The media industry is one that’s constantly changing and evolving. As people become more aware of their online presence and their digital identity, they’re looking for ways to protect that. This has led to a rise in the number of media startups that focus on privacy and security.
Consequently, the number of media startups has increased significantly over the past few years. Some of them are offering great products, while others have yet to prove themselves as viable competitors in this space.
However, one thing is for sure – the digital revolution has transformed the way media is consumed by audiences and has also led to a shift in consumer behavior towards online platforms.
What are media startups?
Media startups are companies that provide technology, services, or content that help media organizations grow their businesses. The term “media startup” is often used to describe a business that provides new types of content or services that didn’t exist before it came along.
The most promising media startups
Motherly
Founded in 2015, Motherly is a media company aiming to redefine what it means to be a mom today. Unlike old-fashioned parenthood guidebooks, Motherly celebrates the messiness and realities of modern motherhood. Through their website, social channels, and email newsletters, Motherly provides information tailored for busy moms raising kids while also pursuing careers and passions.
With authentic voices of real moms paired with guidance from health experts, Motherly balances wisdom from experienced parents with up-to-date facts and research. The passionate team aims to highlight the diversity in mothers’ backgrounds and parenting decisions today.
United Masters
UnitedMasters provides an innovative music distribution platform that empowers independent artists with independence. Unlike restrictive record deals, UnitedMasters lets musicians maintain full ownership rights and creative control while still accessing key industry opportunities like radio play, commercial deals, and premium branded partnerships. By directly connecting unsigned musicians to fans and major brands seeking their talent, UnitedMasters offers a new forward-thinking model.
Rather than locking artists into unilateral business terms and poor revenue splits endemic of big music labels, UnitedMasters leverages technology to serve artists’ interests first. With an equitable, artist-centric approach, the company is challenging the status quo to give musicians their deserved autonomy while expanding their commercial exposure and income at scale.
PRYNTD
The platform integrates social media live streaming and it’s useful for shows with present and streaming fans and also for deeper artist-fan engagement. Moreover, merchandise, sold on the platform by artists is affordable immersive wearables with electro-tactile haptic feedback to fully immerse the fan in the in-person or live-streaming experience.
The Story Market
Additionally, this fast-growing media startup helps publishers source high-quality content from publications and freelancers worldwide. This is a global content marketplace that connects freelance publishers and journalists. It can be used for publishers to find journalists through uploaded stories or receive recommendations and buy online or print licenses for them.
Pluto TV
The startup is headquartered in Los Angeles but is growing its international footprint and it’s available across three continents and 26 countries. Furthermore, this media service curates a diverse lineup of channels, in partnership with nearly 400 international media companies, offering a wide array of genres, categories, and languages.
Fanatiz
Fanatiz offers both monthly and annual subscriptions and is the only platform available today that customizes the entire online customer experience. More specifically, it’s allowing viewers to select their favorite team and be fed unique details and updates ongoing (match times, player stats, and highlights, to name a few).
Podscribe
Having Podscribe take care of your ads gives advertisers confidence with their buys, especially on smaller less-known podcasts. This media company can take care of competitive separation, correct length, correct spot (eg mid vs pre-roll), brand-safe, and more.
Epidemic Sound
Its innovative digital rights model paves the way for creators. That’s because everyone from YouTubers to small businesses to the world’s largest brands can use ‘restriction-free music’ to take their videos to the next level, whilst simultaneously supporting the musicians it works with both creatively and financially.
Newsadoo
Additionally, users can choose from regional, national, and international newspapers and magazines and it’s available for free on all devices. They also have a Trending Stories feature so you can see what’s happening at a glance.
MainStreaming
They deliver live and on-demand video, integrating all operative phases for ingesting, encoding, management, and distribution. The team of MainStreaming has a mission to foster an AI technology revolution that will shake the traditional architecture, thus, they’re paving the path for innovative intelligent distribution, which will exponentially improve network efficiency, streaming governance, and resource optimization.
Zuddl
Being aware that until now, online conferences often feel like a one-way webinar and in most cases, attendees have no impact on the outcome, this media company decided to make a change. Therefore, the team behind Zuddl built a library of templates for all of the configurable elements of conferences. Using this solution, companies can build off of existing templates and get their event up and running within minutes.
Locker
Locker is an easy-to-use app that finds the top trending sports stories across the world’s top websites and social platforms to ensure you never miss the pieces that matter. Live scores, performance ratings, league tables, and player profiles are just a few of the real-time stats you will have at your fingertips.
Zvook
They make audio advertising instant, simple, transparent, and monetizable from day one. Furthermore, this innovative platform empowers marketers with everything they need in one place to handle managing, searching, and booking their podcast buys.
MatchCasts
Using this platform, brands can create a host-read script or upload their own audio ads, run audio campaigns, choose from a variety of advertising options from pre-roll and midroll to a variety of sponsorship options, and more.
Ride Home Media
Furthermore, another podcast that is published every weekday is the Kottke Ride Home. This is a podcast featuring the coolest stuff that happened in the world today. Progress, science, life-hacks, memes, exciting art, and hope.
