Cory Doctorow wrote a very good essay about this called the Enshittification of TikTok (it's about other platforms too). They all follow the pattern of locking in users/customers by cornering the market; abusing the creators/businesses (who have no other viable platform and are now maybe making decent money) by starving off their pay/ increasing the company's cut/making up frivolous excuses to deny wages (unsuitable for advertisers, etc); and then once their surplus is transfered to the shareholders and the whole platform becomes a malignantly useless cash funnel where every semblance of authenticity and community is a confidence game where yer victims are knowingly the suckers because no viable online alternative to the community exists, then commit corporate suicide and float away on yer golden parachute while the whole pitiful wreck burns behind you. Rinse and repeat. *Don't you just love to see a line go up?*
@@LiamBlackbirdstop being hypnotized by consumerism... And fight for a new socialist world where the end goal is not money, but rather having everyone's basic needs be met? Totally agree homie ❤
"No changes to existing services" is almost more scary to me, because if they lay off most of the editorial staff but keep the same recommendation functionality, I imagine it will be heavily driven by algorithms in the future, making Bandcamp functionally the same as every other music platform in terms of discovery, which is useless to indie artists.
Currently, Bandcamp is already "algorithm" heavy (though as a dev I hate the term; it makes no sense) even when compared to other platforms like RUclips. Search options in my opinion should have two modes. A default (relevance -- "algorithm") and filters. With filters, you could order stuff by newest, oldest, total views, views in the last 7 days, downloads, bpm... and also filter for stuff you want to hide or appear. Currently, the base search on Bandcamp seem to be only relevance based ("algorithm") -- ex: searching for a track or an artist. Tag search is much better, on there you have featured (probably from editors like fantano mentioned on the video), new and notable, all-time best selling and select user recommendation (either pinned by editors or based on relevance). It also has another tab where you can filter all releases, but there are few options for filtering and ordering (best-selling: probably on the last 7 days, not to be confused by all-time best selling; new arrivals; suprise me!: seems to be a random shuffle). Imo, currently discovery is pretty bad on Bandcamp. When starting out (and without any marketing), it all boils down to luck. If you already have fans, however, it becomes much easier to be noticed, be on new and notable, or be featured. RUclips is the same way, though it is a bit easier to filter specific (or multiple) tags on RUclips. I mostly find tracks by either the new and notable tab, random search or by the "selling right now" carousel.
@@zogwort1522 it's not just editorialists, its 50 percent of the entire staff. Just because [insert indie artist here] has a wealthy family doesn't undercut the impacts for artists who are having their main way of interfacing with their fans be stripped for parts. Also don't misgender Haela.
I worked for a few companies in the UK that got bought out by American companies, and they just hollowed out and destroyed the company each time, just binning everything other than the one part they were after. And they always lied to you about their intentions too.
As a musician that makes a good hunk of our band's money on bandcamp - we are well and truly dicked. Independent music is hard enough to distribute. Independent metal is even harder. But pulling this rug out from under us might literally kill of a large portion of the industry.
Really, being prepared is so fun, when you're in a position where someone else makes it more expedient (ie: BandCamp until recently) We'll see what happens but we all should have been thinking about alternatives since before we heard of BandCamp to be honest Here's a novel idea: selling burned cd's with music for $5 at shows or any opportunity!
Naive question: why isn’t Patreon and the like good for bands like you? I know nothing about this stuff, just curious and wanting independent musicians to succeed.
@hansenchrisw because we depend on people finding us through the bandcamp searches and recommendations. You need fans to buy direct, and new people will do that.
Fuck....bandcamp was perfection. I used it for my own band and used it to discover so many amazing unknown bands. It was so special to genuine music lovers. I feel like we need to start some kind of riot or something, this is fucking ridiculous.
Just take what they learned and did, and build another. Some people have already suggested that Anthony here could spearhead such a project as a figurehead. Kinda like how Louis Rossman is building a content aggregation app that works for RUclips, rumble, etc and all related subscriptions without having to directly deal with those platforms. Another example is how Nitter works as a "non Twitter" interface for Twitter
tell me when and where and I will be there to RIOT with you! This is major BS man! Like why did they sell it in the first place to stupid Epic Games?!! Like why?!!! Why didn't the original founders think of perhaps selling it to the EMPLOYEES if they were so gung ho to sell BC?! Like WTF man?!!! We all need to stop stabbing each other in the back for cash and instead start sticking it to these corporations and the Capitalist machine devouring our culture!!
@@slomnimnot everybody has the capacity to build their own thing. And the answer to hypercapitalism shouldn't be "If you want it build it yourself." We should definitely fight for the platforms that we already have, and tell these companies to stop with this ridiculous bullshit.
