Comparison
Stems vs. email for beats
Email is still how most beats get sent, and it works up to a point. Here’s where it holds up, where it breaks, and what Stems does differently.
Where email works
Email deserves some credit. Everyone has it, nobody needs to sign up for anything, and it’s fine for a beat an artist asked you for directly. It’s also the right place for the things around a beat: contracts, splits, session files and long back-and-forth conversations.
If you get a few beats a month from people you already work with, email may be all you need.
Where it breaks
Email starts to fail once beats come from lots of people, or in any real number.
- Size limits. Gmail caps attachments at 25 MB, and a three-minute WAV is about 30 MB. So beats arrive as download links, and links expire.
- Everything is mixed together. A beat sits between a booking request and a newsletter, and it’s easy to miss.
- Nothing is built for listening. No player, no way to go through new beats one after another, no way to keep the ones you like apart from the rest.
- Producers are left guessing. A sent email says nothing about whether the beat was opened, let alone played.
- Spam filters. Messages from strangers with links in them are exactly what filters are built to catch.
Side by side
Where beats arrive
- Mixed in with everything else in your inbox.
- Stems
- One inbox that only holds beats.
Big files
- Over the attachment limit, so they arrive as links, which can expire.
- Stems
- Uploaded to the artist’s page, so there’s no link to expire.
Playing a beat
- Open the email, open the link, download, find a player.
- Stems
- One tap.
Finding it later
- Search for a filename you don’t remember.
- Stems
- Every beat in one list, with who sent it, and the ones you saved kept apart.
Knowing it was played
- You don’t, unless they write back.
- Stems
- Producers see how often each beat they’ve sent was played and saved.
Replying
- A new thread for every beat.
- Stems
- A message to the producer, from the beat.
You don’t have to pick one
Stems is built to sit next to email, not to make anyone give it up. If you’re an artist, connect Gmail and beats sent to you as attachments import to your page automatically. You can also sync a Dropbox folder, or forward an email to your page’s own address. Keep the conversations in email and let the beats land in one place.
If you’re a producer, an artist’s Stems link gets your beat to them without the attachment limit or the expiring link, and lets you see whether it was played. Read how to send beats to artists or the longer guide to getting your beats heard.
What changes on Stems
An artist gets one link, sendstems.io/yourname, to put anywhere producers find them. That’s their beat submission page. Every beat sent there arrives in one inbox, with who sent it. The artist goes through new beats in a review deck, saves the ones they want, archives the rest and messages the producer from the beat. To hear what producers are sending right now, look around Discover.
Questions
Can I keep receiving beats by email?
Yes. Connect Gmail and beats sent to you as attachments import to your Stems page automatically, or forward an email to your page’s own address.
Do producers have to change how they send?
No. Producers who email you can keep doing it: connect Gmail or forward the email, and the beats still reach your Stems inbox. Giving them your Stems link just skips the email.
Is Stems a replacement for email?
Not for everything. Keep email for contracts, splits and long conversations. Stems is for the beats themselves: receiving them, listening and replying.
Give producers one link instead of your email address.