Audioshake launches platform to create stems on demand

By Emmanuel Legrand

Stems production platform Audioshake has launched Audioshake Live, a platform that lets labels, publishers, and their partners access the company AI technology and create instrumentals and stems on demand.

  Audioshake's Artificial Intelligence technology can break down a song from any point in history into separate stems, opening the song up for new uses as instrumentals, samples, and other usages. Platform subscribers simply upload their songs and choose the stems they want to create, choosing from six different stem types: bass, drums, guitar, instrumentals, vocals, and “other.”

  Production Expert describes stems as "submixes of a larger mix, that when played together at equal volume will exactly recreate the full mix." Basically it is about breaking down songs into the different sound components that can then be used individually for various purposes, from a beat sample to a melodic hook for a synch.

An increasingly important role

  “To hear musical stems created with this technology — on demand — at this high quality gives any songwriter, artist, producer or rights holder not just new life creatively for their life’s work, but also the ability to create new revenue opportunities for every stakeholder involved,” said US songwriter and producer Billy Mann. 

  Audioshake Co-Founder and CEO Jessica Powell told Creative Industries Newsletter that since launching earlier this year, the technology has been used by record companies, music publishers, music supervisors, audio engineers, and artists in commercials, documentaries, movies, podcasts, and remixes. Subscribers can listen to their stems in Audioshake's dedicated player, or download immediately the file.

  "Stems are going to play an increasingly important role as the music industry expands into new consumer experiences like spatial audio and adaptive music, and as artists and rights holders look to extend the life cycle and revenue for their songs through the use of stems in mash-ups, re-mixes, and more," said San Francisco-based Powell, who is a former Vice President of Communications at Google. 

Re-imagine classics

  Companies using the platform include record labels, publishers, and music service companies like Warner Music Group, CODISCOS, Crush Music, Hipgnosis Songs Fund, Downtown Music Services, Spirit Music Group, peermusic, CD Baby, as well as music supervisors like The Teenage Diplomat.

  “Audioshake helped us quickly create stems for our songs, some of which have never had stems," said Hipgnosis Founder and CEO Merck Mercuriadis, in a testimonial. 

  He added: "These stems will help our great songwriters, as well as others, re-imagine classics and allow future generations to add their interpretations from records which inspired generations. We are encouraged by Audioshake’s technology and believe it could play an important role in that work.”

Exploring new opportunities

  Audioshake said the aim of the company "is to put this technology in the hands of everyone who can benefit from it, but to do so respectfully, in partnership with the music industry, so that artists’ copyrights and creative wishes are front and center — not an afterthought, as has often been the case when technology has intersected with the music world."

  Said Powell: "As piracy of low-quality, freely-available stems increases, we hope Audioshake will put high-quality stems directly in the hands of rights holders so that they can explore new opportunities for their work." 

  A YouTube demo is available here.