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Stem Disintermedia

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Stem Disintermedia reviews

3.6

63% would recommend to a friend

(8 total reviews)
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Milana Rabkin Lewis

60% approve of CEO

56% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

8 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

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1.0
Jan 12, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The few employees with knowledge and experience in the music industry really do value the importance of independence in artistry and operate under a shared passion and commitment towards making artists' lives better. These individuals also have decent taste in music. Good work-life balance for some.

Cons

There is a shared passion but a misaligned vision. This makes teams siloed, with seldom cross-collaboration and continuous disagreements and miscommunication over work flow. Growing pains have been especially rough here, and only seem to be getting worse. Preferential treatment of some over others with respect to promotions, salary increases, invitations, role preferences, etc. Leadership gate keeps frequently and is not quiet about it, then boasts its diverse and inclusive culture. I've noticed that every BIPOC employee in my time has either quit, been laid off or fired, conveniently not seen a renewal to their contract, or are on their way out. I was shocked to see this mentioned in multiple reviews with absolutely no acknowledgement internally. I even heard that some leaders refuse to complete their diversity training (although this is unconfirmed, I would not be shocked.) Many are rude and arrogant. There are a myriad of internal tensions, some even personal. Employees get moved around to positions they don't want and their needs are consistently unmet and unsupported. Music business jobs empirically underpay. Stem consistently underpays even the average. Most individuals do not know or care about music. Some industry leaders are on boarded for specific roles and optics, but most employees, including much of the executive board, are comprised of glorified sales / product / engineering / finance heads. And it shows. The only truly impressive department is marketing. Smoke and mirrors. Ultimately the business model is not actually that beneficial for artists. Clear royalty accounting and consistent payments were groundbreaking in 2015, but are so commoditized and omnipresent now that Stem will have to work increasingly hard in coming years to find their edge in the business. The fees are low but the product is half-baked and the funding available to artists is never competitive enough to win and sustain business. There are so many new music x tech companies with not only compelling, cutting-edge value propositions, but also real, genuine individuals who know the industry and care for each other. I would suggest that anyone considering working at Stem look elsewhere. I am.

2.0
Oct 20, 2023

Good Ideas, Bad Execution

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Culture is strong and friendly Pay is competitive Very skilled backend team Flexible work schedules

Cons

A music company with literally no music industry experience on staff CEO picks favorites in both staff and clients Resources are not allocated to the right departments Very bad company-wide time management Launches products before they have been properly tested

1.0
Mar 3, 2022

Toxic environment for employees of color

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are cool perks that come with working at a music company like Stem. You get to go to shows to support the artists whose music you're distributing, you get to listen to incoming music before it's released, and you get to hang out with some cool people who are employed at the company.

Cons

If you are a person of color, expect regular racial trauma and expect it to hurt just a little more than usual because it's caused by a company that is both actively profiting off the work of artists of color and actively promoting itself as a progressive, feminist, anti-racist company. Expect your white colleagues to get credit for your work. Expect your white colleagues to be fast tracked to promotions and raises while you get told to work harder and to have a better attitude. Expect leadership to make promises about career prospects and paths to promotions only to first backtrack on those promises and then attempt to gaslight you into thinking they never made the promises in the first place. Expect the subtext in between the well-crafted, HR friendly lines communicated to you when you air concerns about your wages or your career path to be "What are you gonna do? Quit!?" with the smug implication being that they don't think you have what it takes to get a better job. If you set these expectations and the job you're considering taking still sounds too good to pass up, I would still advise you to avoid this company because it definitely is too good to be true. I would not wish employment at this company and especially under its C-suite upon anyone. If you're not a person of color, there's a chance that you have a path forward at this company; however, I think the exec team is happy to take any work you do beyond the scope of your role and pay you an entry level salary for it while promising a promotion will come "eventually". If you are willing to give them free or cheap labor, they aren't likely to say no and are likely to milk it for as long as you let them. I would skewer the product itself but there are already other reviews on here that do an excellent job of that so I don't feel the need to beat a dead horse (funny enough, a dead horse might be a better fintech product than the one Stem is building). The leadership team pushes this idea that they are mission driven and that the company's mission is based on some set of ethics regarding ownership and equity for independent artists. They plaster that message all over social media and Billboard/Rolling Stone and name drop their DEI committees as evidence that they're a great place to work. They say that they're in the creative space to empower artists to build successful careers but I can't help but feel that they're mostly in it for either the money, the cool people with whom they get to play golf and drink nice wine, or both.

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Glassdoor has 40 Stem Disintermedia reviews submitted anonymously by Stem Disintermedia employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Stem Disintermedia is right for you.