FanLabel Launches FanLabel SongPicks AppAccording to news out of FanLabel this week, the company, "a music gamification and prediction market entertainment company that turns real-world music performance data into interactive fan experiences, today announced the official launch of FanLabel SongPicks, its paid-entry, skill-based, music-contest app that lets fans use their music knowledge to compete for cash prizes. The company has been a leader in promoting a responsible, fair approach to the development of prediction markets, and was one of the few music-related companies to submit comment to the most recent Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) solicitation."

A company statement continues, "FanLabel SongPicks, builds on the company’s FanLabel Classic app, which lets music fans compete in free fantasy-sports-style music challenges. With FanLabel SongPicks, players can put their music knowledge to the test by ranking songs, predicting streaming trends, and competing on leaderboards. The app currently features two main contest modes: Ranker, where fans rank a selection of songs from most to least streamed, and Best of Five, where players pick the top-performing song from a group."

“We’re thrilled to build off of our free 'FanLabel Classic' experience with 'SongPicks' and bring a pay-to-play, skill-based, gamified music experience to music fans, giving them the chance to win cash prizes,” Jeff Sloan, Founder & CEO of FanLabel, told MC. “The introduction of 'SongPicks' in combination with our soon to be launched prediction market application 'MusicMarkets' expands the FanLabel suite of gamified music-centric experiential offerings and further positions FanLabel as a leader in the space.”

“Our team is very proud to have FanLabel SongPicks officially out in the world,” Sloan said. “We believe that the SongPicks experience will provide music enthusiasts with a new way to engage in their love of music while at the same time benefiting the industry by driving music discovery, consumption, and an entirely new way to generate monetization.”

“As the music industry continues its evolution from passive consumption to interactive, data-driven engagement, platforms like FanLabel are unlocking a new layer of participation for fans and new monetization pathways for rightsholders,” said Bill Campbell, Music Industry Advisor to FanLabel. “What’s particularly compelling here is the combination of fully licensed content, objective data inputs, and a skill-based framework — that’s the foundation for building something scalable, defensible, and regulatorily sound. FanLabel SongPicks is an early example of how music, gaming mechanics, and predictive analytics can converge into a legitimate new category for artists and their fans.” 

For more information, visit fanlabel.com.The post FanLabel Launches FanLabel SongPicks App first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

From Tencent Music’s 250K song takedowns to Sony and WMG’s calendar Q1 results… it’s MBW’s weekly round-upThe biggest headlines from the past few days...
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Warner Music Group generated $1.73B in calendar Q1 2026; subscription streaming revenues rose 12.7% YoYWarner Music Group published its calendar Q1 results today (May 7)
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NEP at Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NCWeb: robertlesterfolsom.comContact: dshaw@baselinemusic.comPlayers: Nep, vocals; Tyler Pons, drums; Sophia Damiani, bass; Jake Sonderman, guitar

Grab your slide rules: Albert Einstein almost had it right, but the real equation on display at Cat’s Cradle was E = NEP².

That proof arrived in the form of NEP (yes, that’s really her name)—a shadow-boxing indie-pop artist who brought a cocktail of swagger, nervous laughter, and Daytona Beach daydreams to the adoring Back Room crowd.

NEP burst onto the stage with a quick four-song salvo: “Daytona,” “Fender,” “Lovelace,” and “Milktown,” followed by the brisk pop flash of “Rocket Ship.” None of it calmed the room. If anything, the next stretch detonated the place: “Teddy,” “Biketoberfest,” “All Around Beauty,” and “Soundtrack” spilled out in a sugar rush of jangling guitars and nervous giggles.

The crowd surged toward the stage in what became a kind of musical cyclone. The quartet itself looked almost comically small against the swell of bodies pressed forward—NEP, her guitarist, and drummer hovering around the five-foot mark, while the bass player stood like a benevolent giant beside them.

