The Future of Audio is Interactive
Over the past ten years, we’ve seen an explosion in image and video creation by consumers. If you’ve ever applied a filter to an image on Instagram, turned yourself into a talking animal on TikTok or Snap, edited a clip in YouTube, or created a flyer on Canva, you are creating things–with just the click of a button–that previously required professional skills and software.
The same transformation hasn’t fully happened yet with music. We can’t play with, create, and express ourselves with our favorite songs as easily as we can with these other media.
Part of the reason for that is that it’s not easy to edit and transform a recording if all you have is the full mix–the thing you hear on a streaming platform. To really open things up, you need to be able to work with its different parts–called stems.
The problem is, most of the world’s recordings don’t have stems.
Old songs don’t have stems because of how they were recorded–a file could be mono-track, for example, or its multi-track tapes may be old and damaged. New songs often do have stems, but they aren’t always available–hard drives crash, files go missing, the stems don’t add up to the full mix, etc.
AudioShake has helped open up thousands of songs to new monetization and uses by helping audio professionals create stems and instrumentals for use in TV and film, remixing, remastering, spatial mixing, and more.
We are proud of that work, and thrilled to help artists make more money for their art.
And we think the future is even more exciting.
AI stems can help make music more interactive and accessible for millions of people, those who love music but don’t know–or need to know–how to work with professional music editing tools. Because AudioShake stems are standardized, and have consistent labeling and stem types across all types of music, it’s possible to work with them programmatically and at scale, opening up the possibilities for social media, education, fitness, VR/AR, gaming, and more.
Most importantly, this will be done in partnership with artists and rightsholders, to ensure that artists are paid for the great content they produce.
Interested in learning more, or seeing some cool demos of new gaming, social media, AR/VR, and education experiences that are coming your way in music? Check out our recent CODE presentation, which features the legendary Keith Schoklee, a founding member of Public Enemy and The Bomb Squad, talking about the creation of “Fight the Power.”