Artists have greater ability to sustain their careers full-time and independently today than ever before. While growing avenues of digital revenue have allowed artists greater freedom to take control, it’s important to be financially secure and smart with managing money to ensure you’re thriving over time. In this post, we get to know with Brooklyn-based rapper Khary about his journey as an independent creator, and the steps he’s taken to pursue music full-time.

In the past 12 months, we’ve collected many ideas and suggestions from artists, managers and record labels that believe in Stem’s answer to many of our industry’s shortcomings. Today, we are rolling out a platform redesign that directly addresses the feedback we’ve received, focusing on the core features of our Web Dashboard, My Content & Detail Pages and iOS Application.

If you’re a new artist gearing up for your first online release, planning ahead is key. Many different elements go into setting up your release up for success, so we turned to some of our favorite artists and managers to learn about their strategies when it comes to releasing music online.

Words by Stem contributor, Jane Shin.

Cover is a word that’s thrown around a lot in music, but what it actually is, and the legality behind creating or authorizing one, is often convoluted. In this post, we’ll break down exactly what it means to cover a song and what you need to do to legally release one on platforms like Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud and YouTube.

What’s right for one may not be right for the other, especially when it comes to release and marketing strategies. More so, there isn’t a checklist that tells independent artists how to make sure they’re getting the most earnings and data out of their content, something that every artist could benefit from… Until now.

Transitioning between jobs is never easy, especially when it entails leaving a major label with hundreds of coworkers for an innovative start-up with 15 employees. My first few days here at Stem opened my eyes to the plethora of organizational applications that I now could never imagine living without. The rigid structure in my day-to-day work life assisting with A&R at a corporate company has been replaced with an open door of new applications and tools to help increase my (and the company’s) productivity. Not only am I allowed to explore new programs to streamline my workload — I’m encouraged.

As the old idiom goes, “Experience is the best teacher.”

This idea can be applied to almost any facet of life; as we grow and experience more, we learn. For the career of a creator, it’s no different; experience can help artists create more efficiently, optimize their time and even learn how to control their own business. Experience and education go hand-in-hand.

In this installment of Out of the Vault, we caught up with Noon Pacific founder, Clark Dinnison, to discuss the vision behind the application and how thinking outside the box helped his company expand.

Understanding music publishing can be daunting; between the different types of licenses, royalty rates and deals an artist can enter, it is sometimes difficult to know where to start.

In this post, we’ll break down the basics of music publishing to help creators understand where to begin. Read on to learn the key terms, types of licenses and about the pros and cons of entering a publishing deal.

In this post, we break down some important dos and don’ts of promoting your music on YouTube, from preparation, to the release itself to keeping your audience engaged.