Afro-Urban Media Company Trace Plans U.S. Streaming Music & Video Service

Here’s a new streaming service that could stand out from the blizzard of new entries. Self-described afro-urban media company Trace says today that it will will introduce music oriented Trace Play that will include a soon-to-launch Trace Prime TV network.

The service will come from a new Trace USA joint venture with media and web entrepreneur John Pasmore.

It will boast 30 digital radio stations, 9 live TV feeds, and Trace Prime and be available online and to iOS and Android devices for $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year.

From its roots as a magazine company, Trace now has 30 digital and mobile services, 21 paid TV channels, and 7 FM radio stations. It also produces and syndicates content that reaches 160 countries.

“Trace is the only media company that has successfully connected urban youth and communities of color around the world while respecting their identities,” says Pasmore, former CEO of Russell Simmons’ Oneworld Media.

The U.S. venture hopes to reach “influential young, afro-urban consumers with innovative content that’s important to them, and culturally relevant in their daily lives,” he adds. The partners want Trace to be available “everywhere in the U.S. including major cable operators that are looking for new, appealing, and viable minority-owned independent networks.”

Trace CEO Olivier Laouchez says the company’s experience in Africa, France, the Caribbean and Indian Ocean will enable it to offer “a unique editorial approach, socially connected and rooted at the intersection of American hip-hop culture, Afrobeat movement, and Caribbean sounds. This resonates particularly well with the millions of US-based diasporas of African descent and multicultural fans of urban culture.”

Trace backers include actor-musician Wyclef Jean, producers Rob Marriott and Tonya Lewis Lee, Fubu co-founder, J Alexander Martin, JKD Entertainment’s Karlie Lewis and Dora Din Whittley.