@@Educatedunhousedperson Fight for what? For band camp not to sell? It was their site and they made that decision. If we want what old Bandcamp was, there's always the opportunity to create another like it with new vision off of their learned experiences. The point I was trying to make is that big creators like fantano here can help spearhead the vision and guide users to these types of new platforms. I'm not saying he himself has to build it, but a guy with this much clout could certainly tap his networks to get an idea rolling if he wanted to. And practically jump start the thing with his reach (like the example of Luis Rossman complaining and then doing something about it, in regards video platforms)
I feel like this has been the vibe of the last decade. Corporate middle men swallowing up anything independent or contemporary to basically to cash in, own it and exploit it till its dry.
It takes millions of unconcerned, unethical dumb consumers to flock to every fresh capitalist con and throw their money at it: Amazon, Spotify, Netflix etc. Not only do I never see boycotts, I see the exact opposite of boycotts. People do not want to see the Jeff Besos of the world go hungry.
Looks like someone or one of them will have to pick up the slack and make their own website for their art and other artists like themselves. Bandcamp was made by people, people can always make a competitor.
thats a human thing not a capitalism thing, I dont know who is teaching you to dissociate the consequences of humanity from humanity itself, but they are doing you a disservice
My grandfather was a professional musician for 50+ years. He gave me this talk long ago. He told me “ it comes down to a choice. You can either make the art you love for the sake of art, and take all the hits as they come, or you can give in and wear a suit.” I have yet to wear a suit, fortunately. But nonetheless I really feel having the priority of making art come first, is really all we have. These capitalists do not care for what we produce unless it can accumulate more of that capital for them.
This is the moment where King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard save the indie music scene by hiring the Bandcamp former employees and creating a new platform, like Gizzcamp or something
@@mediumChungus69 exposure, you're acting like it doesn't mean anything, whenever there's some hot news about Bandcamp he makes a video sharing his opinion, and he is always pro-artists of course
A good chunk of my favorite indie bands (like my current favorite Men I Trust) came from Bandcamp and to see it die in front of our eyes is heart wrenching. 😢
@@lithiumeater100 That doesn't work in our current capitalist system as people are forced to make money to survive. Until we put in place a new system that can guarantee everyone the right to what they need to live (shelter, food, water, etc.) art will always be tainted in some way by profit motives. As things are now the only ones who can truly focus on just creating pieces of art with no profiit are those who already have obscene amounts of wealth.
Not too long ago, their headquarters in Oakland had weekly live performances all consisting of local, unsigned artists. I have beef with them already because my band Everyone Is Dirty had a show booked at their headquarters but they cancelled all of their live performances for the foreseeable future because of this corporate buyout. Bandcamp were truly out there keeping the integrity for so long but finally it is sad to see how capitalism strikes again. Sad to see them go the similar path as Spotify.
@@wandregisel6385well to be fair there isn’t really any “non capitalist” countries since the entire world economy is capitalist in structure, regardless if you think that’s a positive or not
@@RustyNinja100 it is actually. Fact of the matter is, communist countries weren't exactly nurturing their indie artists either (hell, if you wanted to listen to Western stuff you often had to smuggle or bootleg it). I'm sad about Bandcamp too, but it's delusional to blame some onerous capitalism for what likely amounts to a terrible business decision
The struggle for labor against capital includes the struggle for all artists against their corporate parasites. Thank you Fantano on representing the workers' interests. A true man of the masses. Thank you, thank you!
As part of one of BC's seasonal roundups, two friends of mine had their albums platformed in one of their articles earlier this year (Kostnateni and Pupil Slicer.) That was a magical thing to see, honestly, and it was great their staff would go to the trouble of finding all this fresh new talent and showcasing it so proudly on their platform. To see that aspect of the site in particular totally gutted to make some suits happy is equal parts deeply disheartening and deeply frustrating, and to see the *whole damn site* being given this treatment is infuriating. We can't have nice things, not without concerted efforts to protect them anyway.
God literally nothing is immune to the vampuric 1% of this country. Bandcamp and local shows were pretty much the only two avenues for underground and indie musicians to make a living. We saw how hard it was for musicians during covid without live shows. Now it sounds like, with the death of curation and editorials, the stuff that will be pushed to the top will be already proven things and stuff with big budgets already. Killing one of the main avenues for indie musicians is just heartbreaking. This is really a tragic loss for the underground scene.
A few years ago my tiny powerviolence band's demo ended up on the front page of new releases on bandcamp and a guy in NewYork purchased a cassette and we mailed it from Perth Western Australia. I can only image it was because someone in that editing staff heard it and dug it enough to bump it. I can't imagine tradr giving the slightest shit about something like Powerviolence or any of the other niche genres that Bandcamp was such a champion of. The idea that idea that some suit will take a bigger slice through eventually making all artists have to licence their work is truly disappointing.
