Music League, Roxxem Take Top Honors in Music Tectonics Startup Competition 2025

Music tech startup Music League and Roxxem claimed the top prizes at Music Tectonics’ 2025 ‘Swimming with Narwhals’ competition. Each year the competition highlights companies reshaping how music connects people, powers creativity, and expands into new areas of culture and technology.

Two Music Tectonics Startup Competition 2025 winners emerged from a competitive field.

• Roxxem, a language-learning app that uses licensed music to help students learn English, Spanish, French, German, and Chinese, earned the Jury Award. This award was selected by a panel of investors and industry leaders.
• Music League, a social music game where users compete by submitting songs around themed prompts, won the People’s Choice Award. This award was chosen by the wider Music Tectonics community.

Both startups have already surpassed one million registered users, demonstrating that music-powered experiences continue to resonate far beyond traditional streaming and artist-to-fan platforms.

Why These Winners Matter

• Music League taps into the social and competitive dynamics of fantasy sports. It uses playlists, anonymous voting, and themed challenges to turn music discovery into a shared game.
• Roxxem turns music into a powerful learning tool, giving educators and students immersive, context-rich language experiences that go far beyond traditional apps.

Both startups demonstrate how music tech continues to evolve beyond industry-facing tools into products that enrich everyday life.

A Competition That Spotlights Real Innovation

This year’s finalist cohort was one of the largest and most sophisticated in the event’s history. Judges including Andrew Kahn of Yamaha Music Innovation Fund, Mike Walsh of Structure Capital, and artist Blanco Brown evaluated pitches live at Music Tectonics’ Santa Monica conference. The competition was sponsored by Troy Gould, a law firm specializing in entertainment industry clients.

Potential investors evaluated one of the largest, most sophisticated cohort of applicants ever. They eventually winnowed it down to four finalists. Then, at Music Tectonics’ Santa Monica conference, the finalists pitched a jury of industry investors and experts. The experts included Andrew Kahn of the Yamaha Music Innovation Fund, Mike Walsh of Structure Capital, and artist Blanco Brown.

The final competition was sponsored by Troy Gould, a law firm known for providing sophisticated corporate, transactional, and litigation counsel to clients in the music and broader entertainment industries. Winners were announced on stage at Yamaha Music Innovations Fund’s Startup Day at Music Tectonics. Participants also got the chance to hear a variety of perspectives on operating in the face of AI. This included presentations from creator companies, VC firms, and founders.

Music Tectonics founder Dmitri Vietze noted that the 2025 winners reflect the expanding role music plays in daily life. “Music League and Roxxem bring music to more places and moments and show how the industry can grow,” he said.

Track Record of Breakout Success

Other finalists included Plates and Sesh—while past Narwhal winners have included fast-growing innovators such as Audioshake. As Shayli Ankenbruck of Rock Paper Scissors put it, “We never know where innovation is going to come from… I can’t wait to see where these two winners take things next.”

Bruce Houghton is Founder & Editor of Hypebot, Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, a Berklee College Of Music professor and founder of Skyline Artists.