As demand for comedic content continues to grow, the most bankable actors in Hollywood have become names like Amy Schumer, Kevin Hart, Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen ― whether or not their most recent films flop.
Indeed, comedy has become big business.
“Comedy represent a $10 billion market and consumers are deeply interested in finding new avenues to access stand-up content in particular,” says David T. Scott, an amateur comedian and Silicon Valley entrepreneur who founded marketing automation tool Marketfish and comic book e-commerce platform NextPlanetOver.com as well as having been an executive with Livefyre (acquired by Adobe earlier this week), PeopleSoft, Gigya and Foresee.
Thus this week Scott launched the beta version of Laugh.ly ― think of it like Pandora built solely for standup comedy ― en route to a full scale launch on Aug. 10, while also unveiling direct distribution content partnerships with the titans of the comedy content industry including Comedy Central, Comedy Dynamics, Uproar Entertainment and more.
“We’re excited to be partnering with Laugh.ly on their new streaming venture,” said Steve Raizes, SVP, Operations and Strategy, Consumer Products, Viacom Music and Entertainment Group “We’re a strong believer in our comedy portfolio and see this as an excellent way to expand our reach among comedy fans.”
Through the direct distribution deals as well as direct relationships with comedians, Laugh.ly already has more than 400 leading comics on board including the likes of Hart, Schumer, Jim Gaffigan, Aziz Ansari, Hannibal Buress, George Carlin, Chris Rock and more. Additionally, there are unique tools for emerging comics looking for a leg up, offering self-publishing tools to upload and publish comedy albums.
“Spotify and Pandora have changed the fabric of music streaming,” adds Scott, who fared well in his pitch for Laugh.ly earlier this summer at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York. “We’ll provide comedy fans with the means to explore comedic libraries and access material from well known and emerging comedians.”
Users will initially have two primary listening options – ad-supported listening free of charge or a premium service called “Front Row Seating” for $3.99 per month.
When fully launched next month, not only will Laugh.ly offer tens of thousands of stand-up comedy routines but what Scott calls “first-of-its-kind self-publishing tools providing emerging comedians a platform to upload and publish comedy albums of their own.”
Yakov Smirnoff anyone?