$10 Million Later, Former MOG, Beats CEO David Hyman Shutters Music Video AR App Blin.gy
Music video augmented reality app Bling.ly has shut down, after acquisition talks fell through. Originally launched as Chosen by former MOG and Beats CEO David Hyman, the music tech startup had raised $10 million to date.
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Serial music tech entrepreneur David Hyman's latest project, Blin.gy has shut down.
After stints as co-founder and CEO at Gracenote, MOG and when they acquired the later, at Beats, Hyman had originally launched Blin.gy three years ago as Chosen. The online music competition app had a high profile partnership with Ellen DeGeneres, but failed to gain traction against Musical.ly and others.
A pivot to Bing.ly and mobile device enabled augmented reality for music videos, plus $10 million in fundraising, were not enough to save the startup, however.
"Blin.gy acquired a little over one million downloads in the months it was live, but if you’re not between the ages of 10 and 13, I’m pretty sure you didn’t see it," Hyman wrote in a blog post. "And now you definitely won’t. Because my mobile AR startup died."