I can only imagine a powerviolence song in a Reese's Puffs commercial. "May I suggest you? Get Reese's Puffs!" The joke I had in mind was about "Why You Never Became A Dancer" by Whitehouse, which is a power _electronics_ band, not powerviolence. I always confuse the two.
That's the real problem. People come up with something that benefits the people either with the sole intention of selling it in order to get rich, or some big company buys it either to profit from it, or eliminate it if it's a competitor.
I swear to fucking God, if I ever start a company, I will never sell it to anybody. I am so thoroughly tired by respectable companies that have integrity and a loyal customer base getting bought (voluntarily or via hostile takeover) by gigantic corporate vultures and ruined so the executives can afford to buy another golf course. Any time I find out a company is getting acquired by a larger company, I'm going to assume the worst.
You are not turning down an offer that’s 20x EBITDA lmao after working your ass off for years. People who say dumb shit like this will actually never own a business.
Exactly. Everybody has a price. That integrity goes right out the window when you're looking at a check for more money than you've ever dreamed of having.
It would be cooler if John Deere bought bandcamp and they just kept everything the same, aside from forcing every band to sell those little toy mini tractors for merch
Dude John Deere keeps a fucking stranglehold on the tractor business and the farmers using their equipment. Not a company I would want to have to turn to to save my business.
John Deere would put in a clause like, "You forfeit all rights to repairing any instrument used in the production of songs posted on our platform. You must send your instruments to us to repair, and we will do it for the modest amount of $10,000. If we catch you repairing your instrument yourself, or have another entity repair your instrument, we will fine you $100,000."
Ah man, I'm dreaming already, that then the remaining workers all resign (with maybe a bit of sabotage) and join this new platform, and the new platform offers quick easy transfers of content from bandcamp.
Epic Games had to pay out multimillions in a lawsuit they loss last year against the FYC for unfair practices in advertising by violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and deployed design tricks, known as dark patterns that duping users into paying unwanted charges related to Fortnite. They had to pay the FTC $275 million penalty and $245 million in refunds for tricking users into making unwanted charges, they laid off 830 employees this year which was about 16% of its workforce, so I think the reason they sold Bandcamp seems to be to recoup losses from the lawsuit and possibly revenue.
They didn't have to violate COPPA laws, use dark patterns and trick users into making unwanted purchases. But Tim Sweeny decided it was worth the risk, he's the owner and CEO after all, so if things go wrong he can just throw his employees under the bus...
Remembering back when Indie meant independent Also got me thinking of the 2013 movie “Begin Again”, in which a corp buys out an original indie producer. The rabbit hole of self destruction he falls into ends up being a new transition with innovations of the dawn of digital music. Maybe it’s time for a sequel to “begin Again” as the corps screwed up another exciting phase for musicians & those of us who appreciate creativity. we keep getting lumped into a spreadsheet as being just consumers as capitalists suck the life out of possibilities Cycle, Cycle repeats, it doesn’t Recycle when it becomes Trash Cycles cyclone sickle Hey siri, Play Blue Oyster Cult, don’t fear the reaper
I really hope that a new Bandcamp owned by musicians and employees comes along or at the VERY least, the writers of those editorials go and get work with whatever is left of music publications They were very talented and pretty much have been one of the best resources in parcing Bandcamp's Digital Underground I shall miss them :(
this is kind of a dumb thing to worry about, maybe. But let me share my very personal stake in this. I reached out to quite a few places, not only from the US, to see if they'd be interested in making a story about the brazilian underground emo scene - which is a very talented, but underrated one, even whithin the confines of the genre. The only, ONLY, place that showed interest was BC Daily, and JJ herself (who was fired, as shown in the video) was the one who took that leap of trust in me, the record my band ( @umquartoemo ) is releasing and our scene as a whole. It was so cool to feel that we, as a very marginilized corner of the music biz, could get some space in a major publication - and now I don't even know if the interview/article is coming out afterall and I fear that opportunities like this - which are already scarce - will be pratically non existent from now on.
-"this is kind of a dumb thing to worry about" -proceeds to give an in depth reason to worry about it that will apply to many more people in a similar scenario. thanks mate!
As a longtime Bandcamp user, i dont think ive ever been to their homepage or read any of the editorial stuff. All I've ever seen it as was a place where i could conveniently buy music and support a band with minimal middlemen.
I loved bandcamp because of its page design, spacious descriptions, and the ability to set optional bonus tracks. I never had a following so this doesn't affect me greatly but I would be lying if I said abandoning ship doesn't hurt me. Sorry for everyone who made a living through the site :(
I don't get why bandcamp doesn't get any criticism for selling out to Epic in the first place. They sold out the artists for the bag, they knew what was going to happen after the acquisition.
