Stem, the distribution and payments platform for independent musicians and labels, has secured $10 million in new financing and brought in several new investors, senior advisors and Board Members that include prominent music executives.
Those execs include Kevin “Coach K” Lee, co-founder and COO of Quality Control Music (Lil Baby, Migos, Lil Yachty), Calvin Harris manager Mark Gillespie and several Red Light Management execs along with NBA star Baron Davis.
The company also noted that this month it passed $100 million in royalties paid out to independent artists since 2015.
“Stem was created to provide independent artists with the ability to manage and grow their careers and teams autonomously,” said Milana Rabkin Lewis, CEO of Stem. “With this new round of financing, we are focused on accelerating the portfolio of products offered to our artists. We’ve assembled the top players in music who have built careers of the world’s top artists to amplify our efforts.”
“We are proud and excited to be a part of Stem,” said Kevin ‘Coach K’ Lee, co-founder and COO of Quality Control Music. “The company is a leader in innovative products and will advance the way the entire music community handles its financial and administrative business. The automation around the split process is seamless which we see as vital for the growth of all artists and the economy of their output.”
Artists and companies working with Stem include Zac Brown Band, Foster the People, Jeezy, Desiigner, New Kids on the Block, Brent Faiyaz, Justine Skye, LP and Toro y Moi, along with independent record labels Big Loud Records and Freebandz.
Stem is led by CEO, Milana Rabkin Lewis, who spent five years as a Digital Media Agent at United Talent Agency (UTA) before co-founding the company in 2015. Earlier this year, the company hired Brendan Kao, formerly of PeerStreet and Zest Finance, as Chief Product Officer; and in 2019, Mike Vaughan, former COO of Venmo joined Jennifer Fonstad, co-founder and General Partner at Aspect Ventures and Kara Nortman, Partner at Upfront Ventures as board members.