Stationhead and Mellomanic Merge, UMG Invests In ‘Ultimate’ Direct-to-Fan Platform

LOS ANGELES — Stationhead and Mellomanic have merged, creating what the group’s leadership are describing as the “ultimate direct-to-fan platform the industry needs.”

The enlarged company will carry the Stationhead name, and is led by David Rappaport, who becomes chief executive officer. Previously, Rappaport was head of Mellomanic and chief operating officer of global touring at AEG Presents before that.

At the same time, Ryan Star, Stationhead’s co-founder, CEO and a Billboard charting recording artist, is named as chief creative officer of Stationhead. Steven Taslitz, chairman and co-founder of Sterling Partners which, along with Universal Music Group and other organizations, is investing in the company, will now serve as Stationhead’s chairman. Rappaport and Star will additionally serve as board members.

Financial terms of the merger weren’t disclosed.

Stationhead, the global fandom platform which allows fans to host listening parties for their favorite artists, last year boasted a user base of 20 million, with 50% of those aged between 18 and 25. Since then, the platform has added several new features, including the Stationhead Shop, an e-commerce experience that allows artists to offer merch directly by hosting their own “Shops,” an integration made possible with Shopify.

Soon after, Stationhead rolled out Collections, which allows users to show off the physical and digital merchandise that they have bought through the brand.

Mellomanic, formerly known as We Are Giant, closed a $6 million funding round in late 2024, raising its total capital to $13.8 million, with Sterling Partners among its backers.

It too is a community-centric space for artists and superfans to connect, with expertise in presenting exclusive listening parties and digital events. With over 400,000 monthly active users, the platform has attracted partnerships with major labels such as Atlantic Records, Def Jam, Sony Music Nashville and Virgin Music Group.

“This merger creates the ultimate direct-to-fan platform the industry needs,” comments Rappaport. “Even as far back as when I was an artist attorney, I felt that copyrights and artist businesses were substantially under-monetized and that an all-encompassing solution could be created for the industry that allowed all industry stakeholders to win.”

By combined the companies, Rappaport continues, “we’re building an additive, ecosystem-wide solution that drives real business and data for artists, record labels, music publishers, and streaming services.”

Adds Star, “through live listening parties that have already driven billions of streams on premium streaming services, we’ve demonstrated the commercial power of fandom at scale. This is the next evolution of music fandom, and it’s the future we’ve been building toward from the very beginning.”

In addition to its minority investment in the business, UMG nabs more skin in the game through a commercial agreement to use Stationhead’s technology.

“At Universal Music Group, we see tremendous potential in technology innovation that brings artists and their biggest fans more closely together, and Stationhead’s independent platform exemplifies that opportunity,” comments Michael Nash, EVP and chief digital officer at Universal Music Group. “Collaborative, artist-centric, super fan-focused innovation like this is essential to the future of our industry.”

Goldman, Sachs & Co. advised Stationhead on the merger, announced Wednesday, Jan. 28.

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Imran Majid & Justin Eshak Presents the Executive of the Year Award to Janelle Lopez Genzink | Billboard Power 100 Party 2026

Janelle Lopez Genzink accepts the Executive of the Year Award from TBD & Billboard’s Chief Brand Officer, Danna Droppo, at Billboard’s Power 100 Party 2026.

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Sherry Lansing Presents the No. 1 Award to Lucian Grange | Billboard Power 100 Party 2026

Lucian Grange accepts the No. 1 Award from Sherry Lansing & Billboard’s Executive Director, Leila Cobo, at Billboard’s Power 100 Party 2026.

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Here’s What Connor Storrie Said About His Viral Madonna ‘Like a Prayer’ Dance Video

He can strike a pose, but Connor Storrie confesses he’s not much of a dancer.

At Paris Fashion Week yesterday (Jan. 27), the Heated Rivalry actor was reminded of the viral video of himself dancing to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.” When asked by Dazed to name something he’s bad at, but loves to do, Storrie joked, “I’m not bad at anything,” and then added “uhm, I don’t know dancing?”

