This is a guest post by Jessica Powell, Co-Founder and CEO of Audioshake
Stems are the different components of your song (e.g. the vocal stem, the drum stem, etc). They’re different from multi-tracks in that they are sourced from mixes of multiple individual tracks.
Stems have become increasingly important in recent years as sync licensing, spatial audio, remixing, gaming, and emerging formats have opened up new opportunities for musicians. Here, we’ll talk about some of the most popular uses for stems, as well as how to create your stems and instrumentals, even if all you have is the final mix.
Sync licensing
Sync licensing–where audio and video are synched in commercials, TV, and film–is one of the fastest growing segments of the music industry.
An important part of getting your music ready for sync is making sure that you have stems and instrumentals available for your songs. Music editors often need to be able to work with the parts of a song, not just the full mix, and they like having the instrumental as they work in order to be able to visualize the song alongside their production. Many times, they will use just the instrumental, or turn down the a capella, so that the vocals of a song don’t distract from what the actors are saying on screen.
Quite often, not having your instrumentals can mean that a sync deal falls through. In fact, many sync agents and libraries will not even accept your songs if they do not have instrumentals.
Spatial and immersive audio
Spatial audio, immersive audio, Dolby Atmos, and Sony 360 are all terms that are used to refer to audio experiences where the listener perceives sound all around them, like from above or from the side. Apple’s new AirPods feature spatial audio; Amazon and TIDAL also support the format. VR/AR and gaming are growing areas for spatial audio as well.
Stems are crucial for building a spatial mix, as audio engineers need the different stems in order to “place” sounds in different perceptual fields so that the music seems to be playing all around the listener.
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New formats & fan engagement
New formats are emerging in audio that rely heavily on stems. Gaming companies like Reactional and Weav are focused on building sonic experiences where the music can change dynamically based on a player’s actions. Companies like Beatclub are making stems available as NFTs for producers to be able to remix artist content, and see it tracked and properly remunerated.
Music education companies like Melodics are looking at stems as a way to let learners play along with the band. And social media companies are developing creator tools to make it possible for users to be able to throw themselves into the music of their favorite artists.
On TikTok, artists like Green Day have used stems to allow their fans to play along with the band. And TikTok recently announced Stem Drop, a partnership with Universal Music Group and Max Martin to let TikTok creators produce their own versions of one of Martin’s songs.
We can expect to see many more experiences coming in the next few years in which apps will work with artists and labels to allow fans to interact with their music in new ways, and even re-invent it.
What if you don’t have your stems and instrumentals?
Having your stems opens up your music to greater opportunities, so always make sure to ask for and store your stems. But what can you do if you don't have your stems? For example, if your hard drive crashed, or you can’t open the session files?
AudioShake has built an award-winning AI that separates songs into their stems and instrumentals, in just a matter of seconds. You can see a demo here.
Their tech has been used by major labels and indie artists alike, with sync placements for instrumentals ranging from Disney’s Encanto trailer to a Dell ad campaign.
Now they’ve launched a service for indie artists, at indie-friendly prices via AudioShake Indie. Simply upload your song, pick your stem types, and you can listen to samples of your stems for free. You can find them and try the service out for free at indie.audioshake.ai
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