that suggests significant consumer interest in the ability for people to watch their music, with 60% of U.S. consumers reportedly willing to switch from smart speakers to TV-based music videos.

But culturally, music and television have always served different entertainment purposes, especially in the home. Turning on the TV vs. turning on the radio or your music player of choice isn’t the same thing. Listening to music is primarily a passive activity, something that can be enjoyed while doing something else. By the nature of its form, television requires more focus and more engagement. With the increased concern over “screen time,” are people really interested in being more of an active participant in their music?

Plus, music, at its heart, is social. You don’t talk over a movie or TV show, but you certainly do over music. Does turning on the TV to glance at the music video instead of the person you’re standing or sitting across from really improve the experience? And will a marginally easier browsing experience be enough to change years of listening habits? Like always, consumers will eventually decide.