Brut.
This media startup publishes content daily across eight social platforms and is available in three languages. It’s generating over 1,5B views a month and is considered to be one of the most reliable media platforms this year.
WorldPlus
By breaking down the traditional styles of reading magazines WorldPlus stole the spotlight in the media industry. With a growth mindset, innovative solutions, and a progressive work environment they deliver world-renowned magazines in 8 languages in a digital and interactive format.
Citispotter Limited
This innovative technology detects insensitive or negative tones and language that violates the brand’s standards and values and reduces the danger of inconsistent and insensitive messages by automating the editing process and decreasing human supervision by 90%.
Newslit
The team of Newslit is doing everything to make media monitoring made simple. All you need to do is choose your topic, and refine your search and you will get the news wherever you need them. After that, you can use their integration tools to share your content anywhere.
Artlist
Founded in 2016, Artlist operates an online marketplace with thousands of high-quality music and SFX tracks available for licensing. Their catalog spans genres and moods for enhancing video, apps, podcasts, and more.
Compared to traditional stock audio sites, Artlist focuses on Unlimited subscriptions with unlimited downloads. This simplified model suits small creative teams needing affordable, straight-forward music access.With strong growth since launch, Artlist streamlines audio licensing so creators can focus on bringing projects to life.
Restream
Founded in 2014, Restream provides tools to stream video simultaneously to various social and video platforms with ease. Users can broadcast to sites like Twitch, YouTube, Facebook together.
Restream’s technology eliminates the need for multiple encoding setups. Creators can manage content and engage audiences from one dashboard
Data Skrive
Founded in 2021, Data Skrive automatically generates articles and narratives using sports data and machine learning algorithms. Their AI-generated text covers games, matches, teams, and players.
The platform customizes content for clients’ unique needs and audiences. By automating personalized sports reporting, Data Skrive provides scalable production capacity.
Podfund
Founded in 2019, Podfund provides capital investments specifically to independent podcast creators and networks. Their goal is to enable podcasters to grow their audience and content.
Podfund focuses on podcasts with engaged communities and high-quality content. Investments to date include true crime and independent news shows generating millions of downloads.
Asian Boss
Their videos provide candid perspectives on issues ranging from dating and relationships to social trends and politics. Street interviews are a signature of Asian Boss, capturing uncensored public opinion.
Lingokids
Founded in 2016 by parents Cristóbal Viedma and Thibault de Chassepoir, Lingokids was created to fill a need for effective and entertaining language learning resources for kids. Viedma and de Chassepoir were frustrated by the lack of quality digital language tools for their own young children.
Lingokids provides lessons in over 40 language courses including Spanish, French, Mandarin, and German. The curriculum combines vocabulary building, basic grammar, pronunciation, and cultural awareness.
Greenfly
Founded in 2012 by former NFL player Osi Umenyiora, Greenfly began as a platform to help athletes monetize their social media influence. Athletes could use Greenfly to easily create and share branded content for sponsors.
Over time, Greenfly expanded its capabilities to serve additional industries. The platform makes it simple for businesses to coordinate and manage user-generated content from any influencer or brand supporter
Uscreen
Founded in 2013, Uscreen provides the technology and infrastructure for creators to launch customized video streaming services. This allows them to control and monetize their content while building direct relationships with viewers.
Creators can use Uscreen to build their own branded channels, set pricing plans, manage subscribers, and track analytics. Features like multi-device video playback, offline viewing, and digital rights management help them optimize viewer experience.
Nextup
Founded in 2020, Nextup provides a dedicated home for up-and-coming and established comedians to share their work. The platform offers fans exclusive access to original comedy they won’t find anywhere else.
Nextup features a mix of recorded stand-up specials, podcasts, sketch shows, panel shows, and other comedy programming. The content spans a wide range of styles from musical comedy to improv to deadpan humor.Many comedians on Nextup are rising stars on the UK comedy circuit.
Veed
Founded in 2019, Veed aims to make online video creation accessible to everyone. The platform provides intuitive tools to produce high-quality videos without professional skills.
Key features of Veed include a drag-and-drop video editor, over 50 million royalty-free media assets, customizable templates, and built-in collaboration. Users can add effects, transitions, filters, text, and more with just a few clicks.Veed also enables multi-language subtitling through machine translation and an online transcription editor.
What these media startups have in common
The most successful media startups know their audience inside out – no fan is off-limits, no follower irrelevant. They know how to engage their audience in a way that feels natural and authentic. This helps them grow organically by word-of-mouth instead of paying for exposure on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram.
Moreover, they’re adaptable to changing times and are always on the lookout for ways to better serve their customers’ needs with new products, services, or content formats. They are always thinking about how to make their content stand out from other content in their niche.
Discover more creative startups that might interest you:
- Unique Generative AI startups that are going to without a doubt change the world.
- 3D printing companies with outstanding innovations to improve manufacturing.
- Innovative logistics startups forever changing delivery services.
- Revolutionary biotech startups helping the world with amazing innovations.
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