How Musicians Make The Most Of Stems

For some artists, the experience of releasing new music is elevated when partnered with the release of stems - audio files that break down songs into individual tracks.

When public stems become involved in a release rollout, there's plenty of avenues for musicians to explore. This week, we’re looking at how artists have made the most of their stems.

Charli XCX

When Charli XCX released her 2020 album ‘How I’m Feeling Now’, crowdsourcing played a key role in her release rollout. The record was widely referred to as a ‘quarantine album’, recorded entirely within the British superstar’s house. It saw her fans submit content like cover art and video clips to help amplify the release. Ahead of the album’s release, Charli XCX shared stems via WeTransfer with her fans, encouraging them to create their own remixes and edits, and to share them using the #HIFNRemix hashtag on Twitter. She later shared her favourites to a playlist on Soundcloud.

Beyoncé

In 2007, following the release of her single 'End Of Time', Beyoncé made the track stems publically available as part of the 'End Of Time' Remix Competition. The competition invited fans to remix the track and upload it to a microsite on SoundCloud, for a chance to win $4,000 USD and earn a place on a future release from Beyoncé.

According to Parkwood Entertainment/Colombia Records, the stems were downloaded 351,000 times and 1.65 million users listened to at least two mixes on SoundCloud. In the first 10 days of the competition, more than 1.7 million users accessed the microsite and the competition received nearly 3,000 entries. Polish producer Jimek was named the winner of the competition and his remix was later released on Beyoncé’s '4: The Remix' EP.

Ye FKA Kanye West made headlines in August 2021, when he unveiled the ‘Donda’ stem player, a device that his fans could purchase for $200 USD. The player allowed its users to “control vocals, drums, bass, and samples” and “split any song into stems”. Purchasing the stem player also gave fans exclusive access to three songs off ‘Donda’ and the full, follow-up album ‘Donda 2’, which became available on the device in February 2022. According to West himself, the first day of sales alone generated a revenue of $3.3 million USD, proving that his fans are eager to access exclusive content, even if it comes with a price tag.

Whether they're encouraging a little fan-on-fan competition, offering exclusive material or even cash prizes, there's plenty of ways artists can use stems to build excitement and connection around a new release.

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