Stingray Music

Original logo of Galaxie from 1997 to 2000. From 2000 to 2003, the orange circle was removed.

The service's beginnings in Canada started in December 1995, when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was granted approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch a national pay audio service named Galaxie consisting of 30 channels in both English and French.[1]

The service launched as Galaxie on September 10, 1997, under the ownership of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation by offering 30 music channels.[2]

Logo of Galaxie from 2003 to 2009.

Because of service duplication, in 2002, Galaxie and Max Trax (a similar television service owned by Corus Entertainment at the time) agreed to provide a joint 40-channel audio distribution service to satellite and digital cable television providers called Galaxie Max Trax. The package consisted of 20 Galaxie and 20 Max Trax channels.

At the end of December 2008, Stingray Digital held a sound broadcasting license from the CRTC.[3] On February 13, 2009, Corus Entertainment sold its equipment and the Max Trax brand to Stingray[4] so that the service was offered without interruption until Stingray launched its own service.

Galaxie logo used from 2009 to 2014.

On October 1, 2009, the Max Trax brand was discontinued, like its owners, Stingray Digital and the CBC merged the two services together under the Galaxie brand. Stingray Digital, who had been operating as the exclusive sales and development agent for Galaxie since late 2007, officially took over as managing partner in the service upon completion of merger.[5][6]

According to Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) records, Stingray purchased Galaxie from the CBC in May 2011[7] for a reported $65 million.[8]

On November 18, 2011, Stingray announced it had expanded the number of Galaxie channels available to be offered to distributors to 100.[9] On January 10, 2012, Shaw Cable was the first distributor in Canada to launch 15 of those additional channels, the majority of which were focused on various genres of multicultural and multilingual music.[10] The full slate of new channels were rolled out to consumers when SaskTel became the first distributor to carry all 100 channels in May 2012.[11]

On September 30, 2014, Stingray announced it was uniting all of its properties under the Stingray brand, effective immediately, with Galaxie rebranded as Stingray Music,[12] albeit with audio channels still Galaxie branded until early 2015 and the OnDemand music video service is still branded Galaxie with only some music videos Stingray branded.

In 2014, Stingray Music launched a mobile app. The app was later updated in 2015 with 1,500+ personalized channels known as "Vibes" and these channels are also available later on some TV providers, for instance Bell MTS.[13][14][15]

In 2019, it was announced that the Stingray Music's mobile app was made available for free in the U.S. and Canada. Users can choose to listen to the ad-supported service or pay $0.99 (made-for-students discount)/$3.99 to access the premium service that was already made available to participating TV providers' subscribers. Unlimited skips are also available, whereas before only 6 skips were authorized hourly.[16][17]

In August 2020, the company announced the launch of Stingray Music - with six leading platforms - in the United States.[18]

In September 2020, it was announced that Stingray's holdings in the company AppDirect, which was about to launch its own initial public offering, were valued at C$26 million.[19]

Stingray Music primarily broadcasts music across over 150 uninterrupted channel feeds available worldwide, carefully curated by 25 Montreal-based music programmers and 175 more globally.[20] Each channel is programmed around a particular musical genre or theme, and carries a playlist containing somewhere between 150 and over 3,000 songs. The channels cover a wide range of genres and sub-genres including pop, rock, jazz, electronic, classical, and more. Programming is primarily in English, however, multiple channels feature programming in French, Spanish, Punjabi, among others. The majority of channels broadcasts music, however, other audio feeds are available that broadcast instrumentals, nature sounds, and others.

Stingray Music programmers select the music based on music trends and feedback from viewers. The sequence of tracks and the tracks themselves are constantly updated and scheduled at exact times using professional computer programs, with no block of programming repeats exactly itself and no random playing.[21]

Note: Ratings of the TV-MA channels are sourced from U.S.'s AT&T U-verse, if they are carried on the provider (such channels are noted in asterisks). Channels with (G) note denotes it (or its format) has been carried since the beginning. Channels with (M) note denotes it's been carried over from Max Trax after the two services merged. The channels offered varies from one provider to another.

Stingray Music sponsors a number of "Stingray Rising Stars Awards" (formerly Galaxie Rising Stars) presented at a variety of music festivals and awards presentations each year, including Canadian Music Week's Indie Awards, the East Coast Music Awards, and the Western Canadian Music Awards, among numerous others.[22] Stingray also sponsors an annual Songs from the Heart competition for new and emerging songwriters. The Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award is presented to the winner of the competition.

• Stingray Music Canada
• Stingray Music US