The Dazed reporter replied “I saw the Madonna dance, I think you’re good,” with Storrie responding, “That was me, that was me just living.”

Dazed spoke with Storrie at Saint Laurent men’s fall 2026 ready-to-wear show in Paris, where he was seated in the front row alongside fellow Heated Rivalry actors François Arnaud and Robbie G.K. The Saint Laurent moment comes after the show’s co-star, Hudson Williams, walked the runway at Dsquared2’s fall 2026 runway show in Milan on Jan. 16.

It’s been a month since Storrie lit up social media with a video of himself dancing and lip-syncing to Madonna’s classic hit. The short was filmed for Interview magazine and uploaded on Dec. 27. Since then, it has generated over 9 million views across the publication’s Instagram, TikTok and Twitter accounts.

As for numbers around Madonna’s own “Like a Prayer” song, it generated 1.420 million official on-demand streams in the United States in the week ending Jan. 22, according to Luminate — marking its biggest streaming week in seven months. It last posted a bigger streaming week in the week ending June 5, 2025, when it tallied 1.473 million clicks.

“Like a Prayer” topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for three weeks in 1989.

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Sharon Osbourne Accepts the Visionary Award From Clive Davis & Michelle Anthony | Billboard Power 100 Party 2026

Sharon Osbourne accepts the Visionary Award from Clive Davis, Michelle Anthony & Billboard’s Executive Director, Leila Cobo, at Billboard’s Power 100 Party 2026.

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Jean-Michel Jarre Remembers Challenger Astronaut Ron McNair and the Performance that Never Took Place

Astronauts, as we know, are the rarest of people. Ron McNair was the rarest of astronauts.

McNair was just the second African American to fly in space, doing so in February 1984, and he was a talented artist. A jazz musician. By taking a curved soprano saxophone aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger STS-41B mission that year, he became the first person to play a musical instrument in space.

Four decades ago, McNair was on the cusp of creating another piece of music history, by performing a sax solo that would’ve resonated around the world.

Jean-Michel Jarre had planned the out-of-this world performance, which would’ve seen McNair play the part from the final track on the French electronic composer’s eighth album, 1986’s Rendez-Vous.

Sadly, the performance never happened. On Jan. 28, 1986, just 73 seconds after liftoff, the Challenger shuttle exploded. None of the seven crew members survived.

“Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle tragedy,” writes Jarre in a social post. “My heart is with all the families and loved ones who continue to carry the weight of this loss.

“I pay special tribute to my dear friend Ron McNair – astronaut, musician, and pioneer – who was due to perform a saxophone solo live from space as part of my Houston concert.”

As a salute to McNair, the album’s sixth and last piece is entitled “Last Rendez-Vous (Ron’s Piece) – Challenger.”

Later on April 5, 1986, Jarre paid tribute to McNair and his colleagues on the space shuttle with “Rendez-vous Houston: A City in Concert,” an open-air concert that celebrated the city’s 150th anniversary and NASA’s 25th, and featured a state-of-the art laser show which turned the city’s skyscrapers into art installations.

The concert set a Guinness World Record for the largest concert audience (1.5 million), and was later released as a live album.

A South Carolina native, McNair experienced segregation as a child. That didn’t rob him of chasing his dreams. In 1976, he completed a PhD in physics from MIT, he earned a 5th-degree black belt in karate, and mastered the sax. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2004, and his pioneering work is preserved with The MIT Black History Project and through The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, established to encourage underrepresented students to pursue doctoral studies.

His musicianship lives on, too.

“That performance never took place,” Jarre writes, “but Ron’s Piece lives on. His heartbeat is in the music, echoing into eternity.”

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Pusha T Presents the Breakthrough Executive Award to Alex DePersia | Billboard Power 100 Party 2026

Pusha T & Billboard’s Chief Brand Officer, Danna Droppo, present Alex DePersia with the Breakthrough Executive Award at Billboard’s Power 100 Party 2026.

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Mariah Carey Presents the Executive of the Decade Award to Jody Gerson | Billboard Power 100 Party 2026

Mariah Carey & Billboard’s Executive Director, Jason Lipshutz, presents Jody Gerson with the Executive of the Decade Award from at Billboard’s Power 100 Party 2026.

