Overview of Stingray’s Business Areas
The musical, media, and technological company Stingray, headquartered in Montreal, is involved in various business sectors, ranging from advertising to streaming and traditional broadcasting on television and radio.
One of its standout offerings—a karaoke application—has swiftly become a standard feature in electric vehicles. The car version of the Stingray Karaoke application is available in Tesla vehicles, and agreements have been signed to make it accessible in Ford cars, as well as vehicles from the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD.
Financial Growth and Market Expansion
The company boasts a catalog of thousands of legally licensed karaoke songs, with “new releases every Friday and curated mixes for parties, carefully selected for any occasion.”
On December 9, Stingray announced an increase and extension of its renewable credit line, enhancing its liquidity for operations as well as for mergers and acquisitions.
Stingray has increased its credit line by 80 million Canadian dollars, now totaling 500 million Canadian dollars (approximately 352 million US dollars), financed by a syndicate of Canadian banks led by National Bank Financial Markets and Caisses Desjardins as co-arrangers. Participants include Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), Bank of Nova Scotia, and the state-controlled Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).
“We are very pleased with the ongoing support from our banking syndicate and partners as we explore growth opportunities,” said Eric Boyko, the co-founder, president, and CEO of Stingray.
“This new financing significantly increases our current liquidity and opens doors for additional obligations as we continue to evaluate market possibilities.”
Acquisitions and Strategic Partnerships
Since debuting on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2015, Stingray has adhered to a growth strategy that emphasizes mergers and acquisitions, building a vast network in the digital media landscape. The company acquired the Australian supplier of digital music services MDD that year, along with three music television channels from the Brava TV Group, operating in numerous countries.
In 2017, it acquired C Music Entertainment, a British operator specializing in classical music television, and in 2018, Stingray took over Newfoundland Capital Corp., the second largest private broadcasting company in Canada.
Today, Stingray manages the largest retail network for audio broadcasting in North America, delivering audio messages to 30,000 outlets. In 2021, Stingray signed a deal with Amazon, transferring several music channels to Amazon Prime Video. The company also has collaborations for entertainment streaming with Xfinity and Roku.
Stingray asserts that it maintains a longstanding relationship with over 300 music labels, publishers, and studios, including “Sony Music, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, BMG, Kobalt, and Mercury Studios, along with many independent content suppliers.”
“This new financing significantly increases our current liquidity and provides the possibility of additional obligations as we continue to evaluate and benefit from market capabilities.”
Eric Boyko, Stingray
Notably, the most popular product in recent years has been the Stingray Karaoke application, which was notably adopted by Tesla, the first electric vehicle manufacturer to integrate a karaoke app into its cars.
Since then, other electric vehicle manufacturers, including the Chinese BYD, have joined in, signing agreements to implement the Stingray Karaoke app in their vehicles sold globally.
Recently, Stingray signed an agreement with Ford to present the karaoke app in their fully electric F-150 Lightning pickup and Mustang Mach-E. This application will be available for download later for other Ford and Lincoln Digital Experience models, including the 2025 Ford Explorer, 2025 Lincoln Navigator, 2025 Lincoln Aviator, and 2025 Lincoln Nautilus.
The karaoke application offers an extensive array of musical genres to its users, from rock and country to Latin American music, K-Pop, and J-Pop.
Stingray emphasizes the safety features integrated into the karaoke application—particularly, that drivers cannot scroll through song lyrics while the vehicle is in motion.
Moreover, karaoke is not limited to cars. In October, Stingray announced that this function will be available on Vizio TVs. This announcement followed a month after it revealed that karaoke would soon be available on Roblox.
“Stingray aims to transform how people experience music and entertainment, serving millions of users across various platforms, from applications to automobile entertainment systems,” stated Rick Bergan, head of the content distribution department at Stingray.
In their latest quarterly report ending September 30, Stingray reported a 13.4% year-over-year increase in revenue to 93.6 million Canadian dollars (68.6 million US dollars based on the average exchange rate for the third quarter).
The company’s adjusted EBITDA grew by 15.2% year-over-year, reaching 34.0 million Canadian dollars (24.9 million US dollars).
Boyko noted that this growth was driven by the FAST channel (free ad-supported streaming) and retail media segments. He highlighted that the company created a “completely new revenue stream” through a partnership with Xperi/Tivo, enabling eight new channels for rear-seat entertainment in BMW Group vehicles.
“This premium video offering will be extended to other luxury car manufacturers in upcoming quarters, as we position Stingray as a preferred supplier in this market,” Boyko stated.
The company reports that 2.5 million cars feature their entertainment content onboard, with a total audience of 400 million viewers and listeners benefiting from all its services.
