Sound Connections

What happens when AI takes care of more of the business behind an artist’s career?

In this episode of Sound Connections, Jakob Wredstrøm sits down with JC Sanchez, founder of Orphiq and a former music strategist at Spotify, Meta, and Sony, to explore how AI could change the way artists and their teams manage careers.

JC shares why the next generation of music technology should reduce complexity rather than give artists another job to learn. The conversation explores artist management, AI-powered workflows, direct-to-fan relationships, product-led growth, and the growing middle of the music market.

They also discuss why smaller audiences could become increasingly viable as AI lowers the cost of managing and monetizing a career, and why artists may not need to become full-time marketers or business operators to build sustainable careers.

Listen in for a grounded conversation about AI, artist independence, management technology, niche audiences, and the changing economics of building a career in music.

Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

Artists can have millions of listeners, ticket buyers, and fans, yet still have limited visibility into who those people are.

In this episode of Sound Connections, Jakob Wredstrøm speaks with Tommy Stalknecht, founder and CEO of Single Music, about the infrastructure connecting music, e-commerce, chart reporting, fan communities, and direct-to-fan experiences.

Tommy shares how Single started by solving a specific reporting problem between Shopify and the music industry, then expanded into a broader B2B platform supporting digital music, video, communities, and commerce for artists, labels, and merchandise companies.

Tommy also discusses the realities of the superfan economy, the balance between fan engagement and monetization, privacy and consent, and how communities can support everything from fan relationships to decisions about where an artist should tour.

A practical conversation about music commerce, infrastructure, data ownership, and building technology that stays behind the artist rather than competing for the fan’s attention.

Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

Learning an instrument has never been more accessible, but keeping people motivated remains one of music education’s hardest problems.

Raul Rodrigues, founder and CEO of Upbeat Studio, joins Sound Connections to unpack the business and technology behind modern music education. Starting with drummers, Upbeat is building educational tools designed to move beyond libraries of content and toward a more personalized learning experience.

Raul breaks down the challenging economics of music education, why distribution can matter as much as product quality, and how Upbeat approaches retention in a market where keeping people engaged over the long term remains difficult.

Raul also explores how AI could bring the most valuable parts of a great teacher into digital products, why learning music is ultimately about more than becoming a great musician, and how instruments themselves could eventually become part of the learning experience.

Tune in for a grounded conversation about building in music education and preparing for a future where AI may reshape how people learn.

Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

What happens when superfans stop being treated as the end of the music experience and become part of building it?

Jacquelle Amankonah Horton, founder of Fave, returns to Sound Connections to explore how fandom has evolved since our first conversation. Drawing on her background at YouTube and Google and years spent building tools around creators and fans, Jacquelle explains why the next opportunity in music may sit beyond traditional artist-to-fan relationships.

We explore how fan-to-fan communities create their own products, events, experiences, and economies, why conventional merchandise can miss what fans actually want, and how artist teams can identify and support the people already shaping their communities.

Jacquelle also shares how Fave is evolving from a place for superfans to connect into infrastructure that helps fans bring ideas to life, while giving artists new insights and potential revenue opportunities without requiring them to constantly create more content.

It’s a closer look at fandom as culture, community, and an emerging layer of the creator economy.

Listen in and join the conversation.

[Link in bio]

Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

#SoundConnections #Fave #Superfans #MusicIndustry #MusicTech #FanEngagement #CreatorEconomy #MusicBusiness

Music rights generate value, but turning that income into capital can still be difficult for many creators.

In this episode of Sound Connections, Michael Bizenov, Managing Partner and President of Sound Royalties, joins Jakob Wredstrøm to unpack the business of financing music royalties and how alternative financing can give creators access to capital without giving up ownership of their work.

Michael shares how his background in banking and entrepreneurship shaped his approach to the music industry, from evaluating royalty streams and managing risk to building financing solutions around the individual creative. They discuss why ownership matters, the role of financial literacy, and how Sound Royalties has built its business by focusing specifically on financing rather than becoming a label, distributor, manager, or publisher.

The conversation also explores how the company evaluates royalty income, uses data and technology alongside human judgment, and grows with creators as their businesses develop.

Tune in for a conversation on music finance, rights, trust, and the business behind creative careers.

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Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

#SoundConnections #MusicFinance #MusicRights #CreatorEconomy #MusicBusiness

African music is growing globally, but the business behind that growth is still catching up.

