Berklee Popular Music Institute Releases Dorm Sessions 12 Through Stem Platform

Berklee Popular Music Institute (BPMI), and its student-run label Heavy Rotation Records (HRR), releases its latest compilation, Dorm Sessions 12, through Stem, a financial platform that simplifies payments for musicians and content creators. BPMI is an experience-based program enabling students to go from the classroom to the stage in every facet of artist development and touring – important preparation for a performance career.

Dorm Sessions 12—a mix of rock, pop, singer-songwriter, metal, soul, hip-hop and electronic music by Berklee students and alumni—features Lady Pills, Flakes, Jack Martini, Aversed, Olivia Swann, D-Will, and Mayah Dyson.

Stem provides the industry’s first and only consensus-based payment model, making it easier than ever for creators to get paid – an attractive solution for artists. Dorm Sessions 12 was distributed by Stem to Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, and SoundCloud. Stem handles tracking and organizing revenue streams, collecting payments and administrating earnings to all collaborators on a recurring basis, giving all parties a clear understanding of where their money is coming from. For the compilation, sound recording will be split 60% to HRR and 40% to the artists, while 100% of the publishing revenue will go to the artists. Dorm Sessions 12, HRR’s 18th release since 1995, marks the first time there will be no physical product for one of the label’s recordings.

Stem co-founder and President Tim Luckow is a Berklee alumnus who worked at HRR when he was a student. “HRR was an important place for me to recognize and exercise my passion for all angles of the music industry,” said Luckow. “Throughout my career, I’ve experienced real issues that many musicians have to constantly deal with first-hand, and that struggle is what laid the groundwork for Stem. I’m honored to be working with my alma mater to support current Berklee musicians, and I’ll continue advocating for artists everywhere to promote and inspire creativity.”

“Students and artists can see how their music is distributed and how royalties are earned and split amongst writers, publishers and the record label,” said Jeff Dorenfeld, managing director of BPMI. “I founded BPMI to offer students an experiential education into live music; with Stem we can now offer the same regarding our recordings in an easy, online and transparent platform.”

On the live music side, BPMI gives students the opportunity to tour and perform at some of the most popular summer music festivals. This year, artists from Dorm Sessions 12 will be featured at The Governors Ball in New York, Essence Festival in New Orleans, Chicago Open Air, WayHome Music and Arts outside of Toronto, Lollapalooza in Chicago, Osheaga in Montreal, Outside Lands in San Francisco and Made In America in Philadelphia.

Listen to Dorm Sessions 12: Apple Music | iTunes | SoundCloud | Spotify

Read more about the BPMI program and the artists.