Co-founded by Bruce Pavitt of Sub Pop Records, 8Stem is an interactive music format, remix platform and mobile app. The company is set to become the Instagram of music by enabling fans to easily manipulate songs like an audio engineer — muting vocals, replacing drums, adding effects and rearranging song parts to create a custom remix.
“Our success at Sub Pop was predicated on participation,” Pavitt says. “8Stem takes this to a whole new level where fans can become co-creators with their favorite artists.”
Once a remix is made with 8Stem, users can post to social or publish to streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music. 8Stem receives a portion of the streaming royalty, but the company’s ultimate market is the streaming companies themselves.
“There’s a huge opportunity to license our technology to larger brands,” says Adam Farish, 8Stem founder and CEO. “A remix feature will differentiate Spotify from other players in a highly competitive market.”
As an example, the two most popular streaming services, Soundcloud and YouTube, are defined by user-generated content. According to Pavitt, “Users are more invested when sharing their own music and listening to content by their friends.” By white labelling the 8Stem platform, Pavitt believes he can deliver this type of community to any brand.
Both licensed and unlicensed remixes have found a permanent niche in the music business. But due to the cost of audio editing software and limited access to original studio files, remixing has been the domain of professional music producers or serious hobbyists. 8Stem’s mission is to lower the barrier. And thanks to the computing power of smartphones, the company now markets the first turnkey system — including content, remixer and publishing platform. With a few taps, anyone can become a remix DJ.
8Stem launched in the App Store in 2016 with a handful of tracks by musician friends of Pavitt’s. Since then, the company has signed 50-plus artists and has grown its user base to almost 20,000 in more than 120 countries. “It’s got global appeal,” Farish says. The current version of 8Stem is available on iOS, but the company is in the process of raising funds to build an Android version.
Pavitt can see his vision coming into focus. As the legend behind Sub Pop, Nirvana and the Seattle music scene, he has disrupted the music industry once before.
“8Stem can be bigger than Sub Pop,” he says.
For more information, go to 8stem.com or contact Adam Farish at 360-317-7448 or adam@8stem.com