@@-Sai There was a ton of critisisms about it in facebook's official page of bandcamp comment sections and Bandcamp sub reddit. Many said they would quit the platform
This is actually kinda scary for me. I’ve been wanting to release music tbh, and was planning on doing so through bandcamp (thank u pegster for the idea), but this is getting me worried. It’s really sad that a small, independent platform got absorbed by a capitalist blob.
@@lukeshioshiothe editorial is how a lot of people discover up-and-coming artists. obviously a chunk of the staff being gone doesn’t directly affect artists, but it was a great tool for discovery and this news could be foreshadowing some bad decisions down the road for bandcamp.
It's so sad, Bandcamp was kinda the utopia of what digital ownership and artistry of any kind on the internet was meant to be. It's the only place I've really bought...anything outside of like farmer's markets where I never felt bad about what I was buying or where my money might be going. Fuck Songtradr and I hope the employees who made Bandcamp such a great place to visit weather this OK.
Not going to happen in America. #1 most of the clubs shut down during pandemic and never opened back up. In most cities the clubs had been attacked by the greed of the owners refusing to promote. #2 Nobody has CD players.
One thing worth noting about the union aspect: the owners tried to claim that the lay-offs were done randomly without knowledge of who was in the union. This is obviously untrue when you consider that the bargaining team had met with the owners before they were all laid off. This is textbook union-busting
As an independant artist from a band who was about to drop their first album this is just devastating. Where do we have to go now to allow people that like your music to help you? :(
Songtradr are going to kill Bandcamp and steal the rights to all these independent artists’ music. Absolutely gutted by this as Bandcamp seemed like the best option for discovering and supporting artists and now its at risk of being another corporate asset stripping wasteland.
Bandcamp is such an oasis in this current environment of pay to play and nepotism. The editorial staff there was second to none. I’m scared for indie music. Bandcamp is not currently replaceable.
Furrows of worry. We have a sort of collective with around 70 albums of experimental music, noise ambient and drone. Where to even put this and reach people after BC, I don't know. We don't reach many as is, and that is absolutely fine, but it's a place to upload what you can view as an album.
legit waiting for the day one of two things happens. one is that a company that gives a damn, like stereogum for an example, swoops in and buys bandcamp out from these two union busting assholes and the other is the bc tells epic & songtradr to bite them, give them their money back and goes back to being fully indie.
@@wandregisel6385 bro is making it his mission to spread neoliberal gospel under a video showing a textbook case of it's anti-human nature I sure hope you're at least getting paid for this by some think tank, it's straight up sad otherwise
That makes absolutely NO SENSE as to why they would fire the editors who work at bandcamp. I don’t see the company staying afloat after this mishap, unless they hire someone who has the same experience as the editors or better than the ones they let go.
Patreon, and the artists purchasing a domain to upload their own songs to ... They're just about the last two ways that independents can make money. It's soul destroying.
how about selfmanaging bandcamp. Music to the community, bandcamp to the workers and the musicians. Maybe the staff that got layed off, could create a selfmanaged cooperative version bandcamp that would never be sold to anyone, and will never be owned by anyone other than the workers as a collective.
Maybe this will push people to go to shows to find indie artists, and maybe push solo artists to perform live(I've seen quite a few people do this in engaging and interesting ways) to attract new fans. Sad that big corporations have to monetize everything into death.
Not happening. Most major cities are in ruins and clubs have shuttered or shut down the last 10 yrs, esp. with Covid. People thanks to covid are afraid to go out and in Cities like Chicago its too much violence.
OMG, I am so freaking PISSED RIGHT NOW! The whole Epic Games thing had me already wincing, but now this CRAP???!!!!!! I can't believe this.... Mondo's gone and now my Bandcamp is essentially gone. Stupid disgusting Capitalist freaking world we live in is BS man! I am so SICK OF THIS CRAP! Why did the original founders sell BC to Epic games to being with? Why didn't they offer it to the employees to purchase? Like where are those founders now? Research will be had about this.
I think the cost of the album should be determined by what score it gets. Then people wont be mad about MBDTF anymore because they can buy it for $5 instead of the $10 it deserves
look - if they shut down or screw things up, then it will create an opportunity for someone else to come in and offer a new service that fills the void of the old bandcamp. People don't need to freak out.
Epic Games wouldn't have just let Bandcamp be either. At the beginning they got Google's fee lowered to 10% temporarily through a lawsuit, but even then they wanted to change Bandcamp's business model even if that was permanent.
Many thanks for making us aware of the changes made lately. Bandcamp really helped me reach a new audience and made me more aware of my surroundings. Not to say way more appreciative of other artists. I hope they'll never change their work ethic because they were the last good platform.
