• Chosen

  Participated · Equity · Mar 2015

  Chosen is an American Idol–style mobile app for iOS and Android that lets people perform or judge short video submissions. The app has been simplified to focus on performing and swipe-based voting rather than multiple game types. Ellen Digital Ventures invested in Chosen and will launch an in-app Dance Off contest (including a themed contest around Missy Elliott’s song “WTF”) with top dancers invited to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Chosen plans to open as a platform next year so anyone can create themed contests across singing, dancing, extreme sports, comedy, and more. The app emphasizes positive interactions by removing mean comments and discouraging harsh critiques. Chosen was founded by former Gracenote, MOG, and Beats Music CEO David Hyman; the new investment is described as undisclosed and adds to the company’s prior funding. Chosen is a mobile-first battle-of-the-bands app that turns spectators into participating judges who record video critiques and rate performers. The product, built by David Hyman (ex-CEO of Beats Music, Gracenote, and Mog), is launching an invite-only beta on iOS. Performers can submit original performances, karaoke, or lip-sync videos while judges watch paired performances, choose favorites, and record critique videos to earn badges and climb leaderboards. To seed the platform, Chosen recorded about 3,000 songs by over 1,000 musicians through connections to performing arts schools. The app features tournaments with prizes (including all-expenses-paid trips to Bonnaroo where performers play on stage and judges get backstage passes) and plans to add new games every few months and eventually split games by genre. Chosen raised $6.5 million to support marketing and product polish as it pursues viral growth via social sharing and friend-driven voting. Chosen is a mobile-first performance-competition platform founded by former Gracenote, MOG, and Beats Music CEO David Hyman. The app aims to reimagine TV music-competition formats for mobile, enabling diverse contests such as guitar solo, yodeling, and violin competitions rather than mainstream TV pop. Chosen was in stealth after forming late the prior year and plans a public launch in Q1 2015. The company is accepting YouTube submissions of one-take musical performances to seed the app with content. Its engineering team is based in Tel Aviv, led by co-founder Eyal Moshe, while the product team is run stateside by TJay Fowler. The $5 million raise is intended to grow engineering and product squads and to market the app to aspiring performers, including an eventual push into China.

No current team members are available.