Add NEP’s constant giggle—somewhere between nervous energy and mischievous charm—and the whole affair began to resemble a cinematic “escape from the kids’ table at Thanksgiving.”

The guitar work was simple and unadorned—almost stubbornly so—but it carried a kind of innocence that fit the material. The grooves were uncomplicated, the structures tidy, and the melodies had the breezy, slightly sunburned feel of songs written somewhere between a dorm room and a beach parking lot.

At times, the silliness threatened to overwhelm the music. There were genuinely lovely musical moments that got sliced apart by NEP’s constant asides and laughter. The vibe in the room became so beach-soaked you could almost smell the Coppertone and feel sand under your feet. The sugary, slightly smug Hello Kitty delivery sometimes obscured the delicate little juxtapositions the band—competent if understated—was putting together.

Mid-set, the groove settled into something like autopilot before reanimating with “I Close My Eyes,” “Florida Girl,” and the crowd favorite “Pup.” Without a dominant soloist or any real instrumental grandstanding, the evening became less about virtuosity and more about atmosphere: a blend of sonic melancholy and occasional Beach Blanket Bingo chaos.

The songwriting itself showed care. Songs were thoughtfully paced and clearly diaristic. There may not yet be an obvious hit single lurking in the catalog, but a certain gravitational pull—something about Daytona, about leaving and remembering—kept the set moving forward.

That Florida lineage occasionally bubbled at the surface. The warm embers of Tom Petty and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers flickered here and there, and the ghost of Southern guitar traditions that ultimately fed into The Allman Brothers Band hovered around the edges of the sound.

Elsewhere you could hear faint splashes of quirky new-wave DNA—moments that hinted at the playful pop instincts of Bow Wow Wow and the bright theatricality later embraced by Culture Club—another clue to the mixing bowl of beach culture, pop instinct, and youthful irreverence that NEP seems to inhabit. The post NEP at Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NC first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Sony in advanced talks to buy Blackstone’s Recognition Music for up to $4B, reports BloombergThe acquisition would be made through Sony's music rights-buying JV with Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC, the news outlet reported
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From Wine to Diamonds, Every Major Consumer Industry Protects You From Fakes. Why Doesn’t Music?Music supervisor and Catalog founder Frederic Schindler argues it's time for standardized 'Music Facts' labels – modeled on food nutrition panels – to make the origin of every track in the supply chain visible to consumers.
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Classical Highlights for April 2026Our new reviewers have been thrown into the vast world of new Classical recordings and are finding their footings. Some of the highlights they found this month include literature-inspired music by composer-conductor Daníel Bjarnson, performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

Udio admits to scraping YouTube audio for AI training in answer to Sony Music lawsuitUdio admitted that its models were trained with “a vast amount of different kinds of sound recordings” gathered from publicly available sources.
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Amy Allen, Sony Music Publishing ,’Die With a Smile’ among big winners at 2026 ASCAP Pop Music Awards"We are honored to be named ASCAP's Pop Publisher of the Year," said Katie Welle, Sony Music Publishing President, Head of A&R.
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DPA MICROPHONES CAPTURE NUANCE AND DETAIL ON YANN TIERSEN’S TOURDPA Microphones released a statement this week, stating that, "Reproducing the full emotional and dynamic range of a solo piano on a large-scale sound system presents a unique set of challenges, especially when that performance is as nuanced as Yann Tiersen’s. Known for his emotive, minimalist compositions and genre-blending artistry, his latest tour, titled “Rathlin from a Distance | The Liquid Hour,” unfolds in two distinct chapters: an opening set of a solo piano followed by a second half steeped in modular synthesis and electronics. For Veteran Live Sound Engineer Jamie Harley, whose four‑decade career spans electronic, indie and acoustic music, the challenge was finding a way to blend these two very different sound worlds into a seamless live experience each night. The DPA Microphones’ DPK2015 Piano Stereo Kit became an essential part of that equation."