We'll see how this goes but if anyone wants to rebuild Bandcamp the way it was from scratch under a different name and slowly rehire the editorial staff I am here for it. I have no idea how sustainable it was financially but for me it was / is an essential part of the music industry
Be mad at the one who sold-out. Just like the creators of RUclips. They either did it in order to sell it off for money.,.... or got offered a huge sum of money and couldn't resist.
The thing is companies are cutting down in all industries .. so it maybe just a way how to handle low profits and protect themselves in the times of crisis. Maybe most people don't really feel this yet or realize but things goes to shit for quite some time now and it will be worse ..
Well, damn! With Bandcamp Friday looming, I’m going to have to find my records elsewhere. Back to the artist’s website, 🤞🏽if they have one. Thx for the heads-up! 🙌🏽
So for the last 10 years or do, I have been trying (and failing) to use Facebook as a means of following my favorite bands. Now I discover this bandcamp thing and it's too late? Ffs... how do I keep up with 100+ bands effectively? I'm tired of missing every single show finding out after the fact... same with discovering cool music. I always find it like 2 years late...I'm mad. Edit: A letter.
Fantano, plz use your journalism skills and platform to reach out to BC layoffs and form a community-driven nonprofit music platform. Someone needs to and no one is.
Bandcamp being bought by a licencing company -- on its face -- seems like it could be good for everyone: giving musicians a one stop for selling their music to consumers as well as for commercial use & (as you said) giving the licensing company a larger library. I feel like licensing is a distribution avenue that a lot of upstart musicians either overlook, are ignorant of, or get overwhelmed by (based on my brief time working for an indie distro like 15 years ago). And, as you said, this grows the offering that the licensing company can bring to the table (which could be beneficial to the artists). It would depend on if the licensing agreements a good deal. If that had been the news on its own, I would've felt optimistic about it. However, I do agree that them dumping a large portion of staff and potentially shedding the "cultural" aspects of the site drastically diminishes my hopes for it. Between the points you were raising at the end (editorial content, "people who give a shit", etc.), it does seem more... Disingenuous... Like it's a cash- (or content-)grab, like there's no interest in growing the site by nurturing its (years of established & successful) "culture." It makes me worry they'll try to pull some shit where new (or even existing) users' music becomes part of the catalog just by making (or having) an account (opt+out instead of opt-in -- imagine worse: you're default opted in to the catalog but opted out of receiving payment). But idk if they could go as far as that, legally... So that's unfortunate. Sorry to those who got laid off, and hopefully the existing artists don't get burned.
At this point im starting to think the only chance ive got to make money with my music is to license it for toilet paper ads so maybe this will be better anyways
![MISSING: SLIM SHADY [Expanded Mourner’s Edition Trailer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/xh8qgHrOO1g/mqdefault.jpg)
Everytime. Buy out, bleed out. Ruin something good. Move on. Every single time.
Cory Doctorow wrote a very good essay about this called the Enshittification of TikTok (it's about other platforms too). They all follow the pattern of locking in users/customers by cornering the market; abusing the creators/businesses (who have no other viable platform and are now maybe making decent money) by starving off their pay/ increasing the company's cut/making up frivolous excuses to deny wages (unsuitable for advertisers, etc); and then once their surplus is transfered to the shareholders and the whole platform becomes a malignantly useless cash funnel where every semblance of authenticity and community is a confidence game where yer victims are knowingly the suckers because no viable online alternative to the community exists, then commit corporate suicide and float away on yer golden parachute while the whole pitiful wreck burns behind you. Rinse and repeat. *Don't you just love to see a line go up?*
Pump and dump, baby!
Sounds like something a vampire does.
Capitalism is a system that consumes those who contribute the most, and rewards those who contribute the least.
@@angelainamarie9656naw meritocracy bro
The desire to generate infinite profit is killing every aspect of life.
Idk if the things that I enjoyed so much as a child bring me that much joy anymore…
@@samsonnicholas576If you don't, buy a car with a manual transmission.....that gives me life.
@@fortheloveofnoise real shit
@@LiamBlackbirdstop being hypnotized by consumerism... And fight for a new socialist world where the end goal is not money, but rather having everyone's basic needs be met? Totally agree homie ❤
@@tuckerallen1421 😂
"No changes to existing services" is almost more scary to me, because if they lay off most of the editorial staff but keep the same recommendation functionality, I imagine it will be heavily driven by algorithms in the future, making Bandcamp functionally the same as every other music platform in terms of discovery, which is useless to indie artists.
Currently, Bandcamp is already "algorithm" heavy (though as a dev I hate the term; it makes no sense) even when compared to other platforms like RUclips. Search options in my opinion should have two modes. A default (relevance -- "algorithm") and filters. With filters, you could order stuff by newest, oldest, total views, views in the last 7 days, downloads, bpm... and also filter for stuff you want to hide or appear.
