–by Margie Doyle —
The 8Stem logo
“A vital element for the music audience now is engagement by the listener with the musician, and sharing the result on social media,” says Adam Farish in explanation of the impetus behind the creation of a new computer system application, 8Stem.
Recently Adam Farish said he and Bruce Pavitt were “two local guys with no experience in building and shipping a technology production…” Perhaps an understatement.
Last month the worlds of music and technology were shaken by the launch of 8Stem, a digital application, the creation of “two guys from Orcas:” Farish, owner of the Outlook Inn, and producer of electronic remix music for the past 20 years; and Pavitt, founder of the legendary SubPop independent music label which signed Nirvana, Soundgarden and Mudhoney among other bands from the “grunge” music scene of the late 1980s and 1990’s. The pair met at a Children’s House fundraiser in 2003 and spent the next decade talking about the future of music.
That conversation developed into delivering a mobile music application “app” through digital media — the 8Stem platform. 8Stem gives the listener access to specific elements of a song so that they can customize it to their own tastes, play with it, and even add their own content to an existing musical work. Stem files are a standard that professional music producers have been using for over a decade, and represent groupings of multiple audio elements on a single audio file. Multiple stem files playing simultaneously make up a complete song.
Says Farish. “We just took what producers have been doing in recording studios and put that same functionality in an iPhone.”
And 8Stem is free at Apple Stores, so users can tell 8Stem’s creators and other users how they’d like to use the application and how they’d like it to change.
Farish explains the philosophy behind the creation of the 8Stem app: “The world of content creation and consumption is right on the cusp of a dramatic shift that is so huge barely anybody can see it. Technology is developing and people are taking advantage of the changes. We’re shifting to be more democratic of what the large audience wants.”
He gives as an example the Instagram filter that allow people to personalize photographs; and compares that to the “8Stem enjoyment of sharing and evangelizing the work of the original artist.” 8Stem starts with what Farish calls the “seed content” of the music; then personally adapted and reinterpreted and then shared with others.
What is success? Farish describes the following scenario: Kanye West releases a song. One hour later a teenager in Africa remixes the song. He then posts it to social media where it may be picked up anywhere in the world. Anyone can then further adapt it to his/her own tastes, or share it as the African teenager arranged it.
The 8Stem app makes possible a “globally engaged audience participating in musical conversation that’s instantaneous and social.” Farish says.
In launching the product, Farish and Pavitt sent out the following video, a step-by-step illustration of their new destructuring/restructuring product: LINK https://www.facebook.com/8stem/
Artists are enthusiastic and supportive of 8Stem,Farish says; labels who own the content have mixed responses. He emphasizes that the launch of 8Stem is just that, and not an initiative that will now be ignored. “It’s a long road,” he says. In creating iTunes, it took Steve Jobs years to get the catalog on the platform and then, “overnight” it became the global standard, Farish observes.
The idea for 8Stem started with a “need for the remix culture to have an outlet and a conduit between remixers and original artists,” he said. He and Pavitt had to wait for mobile technology to catch up before they could introduce 8Stem to the musical conversation.
“We put one foot in front of the other, creating a platform for artists and music lovers that supports both and is a holistic ecosystem. It’ll have potential. There’s a voracious global appetite for remixes and original work, that is not currently monetized. It represents a huge opportunity.”
Farish also notes the “social underpinning of his and Pavitt’s work. It gives people a voice they don’t have yet and empowers them to create something to make music together.
“Music is the easiest way to communicate. Anyone who has a phone has an instrument in their pocket,” he says. “Everybody gets to join in the conversation and it all sounds good.”
Farish says he and Pavitt have kept the 8Stem app “as close to home as we can; but fundraising has made us branch out of the region.” With over 50 percent of their startup costs so far advanced by Orcas Island donors, the duo face another round of fundraising for the next round of development, approaching venture capital firms to take 8Stem global.
He credits his wife, Sara for anchoring his worklife: “My wife Sara is a very competent business person and she does an amazing job of running our core business, the Outlook Inn in Eastsound so I can be in Seattle five days a week.” 8Stem offices in Seattle employ nine people who, Farish says, have “circled up around a love for music; so we’ve attracted talent that is far more gifted than we could possibly afford.”
What’s next, involves the marketplace. What do people do with this thing? What do they make of it and what do they want it to do next? “We’ve made it open architecture; we’ll watch and build for what people want; how they will interact with the music and build it.”
Farish explores the philosophy behind much of his work and the creation of the new 8Stem app, “There are solutions everywhere. You just have to hack it [experiment] to make it work.”