“Working with DPA Microphones on Yann Tiersen’s tour has been about capturing nuance without compromise,” says Veteran Live Sound Engineer Jamie Harley to MC. “Yann’s performance moves between fragile, highly textural piano passages and expansive electronic moments, so the microphones must stay honest to the source while giving me control in very dynamic environments. The DPK2015 Piano Stereo Kit, in particular, lets me focus the microphone exactly where it needs to sit—preserving detail, avoiding midrange build-up and keeping everything natural, even at high gain on large systems. When the technology disappears and the piano simply sounds like itself night after night, that’s when you know you’ve got it right.”

The statement continues: "For the piano-driven portion of the performance, Harley deployed the stereo pair of DPA 2015 Wide Cardioid Microphones, which are included in the miking kit. Known for their natural sound reproduction and controlled off-axis response, the 2015s proved to be a powerful tool in managing the delicate tonal characteristics of Tiersen’s playing style. “Yann plays in a very textural way,” Harley explains. “He’ll hold notes and build layers of tone. If you’re not careful, things can get mid-range-heavy quite quickly. I was really interested to see how the piano kit would handle that, and it worked extremely well.”

"The 2015 microphones were positioned inside the piano to capture both clarity and depth, with a focus on maintaining tonal balance across the instrument’s full range. The wide cardioid pickup pattern of the mics allowed Harley to capture the natural resonance of the piano while minimizing unwanted bleed."

“Having that directional control is a godsend,” he says. “Especially when you’re working with a very quiet, delicate instrument on a large system. You need microphones that keep everything tight and focused exactly where they need to be.” 

The post DPA MICROPHONES CAPTURE NUANCE AND DETAIL ON YANN TIERSEN’S TOUR first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

From The Orchard acquiring Brazil’s OniMusic to the BMG-Concord merger… it’s MBW’s weekly round-upThe biggest headlines from the past few days...
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THE JEREMIAH SHOW: Kailee Spark Is RestlessSinger-songwriter Kailee Spark brings her quiet honesty to The Jeremiah Show, where two powerful conversations reveal the artist behind the music.

In her first appearance, she introduces her debut album Savor This, reflecting on a path shaped by her writing, travel, and a need to express what she couldn’t always say out loud—“Music was something I could turn to instead of talking.”

In the next interview, the conversation shifts, shaped by the personal losses of her father and grandmother within weeks of each other, and by the experiences behind her single “Restless.”

Still, her perspective remains grounded: “Time is kind of irrelevant—the only time we have is now.” Across both interviews, Kailee resists the pressure to play small—“People tell you to think smaller—but you shouldn’t”—and instead leans into a creative life that’s instinctive, present, and unfiltered.

To hear the full story behind the songs, listen to both episodes of The Jeremiah Show featuring Kailee Spark.

Kailee Spark Savor This Interview

Kailee Spark Is Restless Interview

Kailee’s Website

Kailee Spark’s Instagram

Listen to Kailee Spark’s Music on Spotify

THE JEREMIAH SHOW - POP CULTURE, MUSIC ICONS, and FOOD GODS 

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The post THE JEREMIAH SHOW: Kailee Spark Is Restless first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

In Q1, YouTube Music and Premium saw ‘largest quarterly increase’ in non-trial subscribers since 2018 launch, says Alphabet CEO, as platform’s quarterly ad revenues rose to $9.88BYouTube's advertising revenue grew 11% YoY to $9.88 billion in Q1 2026
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I imagine this is quite logical thing and generally people don't want to listen to #music simply and automatically generated by #AI machines. There is some good stuff for #creativity support and is interesting as well in general. But I think it is good to smartly combine analog, digital and AI worlds...or not...there is not one right answer

UMG generated $3.39 billion in Q1, up 8.1% YoY – driven by BTS, Olivia Dean, Taylor Swift, and moreUniversal Music Group has published its Q1 2026 results for the three months ending March 31
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