Who pays for stems and why?

C

Chris Drums

Member
Hey all,

Maybe this thread belongs in a different category. I found it tricky to find a suitable category for this question, but anyhoo:
Do you purchase stems from other musicians? There are a number of ways to sell your tracks online, and I am wondering who is the customer, and how do you promote yourself in a way that connects to the right people?
As a drummer, the quest for the perfect drumsound, perfect timing etc seems to be futile, especially with the event of drum software like superior drummer. So who exactly would pay enough money for this to be a viable income? To me there seems to be no way of specializing in a way that makes you stick out from the crowd. There also seems to be alot more supply than there is demand.
 
I have purchased lead guitar stems online via SoundBetter. I spent weeks going through each artist's demo clips and promotions on Fiverr and SoundBetter only to find I really didn't care for anything I had heard, so that seemed to be one problem as far as how to promote yourself via these outlets. I finally just threw up my hands and went with my gut feeling based solely on the artist's profile picture, general tonal qualities of the guitar(s)/amps and playing style in his demos. None of the music in his demos appealed to me, so I focused on the above mentioned areas.

I can't say where drums are concerned, but there are a zillion guitar players on these sites shredding their guitars trying to be the fastest gun in town.
 
Are you looking to sell to artists who need a drum track or for production music? When I hear the term stems I think production music as in library music.
 
I've never used a stem from anyone else. I've used MTPDK for my drum tracks, but if I wanted a real person, I know someone that has a full recording rig set up in his house. I'm sure I could have him lay down a track if I asked.

There may actually be a drummer living in the house behind mine. I was doing yard work one day and heard drumming coming from the house. We just never seem to be outside at the same time so that I might strike up the conversation.
 
I forgot to add why I paid for stems.

My old bandmates from several bands are scattered across the country. Our drummer has Rheumatoid Arthritis, and that's a real shame because he was amazing and was the one guy who always garnered praise and good comments from audiences after sets. Both guitarists have kept their guitar and amp collections but gave up pursuing music, and that's also a shame because they were extremely creative singer-songwriters. Neither would answer the call to add their talents to my projects, saying they hadn't picked up their guitars in years and probably wouldn't be up to providing good performances. A while back, I mentioned here at HR that I needed some guitar work on a song, leaving an opening for anyone here to offer their talents.. no one responded to that.

I thought about getting involved with local musicians but that would just wind up with us collaborating online anyway, so I skipped right to SoundBetter and Fiverr.

The End
 
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Some people just want to see those nice fluffy buds and show off to their friends, never considering how much they’re paying for unsmokeable dead weight. Smart folks buy shake bags on discount.
 
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