Gents,
Ladies,

How do you request for stems from a major artist/label?

I would like to remix Swedish House Mafia - Moth to a flame released through Universal Music Group; however, need to have the stems.

I would appreciate any tips in regards to requesting stems and submitting demos to these guys.

Regards,

 

There are not a lot of major artists (not youtube artists) these days but Major labels tend to be very selective on how their contracted product is used.
Yes people are a product to them. They tend not to make it available. If they do, I imagine there would be a cost involved and an agreement which will definitely be in their best interests. Universal, Fox, Warner Bros, SONY/BMG and EMI etc etc etc ....all have very strict licensing laws too so you'd have to fit in with their terms and licensing fees as well.

What most people do is use something like iZotope RX or Spectral Layers and isolate / remix that way. They still have to give credit to the owners or they won't have a house to live in anymore. if you have a lot of money you can probably afford the Major licensing fees.

Contact Universal legal and Universal licensing. I know a lot of people who have asked similar questions. Sometimes they get answered, sometimes they ignore you, but nobody I know so far they have said yes to using their artists without their explicit overseeing and control on how they are used.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 29, 2021

if you are an established producer they will be the ones who will push hard to get you their stems for a remix
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If you are mr nobody then you will not be able to have any contact with the record company

Maybe I'm too harsh for you, but that's how it works

 

You could always try using Regroover to extract "stems". depending on the track, it may work ok.
probably not. There's also this ripX software now that can supposedly extract stems. I have seen it work in videos ok; but none of these types of programs has ever really had great success. Not exactly snake oil, just usually sub-acceptable results.

 

Last edited: Oct 29, 2021

Find who is their executive producer at Universal
Send him/her an email explaining in detail what you want to do, who you are and what kind of clearance you're expecting.
Think that his/her first thought will be " what do we gain with this?"

 

If you don't ask.... I've always lived by this rule and you'll be surprised on how often it pays off. However, with regards to music - yeah it's difficult the industry is so closed to unknowns.

If it's vocals you're after, then I would suggest getting them re-recorded and creating a cover instead of creating a remix. This also gives you the ability to be more creative with the vocals. I've done this previously and had my covers released officially. However, covers can also be caught up in a legal loop hole - just depends on how close the vocal / track sounds to the original.

 

well even if you get noticed in the shitload of requests they get chances are that you're gonna have to pay before even being allowed a chance at doing a remix, aside from licensing fees. why? because they are a fairly big name and your name on a remix of theirs means exposure for you.

FE you prolly heard of this band called rammstein. and if you noticed their tours you might remember a band that was their support act called combichrist. combichrist was trying to get exposure beyond just the goth scene and a spot as support act would be a way to achieve this. ofcourse rammstein's management knows this and charges a 5 digit amount for that spot. and in turn because combichrist is a rather big name in the goth scene, combichrist tried to charge DJ's for a spot DJing before their liveshows and if i remember correctly that was an amount with 4 digits, which was rather silly since no goth has the money for that. but i digress, you're more likely to get a chance at an official remix by just using a published song and building your remix around it, do a really good job and get noticed.

remember that robin schulz remix of 'prayer in c' by lilly wood and the prick? well robin did a bootleg remix of that song and got noticed. and the label liked it, so the label contacted him and told him "yeah we like that sound so here are the stems and do an official remix"

i wanted to suggest the same thing, writing covers is a far less expensive way. i did a cover of antiloop's "in my mind". a top40 track from the 90's. to my and my label's surprise it only was $100 to officially release it, incl a voice sample from the original.

 

Last edited: Oct 29, 2021

I bet there are artistes out there who can't even access their own stems from studio recorded material.

 

If they did not read the contract before they signed it because they had stars in their eyes you would be 100% correct.