Tosca Musk shakes up streaming with romance-focused PassionFlix

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Founded in 2017 by Musk and her two friends, Jina Panebianco and Joany Kane, the streaming service offers female-driven content adapted from romance novels, a category Musks says was "completely ignored" by the industry prior to its launch.

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"When 50 Shades of Grey did so exceptionally well, they would be like, 'Wow, everybody watched 50 Shades of Grey. Let's make Fast and the Furious 7,'" Musk told FOX Business.

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"And you're like, 'OK, but everybody's watching 50 Shades of Grey, so wouldn't you make more female-driven content or romance novels?' And that wasn't the direction that the general industry wanted to go."

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Musk says PassionFlix was immediately embraced by romance fans who were willing to sign up before it even launched.

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She declined to provide specific subscriber data but noted that PassionFlix's base grew 53% in 2020 and 73% in 2021.

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To date, the company has raised just under $22 million from investors.

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