Lorde among media heavyweights backing new Kiwi-made streaming app
Friday, 22 May 2026
A group of media and technology leaders have backed a new New Zealand music app aiming to challenge the streaming model and revive the digital album.
Ella Yelich-O'Connor, better known as Lorde, is among a formidable lineup of high-profile investors backing Lume, a digital music platform set to launch in app stores in June.
Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie, Letterboxd co-founder Karl von Randow, and Previously Unavailable's James Hurman have also invested in the company, which was founded by a group of local media, technology, and music industry insiders.
Lume is built around albums instead of songs, playlists, and subscriptions, targeting serious music fans with expanded digital packages. For around the price of a CD, users buy and permanently own ‘Lume editions’ of albums, which contain the core music alongside bonus audio, video, artwork, and photography.
The platform operates on an 80:20 revenue split, with 80% of net revenue going directly to artists and their partners.
“Streaming services have been a great deal for consumers, but for many artists and serious music fans, they have distorted listening and made music into just another form of social content,” Lume co-founder Duncan Greive said.
Greive, the founder of The Spinoff and creative agency Daylight, is launching the venture alongside co-CEO Tim Harper, known for The Great New Zealand Songbook and NFT platform Glorious.
The founding team also includes fandom expert Sacha Judd and Justin Warren, the former head of strategy for Universal Music New Zealand.
“Lume allows an album to be more than just a playlist – recapturing something we had lost in the online age,” investor Karl von Randow said.
The app will launch in New Zealand and Australia with a curated selection of classic and contemporary albums featuring exclusive bonus content. The initial lineup includes established New Zealand acts like Tiki Taane, Fur Patrol, and Shapeshifter, alongside emerging talent such as Womb, Lontalius, Dick Move and Geneva AM.
Geneva AM, who won best independent debut at the Taite Music Prize, said the platform offered a better alternative for sharing the creative pieces usually shaved away during the recording process.
“Sharing them on social media, it doesn't feel like something that I want to relinquish in that way,” she said. “Putting everything together into a very careful and well-considered package, for an intentional audience, is very appealing to me.”
The platform features novel tech capabilities, including nesting multiple live, demo, or acoustic versions of a song, and allowing artists to add music as an album cycle progresses.
Lume sales will be eligible for inclusion in the Official Aotearoa Music Charts, with one app purchase carrying the equivalent weight of a physical vinyl or CD sale.
The startup has already established working relationships with independent local labels Flying Nun and Lil Chief, and is in discussions with labels, managers, and distributors in the United States and United Kingdom ahead of planned global expansion.