Soundplate acquires Stemmer and rebuilds its mastering tech

Soundplate has acquired Stemmer, the audio technology company behind multiple online mastering services, and moved its core algorithms in-house with a new serverless API. The deal expands Soundplate’s control over its AI mastering products while preserving Stemmer’s white-label and customer operations.

Why it matters: - Soundplate now controls the core technology behind its mastering products instead of relying on an outside partner. - The move is meant to speed up development, reduce processing times and improve audio quality for artists and platform partners. - Soundplate also keeps support in place for studios, distributors and online platforms that use Stemmer-powered branded mastering.

What happened: - Soundplate acquired Stemmer, the audio technology company behind many online mastering services. - The acquisition builds on a long-standing partnership between the two companies. - Stemmer was founded in 2020 by music producer Sam Goetz. - Stemmer powers AI music mastering services for more than 20 music platforms and websites. - Soundplate extracted Stemmer’s core algorithms and rebuilt them into a proprietary serverless mastering API. - The new backend now powers Soundplate’s consumer-facing mastering suite.

The details: - Soundplate’s redesigned suite includes an Online Mastering tool, a mastering engine for vinyl releases and the recently launched AI Stem Splitter. - The company says the serverless architecture drastically reduces processing times. - Soundplate says the new setup gives the company full control over development speed and audio quality. - The acquisition includes Stemmer’s existing B2B and B2C operations. - Soundplate will continue supporting Stemmer’s legacy white-label solutions. - Soundplate says there will be zero disruption for recording studios, distributors and online platforms that depend on the original infrastructure. - Soundplate says its products are used by hundreds of thousands of artists. - Soundplate’s broader toolkit includes a free playlist submission system and Soundplate Clicks, a marketing platform for smart links, pre-save campaigns and marketing materials. - More information is available at Soundplate.com.

Between the lines: - The acquisition gives Soundplate tighter technical and commercial control over a core part of its artist tools business. - Keeping Stemmer’s partner operations intact suggests Soundplate wants the deal to grow its own products without breaking existing revenue and service relationships. - Founder Sam Goetz’s move away from Stemmer signals a transition from independent company ownership to Soundplate stewardship.

What’s next: - Soundplate will keep supporting Stemmer’s existing whitelabel partners and B2C customers. - The company is likely to keep expanding its mastering and artist-marketing tools around the new API. - Soundplate’s engineering team will continue developing the rebuilt platform under its own infrastructure.