2023-08-13 04:00:00
The CEO of Stingray has just signed a juicy contract that could approach $80 million with the world’s largest manufacturer of electric vehicles, BYD (Build Your Dreams), nicknamed the «Chinese Tesla”, after visiting its California offices.
“There is no technical risk. We play their music. We have developed an Android application. We don’t deliver anything. Everything is done online. There is no economic risk”, explains in an interview with the Journal Eric Boyko, big boss and founder of the Quebec music distribution company Stingray.
Provided by Stingray
“We had to explain why we have to pay for karaoke because it’s free in China, but here it takes the rights of the composers and the record company,” he continues.
Without both, you can be sued for $65,000 per song, he explains.
Rock, country, pop, K-pop, J-pop, rap, R&B, holiday music, children’s music… Stingray Karaoke will be integrated into BYD vehicles in a dozen languages. We will not be able to scroll the lyrics to sing while driving for safety reasons.
Global giant
BYD weighs heavily in the electric. The multinational from Shenzhen has about thirty industrial parks in China, the United States, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Hungary and India. It made $3.9 billion in profits with sales of over $91 billion this year.
Fifteen years ago, Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway invested more than $310 million in BYD.
In 2019, The newspaper reported that the giant BYD’s flagship e6 taxi model had been approved by Transport Canada.
This partnership of Stingray with BYD comes as US President Joe Biden has just signed an executive order to limit investments in Chinese technology firms for “national security”.
In recent years, the exclusion of Chinese telecom giant Huawei from the 5G network and the banning of the social network TikTok have cast a chill between countries.
But for the Quebec company Stingray, concluding an agreement with a Chinese automotive giant was a matter of course. After Audi, Volkswagen, Tesla and Nio, Stingray therefore believes that it has scored a big blow with BYD, which plans to manufacture four million cars a year.
“BYD accepted the same conditions and the same prices as the other players”, mentions Eric Boyko during the interview.
Slight increase in income
Separately, last week, Stingray released its fiscal year 2024 first quarter results.
In total, sales increased by a slight 1.1%, from $78.1 million to $79 million compared to the same quarter last year.
Its net income jumped $7.7 million, or 50%, from $9.4 million to $14.1 million, partly due to a “one-time settlement gain related to a dispute over a trademark,” according to the company.
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