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Nicki Minaj Posts Donald Trump Gold Card, Which Expedites Path to U.S. Citizenship: ‘Welp’

Nicki Minaj once rapped that Ye (formerly Kanye West) was the only person who could stand beside her, but she met President Donald Trump for the first time on Wednesday (Jan. 28) and received a Trump Gold Card, which will expedite her path to U.S. citizenship.

Minaj was in Washington, D.C. for the Trump Accounts Summit, where she spoke glowingly of the president, who returned the favor and crowned her the “greatest and most successful female rapper in history.”

“Welp…,” Minaj wrote while posting a photo of her Trump Gold Card. According to the official website, the elusive card costs a $1,000,000 contribution plus a $15,000 processing fee. The website adds that the Gold Card is a “visa based upon an individual’s ability to provide a substantial benefit to the United States.”

While on the mic at the Accounts Summit, Trump said that Minaj gifted “hundreds of thousands of dollars in Trump Accounts” to support children who are also Barbz. “I just think she’s great,” he added.

In a 2018 tweet that has resurfaced in recent weeks amid her Trump support, Minaj revealed she was brought to the U.S. illegally from Trinidad as a five-year-old.

It was a busy day for Minaj, who also posted a video alongside the president. “I’m with my favorite president, the best president of all-time,” she said. Trump then appears in the clip, who states: “And I’m with the queen of rap.”

Minaj took the podium at the summit after being invited personally to come to the stage by the president, where she championed herself as the “No. 1 fan” of Donald Trump and admitted that the MAGA backlash has only made her more of a supporter of the president.

“I am probably the president’s No. 1 fan,” Minaj told the audience. “And that’s not going to change. What people have to say, it does not affect me at all. It actually motivates me to support him more. And it’s going to motivate all of us to support him more.”

She continued: “We’re not going to let them get away with bullying him. And you know, the smear campaigns. It’s not going to work. He has a lot of force behind him and God is protecting him.”

Nicki has been staunch in her support of the Trump administration in recent months. She commended Trump for threatening to take military action in Nigeria over the country’s alleged persecution of Christians.

Minaj spoke at a United Nations event organized by U.S. Ambassador Mike Waltz, where she raised awareness around the issue. The Queens rapper also made an appearance for an interview with Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, at a Turning Point USA event in December, where she praised VP J.D. Vance.

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OK Go Talks Their Grammy-Nominated ‘Love’ Music Video & Viral Success of ‘Here We Go Again’ Music Video | Billboard News

OK Go interviews each other about their first Grammy nomination for best music video for “Love” since their win in 2006 for their viral video “Here It Goes Again,” how they feel about using AI in their music videos and more.

Damian Kulash
Hey, Billboard, we’re OK Go and we are about to interview each other. Let’s see how this goes.

Tom Nordwind
Okay. Damien, friend of mine, since we were 11 years old, let’s take a walk down memory lane. We’ve won our first Grammy for here it goes again. It’s a milestone for us. What do you remember most about that time in our lives? Where were we at?

Damian Kulash
I remember we were ending an album cycle. Yes, we thought we were about to go write and record our next album. We were playing at a festival in Moscow. When it when it when it went online, we thought like maybe 50 of our fans were going to download it that day and pass it to some other fans, and that would kind of be it. The next week, the album was back to the top of the charts again, and we started touring all over again. It was a whole another 18 month album cycle.

Tom Nordwind
I remember we were supposed to go home to Los Angeles after the festival in Moscow, we got redirected to New York, and then we didn’t go home for another year and a half.

Damian Kulash
Yeah, it was intense. It was exciting. It really was like, it felt like the kind of anything can happen. Moment, you know, like one one weird thing connects, and all of a sudden your life is different.

Tom Nordwind
Yeah, I remember also thinking, it’s pretty cool that that video, which is just like us, kind of doing what we do as friends normally dance on treadmills. Dance on treadmills, you know, but just make fun things together, like, resonated, yeah.

Watch the full video above!

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