Currently, the base search on Bandcamp seem to be only relevance based ("algorithm") -- ex: searching for a track or an artist.
Tag search is much better, on there you have featured (probably from editors like fantano mentioned on the video), new and notable, all-time best selling and select user recommendation (either pinned by editors or based on relevance). It also has another tab where you can filter all releases, but there are few options for filtering and ordering (best-selling: probably on the last 7 days, not to be confused by all-time best selling; new arrivals; suprise me!: seems to be a random shuffle).
Imo, currently discovery is pretty bad on Bandcamp. When starting out (and without any marketing), it all boils down to luck. If you already have fans, however, it becomes much easier to be noticed, be on new and notable, or be featured. RUclips is the same way, though it is a bit easier to filter specific (or multiple) tags on RUclips.
I mostly find tracks by either the new and notable tab, random search or by the "selling right now" carousel.
And almost always there will be changes to the existing service
In -/+ 25 years of internet and computer usage, I can't name let alone imagine anything like this staying the same for five years
@@zogwort1522what?
@@zogwort1522 it's not just editorialists, its 50 percent of the entire staff. Just because [insert indie artist here] has a wealthy family doesn't undercut the impacts for artists who are having their main way of interfacing with their fans be stripped for parts. Also don't misgender Haela.
Absolutely love big tech, investors and shareholders ruining literally every single thing.
Because they don't think "what do the people want?" they think "what are the positive aspects of this thing that I can remove to increase profits?"
@@samantharedacted9226 They're inhuman
It’s a shame isn’t it
Here you are on their platform lol
I worked for a few companies in the UK that got bought out by American companies, and they just hollowed out and destroyed the company each time, just binning everything other than the one part they were after. And they always lied to you about their intentions too.
As a musician that makes a good hunk of our band's money on bandcamp - we are well and truly dicked.
Independent music is hard enough to distribute. Independent metal is even harder.
But pulling this rug out from under us might literally kill of a large portion of the industry.
There will almost certainly be a replacement. Let's just hope it comes in a timely manner (it won't 😔)...
Really, being prepared is so fun, when you're in a position where someone else makes it more expedient (ie: BandCamp until recently)
We'll see what happens but we all should have been thinking about alternatives since before we heard of BandCamp to be honest
Here's a novel idea: selling burned cd's with music for $5 at shows or any opportunity!
Ugh, good luck to you guys!!! :( Artists deserve so much better.
Naive question: why isn’t Patreon and the like good for bands like you? I know nothing about this stuff, just curious and wanting independent musicians to succeed.
@hansenchrisw because we depend on people finding us through the bandcamp searches and recommendations. You need fans to buy direct, and new people will do that.
Fuck....bandcamp was perfection. I used it for my own band and used it to discover so many amazing unknown bands. It was so special to genuine music lovers. I feel like we need to start some kind of riot or something, this is fucking ridiculous.
ALL of us who create on or use Bandcamp feel the same
Just take what they learned and did, and build another. Some people have already suggested that Anthony here could spearhead such a project as a figurehead.
Kinda like how Louis Rossman is building a content aggregation app that works for RUclips, rumble, etc and all related subscriptions without having to directly deal with those platforms. Another example is how Nitter works as a "non Twitter" interface for Twitter
tell me when and where and I will be there to RIOT with you! This is major BS man! Like why did they sell it in the first place to stupid Epic Games?!! Like why?!!! Why didn't the original founders think of perhaps selling it to the EMPLOYEES if they were so gung ho to sell BC?! Like WTF man?!!! We all need to stop stabbing each other in the back for cash and instead start sticking it to these corporations and the Capitalist machine devouring our culture!!
@@slomnimnot everybody has the capacity to build their own thing. And the answer to hypercapitalism shouldn't be "If you want it build it yourself." We should definitely fight for the platforms that we already have, and tell these companies to stop with this ridiculous bullshit.
@@Educatedunhousedperson Fight for what? For band camp not to sell? It was their site and they made that decision. If we want what old Bandcamp was, there's always the opportunity to create another like it with new vision off of their learned experiences.
The point I was trying to make is that big creators like fantano here can help spearhead the vision and guide users to these types of new platforms. I'm not saying he himself has to build it, but a guy with this much clout could certainly tap his networks to get an idea rolling if he wanted to. And practically jump start the thing with his reach (like the example of Luis Rossman complaining and then doing something about it, in regards video platforms)
Reducing Bandcamp to a stock music library is crushingly depressing as both a musician and customer of the platform
I feel like this has been the vibe of the last decade. Corporate middle men swallowing up anything independent or contemporary to basically to cash in, own it and exploit it till its dry.
That's the vibe of humanity.
@@Nickraculousnah, don't blame humanity for the actions of a handful of money goblin capitalists.
@@Nickraculousthe vibe of humanity is more what Bandcamp used to be. Collaborative, creative, fostering connection and fairness.
