The Native Instruments Stems track format splits music files into their component musical parts (e.g drums, bass, harmony, effects).  It's a novel idea that has the potential to massively expand the creativity of DJs and provide a great revenue stream for artists and labels.

However, the major barrier to Stems' success is the range of material available from artists and record labels.

Most DJs have a large collection of music that is several years old. At the moment it seems as though record labels are testing the water with new releases and assessing the uptake, whereas the real money would be in providing the Stems for music that DJs already have.  With a wide range of choice for DJs, the format has a chance of becoming the industry standard.  At the moment, there simply aren't enough tracks we know on Beatport, Juno and the other major outlets and the public's interest is in danger of waning. 

With this in mind I'd like to ask NI to set up a mini-site where DJs can vote for the tracks they want to get the Stems for. This should get the labels to release the tracks when there is enough demand.  I suggest asking DJs to pay for pre-orders of the Stems in a crowdfunding style model (pay on release of the track, but no release, no pay).  When the label/artist releases its target, it releases the track and gets paid immediately. 

If this gets traction, DJs should have the facility to directly request a Stems release in Traktor, and both notify users when a Stems file becomes available and notify labels that Traktor users have this track and would like a Stems version.

Please support this and help get the tracks we need on Stems!