What Are Song Stems?
Song stems are individual musical elements that, when layered together, make a song. A stem can be a single instrument, like a snare drum or a bass line, or a collection of multiple elements combined as one track, like a group of vocal harmonies. Stems can be created from recordings or digital instruments.
Some songs, like singer-songwriter tracks or vintage recordings, may only have a few stems. Others, like orchestra tracks or electronic songs, can have hundreds or even thousands of stems!
What Are Song Stems Used For?
Song stems are used to digitally edit individual sections of a song, allowing the user to have more creative control over the final product.
For example, if you are recording a rock song, you might have stems for drums, bass, lead guitar, and vocals. The individual stems allow you to adjust the volume, sound, and placement of each element within the song.
Song stems can also be used to build recurring motifs in film and video, by allowing the editor to repeat melodies or sections of a song throughout the piece.
Stems are also useful when collaborating on a song or project with others, as it allows others to easily identify individual elements of a song, which is very useful when sharing your music to be mixed, mastered, remixed or licensed.
How Are Song Stems Used in Music Licensing?
Song stems are used in music licensing to adjust songs to fit a specific project, like an advertisement, film, podcast or YouTube show.
For example, say a music coordinator is looking for a song to use in an upcoming 30-second advertisement. They find the perfect song for the project, like Woman by Fritzwa & J. Brodsky, but want to make these adjustments:
- Have the first 10 seconds be only the isolated organ melody.
- Have the bass and horns come in later, and be louder in the mix.
- Have the track end after 30 seconds.
With access to the stems, the music coordinator can easily make these adjustments using a DAW (digital audio workstation) or a mixing board. At Marmoset, our creative team is available to work with music coordinators to make these adjustments in-house, delivering the perfect track for your project.
Did you know? At Marmoset, 40% of our songs are customizable, and stems are available for most of our catalogue. The ability to use stems to adjust tracks to fit a project’s needs is appealing to content creators looking for the perfect piece of music for their project. Contact creative@marmosetmusic.com if you’re interested in licensing Marmoset stems for your project.
How Are Song Stems Used in Remixing?
Song stems are used in remixing to change how a song sounds by removing, altering or even adding in new elements while still maintaining recognizable elements of the original track.
For example, say a producer is looking to remix a rock song and create a dance song that would be more suitable for an electronic show. The producer could:
- Remove the existing drums on the song.
- Repeat and pitch up existing vocal elements of the song.
- Add an extended dance beat element to make an easy transition into the next song.
Using drum, vocal and dance beat stems, the producer can easily remove, edit, or add elements to the track.
How Do I Create My Own Song Stems?
Song stems are easy to create. When composing a track, make sure to record each element separately, and save them digitally as individual components. When sharing the track with collaborators or a music licensing service, make sure to include your stems alongside the full track.
The most common song stem file types are .wav and .mp4 files.
Where Can I get Song Stems?
Marmoset has a wide range of high quality song stems for your advertising, film, or content creation needs. To find Marmoset song stems, first identify the song you want using the Browse page by clicking the “Customizable” filter. This will show you only songs with stems available.
To browse only songs with stems available, set the “Customizable” filter to “Yes”. Once you’ve purchased your license you can access the stems by contacting creative@marmosetmusic.com.
Once you have licensed the track, you’ll be able to download each individual stem for your use.
Marmoset also offers lots of resources to further help you expand your knowledge about the world of music licensing. Check out the information compiled by our professional team below: