News December 20, 2020

Stem President Kristin Graziani Talks Tech on ‘Fear At The Top’

Tech industry leader Kristin Graziani is the latest guest to take listeners of the Fear At The Top podcast behind-the-scenes of the global music industry.

As President of music distribution platform Stem, Kristin Graziani has been a leader in her field for over a decade.

After starting her career at Hired, Inc., where she was a Senior Sales Manager, Kristin moved to JOOR to be the Director of Sales & Accounts for the West Coast.

Kristin joined Stem Disintermedia Inc. as the VP of Artist Relations in 2018, going on to become President of the company. In this current role, Kristin is responsible for Stem’s overall strategy and growth, and under her leadership, Stem has become one of the most innovative and successful companies in the music industry.

Kristin leads the team that manages Stem’s platform relationships, including with Spotify, Apple, and Google, and regularly finds herself face-to-face with the musicians and labels that use Stem, which includes Poolside, Taylor Gang, Brent Faiyaz, and more.

In the latest Fear At The Top episode, Kristin sat down with The Brag Media CEO Luke Girgis and Editor-in-Chief Poppy Reid for an in-depth discussion about the new order of the global music industry when it comes to distribution, artist development, capital raising and the one thing media missed from the headlines around Spotify’s changes to its royalty model.

“If everything’s implemented correctly, I think in the next five years it will be close to a billion dollars added to the royalty pool,” said Graziani of the incoming Spotify update, where the intent is to move $1bn in royalty payments to ‘legitimate’ artists and rightsholders.

“[…] The long-tail distributors stand to lose here,” she added.

Stream the Fear At The Top podcast in full on YouTube below, or wherever you get your podcasts.