Photo Credit: Stationhead
Superfan platforms Mellomanic (formerly We Are Giant) and Stationhead have officially merged, adopted the latter’s name, and scored investments from Universal Music Group (UMG) as well as Sterling Partners.
Both companies just recently confirmed the merger in a formal release, but according to multiple LinkedIn posts, the deal technically wrapped well before 2025’s conclusion. Long backed by Sterling Partners, Mellomanic previously announced that it’d “pivoted to B2B,” thereby taking its “direct-to-fan platform behind the scenes.”
Said platform focuses on superfan-geared listening parties, watch parties for video-content premieres (live or pre-recorded), Q&As, and more. Stationhead, for its part, hosts artist-specific channels tied to live stations, themselves powered by like-minded diehards who’ve linked their paid Spotify or Apple Music accounts.
(Stray Kids’ Stationhead community boasts 1.55 million members, the appropriate page shows, while a “streaming party” for BTS’ Jimin is closing in on an astonishing 340 million cumulative plays across Spotify and Apple Music. Support for different DSPs is on the way, per Stationhead.)
With the newly finalized transaction, all these offerings are landing under the Stationhead banner to power “a single, category-defining service,” the company indicated.
As part of the merger, Mellomanic CEO David Rappaport (who’s a Sterling Partners senior advisor) is shifting to the same role at the post-merger entity. He’ll also serve on the board, as will Stationhead co-founder and now-former CEO Ryan Star, who’s becoming chief creative officer.
Additionally, Sterling co-founder and longtime chairman Steven Taslitz has signed on as Stationhead’s chair. Beyond these moves, the unified business didn’t disclose any other personnel particulars in its release.
But Mellomanic GM and partnerships vice president JP Slater has come aboard Stationhead (albeit as partnerships SVP), and the merger’s prompted layoffs as well.
“I waited until the holidays were over to share this, but due to a merger last month, my role was impacted and I’m now looking for what’s next,” Mellomanic design head Colby Bell wrote two weeks ago.
Finally, Stationhead didn’t mention Mellomanic co-founder and director Kiley Anderson in its release. However, the exec doubles as CEO of Fancy Sprinkles, “an edible arts company on a mission to revolutionize an outdated baking and decorating industry.”
Returning to the fresh investments from Sterling and Universal Music, the major, besides taking a stake in Stationhead, has “entered into a commercial agreement to use Stationhead’s technology.”
In a statement, UMG chief digital officer Michael Nash reiterated that “[c]ollaborative, artist-centric, super fan-focused innovation like this is essential to the future of our industry.”
And in comments of his own, Rappaport touted the merger as establishing “the ultimate direct-to-fan platform the industry needs.”
“Even as far back as when I was an artist attorney,” the former AEG Presents higher-up proceeded in part, “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 bringing Stationhead and Mellomanic together, we’re building an additive, ecosystem-wide solution that drives real business and data for artists, record labels, music publishers, and streaming services,” he continued.