In this episode of Sound Connections, Jakob Wredstrøm speaks with Yoel Kenan, a longtime music executive and entrepreneur whose career has taken him from major-label roles at Universal and BMG to building businesses focused specifically on African music. After founding Africori and helping develop it into a significant distribution business, Yoel is now returning his attention to African music rights, catalog investment, and the wider opportunity around cultural entrepreneurship.

Together, they unpack why the growth story of Sub-Saharan African music is more complicated than the headline numbers suggest. Yoel discusses the gap between huge levels of music consumption and comparatively low monetization, the role of telecom companies and streaming platforms, challenges around publishing and rights registration, and why missing contracts and unclear ownership can make catalog investment particularly difficult.

From exporting African artists and songs to building stronger marketing systems, investing in catalogs whose audiences are still moving toward streaming, and supporting the next generation of cultural entrepreneurs, Yoel sees significant opportunity, but on a longer timeline than many investors expect.

This is a candid conversation about patience, infrastructure, ownership, and what it will actually take for African music’s global momentum to become a stronger and more sustainable business.

Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

Music is everywhere, but the systems for licensing it at scale are still remarkably fragmented.

In this episode of Sound Connections, Jakob Wredstrøm sits down with Chantal Epp, founder of ClicknClear, to explore the hidden challenges and opportunities within music licensing. Chantal shares how her background in music and cheerleading led her to identify a licensing gap in choreographed sports, and how that insight evolved into a technology platform connecting music rights holders with businesses that want to use music legally.

They discuss why licensing thousands of songs for a single sporting event cannot be handled one deal at a time, the complexity of securing rights for video-on-demand content, and why the music industry has struggled to monetize many of the markets already using its music.

Chantal also opens up about the realities of building a music tech company over seven years, securing deals with every major record label and music publisher, raising capital as a sole founder, and staying lean while waiting for the market and licensing ecosystem to catch up.

A conversation about music rights, technology, entrepreneurship, and the infrastructure needed to unlock new revenue across the music industry.

If you want to learn more about ClicknClear:

• Website: https://www.clicknclear.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clicknclearmusic/
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/clicknclearmusic
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clicknclear_

Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

Music is becoming increasingly data-driven, but having access to data is only the beginning.

In this episode of Sound Connections, Oskar, founder of Songstats, joins Jakob to discuss the business of artist analytics, music technology, and the growing role of AI in how artists and music companies understand their data.

Oskar shares his journey from building music-related tools as a young DJ and technologist to developing Songstats into a platform that brings data from streaming, social media, radio, playlists, and other sources together in one place.

The conversation explores the challenges of turning music data into something artists can actually use, building a music tech company without outside investors, and developing a business model that combines artists with enterprise customers.

Oskar also discusses the shift from dashboards and apps toward AI-powered interfaces, including Songstats' work allowing AI tools to interact directly with its data. The conversation looks at what this could mean for artist decision-making and the wider music ecosystem.

Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

If you want to learn more about Songstats:

Website: https://songstats.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/songstats/

Building music technology is often presented as a story of rapid growth. Matt’s journey with Artist Growth tells a very different story.

In this episode of Sound Connections, Jakob sits down with Matt Urmy, Founder of Artist Growth. He reflects on more than a decade of building software for the business side of music. What began as a product for independent artists eventually led him toward a deeper industry problem: management companies, labels, and agencies were still relying on spreadsheets, email, and disconnected systems to manage their operations.

They explore the difficult shift from B2C to B2B, the challenges of raising capital before finding product-market fit, and what it takes to keep a company going through years of slow enterprise adoption.

Matt also shares his perspective on building software in the age of AI, where developing products is becoming easier, but understanding customers, building reliable data infrastructure, and creating lasting value remain difficult.

A grounded conversation about capital, technology, resilience, and the realities of building a company in music tech.

Produced by Amplitude Ventures AS.

Can music software become more powerful without making creativity feel less human?

Casey Kolb, founder of Lunacy, joins Sound Connections to explore the changing world of audio plugins and what it takes to build tools that feel as inspiring visually as they sound.

From his years as a film composer in Los Angeles to spending a year and a half programming Lunacy’s first flagship product, Cube, Casey shares the persistence behind turning a side project into a growing music tech company. We discuss product design, pricing, seasonal revenue, community building, fundraising, and why Lunacy has been careful to protect its creative independence while scaling.

The conversation looks ahead to Nova and a future where creators can build and share their own plugins with AI assisting the code rather than replacing human creativity.

Tune in for a thoughtful conversation on sound, technology, and what the next generation of music tools could become.