Remember that the people are also selling it. They could not sell it but the people on top can’t help but cave in when the dollar signs appear.
It takes millions of unconcerned, unethical dumb consumers to flock to every fresh capitalist con and throw their money at it: Amazon, Spotify, Netflix etc. Not only do I never see boycotts, I see the exact opposite of boycotts. People do not want to see the Jeff Besos of the world go hungry.
Once Bandcamp is ruined (and it will be) what’s left? Is there any viable platform where small artists can actually earn money?
There's 7digital and quobuz but bandcamp are far better than them
No
In a lot of ways these are worse options, but I've seen people do uploads to RUclips, also Distrokid -> Spotify. etc.
Looks like someone or one of them will have to pick up the slack and make their own website for their art and other artists like themselves. Bandcamp was made by people, people can always make a competitor.
The era of soundcloud with a patreon link has arrived
Capitalists doing a capitalism and randomly ruining something so a handful of parasites can fund a new yacht: a tale as old as time.
^^^^^!!!!!
thats a human thing not a capitalism thing, I dont know who is teaching you to dissociate the consequences of humanity from humanity itself, but they are doing you a disservice
@@BlastinRopeah yes famously humans are all parasites and not at all communally minded and socialized from birth to help one another.
My grandfather was a professional musician for 50+ years. He gave me this talk long ago. He told me “ it comes down to a choice. You can either make the art you love for the sake of art, and take all the hits as they come, or you can give in and wear a suit.”
I have yet to wear a suit, fortunately. But nonetheless I really feel having the priority of making art come first, is really all we have. These capitalists do not care for what we produce unless it can accumulate more of that capital for them.
@@BlastinRope r/Iamverysmart
This is the moment where King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard save the indie music scene by hiring the Bandcamp former employees and creating a new platform, like Gizzcamp or something
that's actually brilliant 😂
I could get behind this 😁. Wat about BandWizard
I love how Fantano takes care of the Bandcamp community, W.
common Fantano W
Lol what did he do for them?
@@mediumChungus69 alot
@@startervisionssuch as?
@@mediumChungus69 exposure, you're acting like it doesn't mean anything, whenever there's some hot news about Bandcamp he makes a video sharing his opinion, and he is always pro-artists of course
A good chunk of my favorite indie bands (like my current favorite Men I Trust) came from Bandcamp and to see it die in front of our eyes is heart wrenching. 😢
Dum Dum Girls...Teen Suicide...Mac DeMarco
i love living in a cyberpunk future without the cool technology and aesthetics 😍😍😍
I mean you *can* have the aesthetics at the cost of people staring but to your real point, it really does suck :((
@@CheapSushiyeah, but what they're saying is that we're going through all this dystopian devastation without the cool aesthetic and jet boots
We can never have anything nice. I hate this society.
You said it!
theyve already told you their plan
"you will own nothing and be happy"
wake up to the plan
If songtradr runs Bandcamp into the ground a ton of artists are gonna go broke cause music steaming services pay goddamn peanuts.
Art shouldn't be profitable anyways if it was up to me I would force all music to be public domain
@@lithiumeater100 That doesn't work in our current capitalist system as people are forced to make money to survive. Until we put in place a new system that can guarantee everyone the right to what they need to live (shelter, food, water, etc.) art will always be tainted in some way by profit motives. As things are now the only ones who can truly focus on just creating pieces of art with no profiit are those who already have obscene amounts of wealth.
@@nathanaellazaro3347 Or we can reform the capitalist system into a system that works for everyone like it does in Western Europe
@@lithiumeater100completely robotic take
@@lithiumeater100
How does it feel being objectively stupid?
Not too long ago, their headquarters in Oakland had weekly live performances all consisting of local, unsigned artists.
I have beef with them already because my band Everyone Is Dirty had a show booked at their headquarters but they cancelled all of their live performances for the foreseeable future because of this corporate buyout.
Bandcamp were truly out there keeping the integrity for so long but finally it is sad to see how capitalism strikes again. Sad to see them go the similar path as Spotify.
you can complain about capitalism, but where is the bandcamp alternative in a non-capitalist country...
@@wandregisel6385”capitalism is fine, but you should name a socialist music platform. I am very smart”
@@wandregisel6385well to be fair there isn’t really any “non capitalist” countries since the entire world economy is capitalist in structure, regardless if you think that’s a positive or not
@@wandregisel6385bro you cannot seriously think this is a good point
@@RustyNinja100 it is actually. Fact of the matter is, communist countries weren't exactly nurturing their indie artists either (hell, if you wanted to listen to Western stuff you often had to smuggle or bootleg it). I'm sad about Bandcamp too, but it's delusional to blame some onerous capitalism for what likely amounts to a terrible business decision
The struggle for labor against capital includes the struggle for all artists against their corporate parasites. Thank you Fantano on representing the workers' interests. A true man of the masses. Thank you, thank you!
