Muzu.tv outboxes YouTube as its app is used to watch 1.5m music videos in 36 hours on Xbox

MORE THAN 1.5 million music videos were watched on the Muzu.tv app in the first 36 hours it was made available on Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console.

Dublin-headquartered Muzu.tv launched its app, which provides access to a catalogue of more than 80,000 music videos, on December 13th as part of a major expansion of the video content available on the Xbox Live service.

Ciarán Bollard, chief executive and co-founder of Muzu.tv, said the company had been surprised at the rapid take-up of the service.

“We took a long time to develop the app and Microsoft is rigorous about its technology quality assurance process, but we wanted to be the first music app on Xbox,” said Mr Bollard.

He said the take-up of the service was even more remarkable as Google’s YouTube app also launched at the same time. In the first week of release more than 500 music videos were being played every minute.

“Muzu.tv provides a hugely comprehensive catalogue of music videos, so we are absolutely delighted to have partnered with them,” said Stephen McGill, director of Xbox and entertainment for Microsoft UK.

Muzu.tv also has partnerships with Samsung and Sony to make its service available on their internet-ready TVs.

“We want to own the TV space and we will have more deals to come in the new year,” said Mr Bollard.

As with the web-based version of Muzu.tv, the TV and Xbox apps are advertising-supported.

The service is available to Xbox Live subscribers in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. Mr Bollard said advertising is being introduced slowly for Xbox users with an ad shown before every third video watched. Founded in 2008, Muzu.tv now employs 17 between offices in Dublin, London and Waterford.

It has partnerships to deliver videos on over 100 websites including Metacafe, NME, the Express Group, 4Music, HMV and several European music festivals.

Mr Bollard said the company is “close to break even” and would consider raising finance for expansion into new markets.