Fanthony Antono the nerdiest music busy internet
As part of one of BC's seasonal roundups, two friends of mine had their albums platformed in one of their articles earlier this year (Kostnateni and Pupil Slicer.) That was a magical thing to see, honestly, and it was great their staff would go to the trouble of finding all this fresh new talent and showcasing it so proudly on their platform. To see that aspect of the site in particular totally gutted to make some suits happy is equal parts deeply disheartening and deeply frustrating, and to see the *whole damn site* being given this treatment is infuriating. We can't have nice things, not without concerted efforts to protect them anyway.
Damn, I actually know Pupil Slicer, have them in my wishlist
Sure is awful. My eyebags began to grow darker after watching this unfold.
Oof, they try to take our souls, and they'll succeed for the most part
God literally nothing is immune to the vampuric 1% of this country. Bandcamp and local shows were pretty much the only two avenues for underground and indie musicians to make a living. We saw how hard it was for musicians during covid without live shows. Now it sounds like, with the death of curation and editorials, the stuff that will be pushed to the top will be already proven things and stuff with big budgets already. Killing one of the main avenues for indie musicians is just heartbreaking. This is really a tragic loss for the underground scene.
This is miserable. Streaming services suck so much, both for artist profits and for users finding new music.
If this is not the truth
I love Apple Music tf u talkin bout
soulseek and plex my friend
The services are great for casual common consumers...not for the producers...
Crazy that slsk is still going!
A few years ago my tiny powerviolence band's demo ended up on the front page of new releases on bandcamp and a guy in NewYork purchased a cassette and we mailed it from Perth Western Australia. I can only image it was because someone in that editing staff heard it and dug it enough to bump it. I can't imagine tradr giving the slightest shit about something like Powerviolence or any of the other niche genres that Bandcamp was such a champion of. The idea that idea that some suit will take a bigger slice through eventually making all artists have to licence their work is truly disappointing.
I can only imagine a powerviolence song in a Reese's Puffs commercial. "May I suggest you? Get Reese's Puffs!"
The joke I had in mind was about "Why You Never Became A Dancer" by Whitehouse, which is a power _electronics_ band, not powerviolence. I always confuse the two.
The classic story of a CEO who starts an incredible company that everyone loves and then sells out...
That's the real problem. People come up with something that benefits the people either with the sole intention of selling it in order to get rich, or some big company buys it either to profit from it, or eliminate it if it's a competitor.
Enshitification
I swear to fucking God, if I ever start a company, I will never sell it to anybody. I am so thoroughly tired by respectable companies that have integrity and a loyal customer base getting bought (voluntarily or via hostile takeover) by gigantic corporate vultures and ruined so the executives can afford to buy another golf course. Any time I find out a company is getting acquired by a larger company, I'm going to assume the worst.
If they can't buy you, they'll just destroy you unfortunately.
You are not turning down an offer that’s 20x EBITDA lmao after working your ass off for years. People who say dumb shit like this will actually never own a business.
No one is safe from greed unfortunately. No one.
Exactly. Everybody has a price. That integrity goes right out the window when you're looking at a check for more money than you've ever dreamed of having.
@@Arjay82 don't be so sure, people with integrity exist.i
Absolutely awful. Now we have to be aware of anti-consumer practices and business bs in every facet of life.
How wasn't this the case before?
Of course Songtradr laid half the staff off, the company can't even afford an "e"
songtraitor
Wrongtradr
Interesting way they are spelling "Chainsaw"
including their union reps! how is that legal?
the one selling bandcamp is the traitor not the one making an offer.@@xdendordx
It would be cooler if John Deere bought bandcamp and they just kept everything the same, aside from forcing every band to sell those little toy mini tractors for merch
bro i would buy so many of those tractors if they were like branded with the band logo and shit. it like funko pops but badass
...the collab we need but don't deserve
bro imagine 猫 シ Corp tractors. would go incredibly hard
Dude John Deere keeps a fucking stranglehold on the tractor business and the farmers using their equipment. Not a company I would want to have to turn to to save my business.
John Deere would put in a clause like, "You forfeit all rights to repairing any instrument used in the production of songs posted on our platform. You must send your instruments to us to repair, and we will do it for the modest amount of $10,000. If we catch you repairing your instrument yourself, or have another entity repair your instrument, we will fine you $100,000."
music preservation of albums like Exmillitary that can't exist anywhere else because of copyright laws, needs to happen, before we lose it all
That's been going on for years via somewhat illegal (but ethically moral) means, right down to the archaic method of emailing mp3 folders
dont worry man i got Exmilitary backed up to a cassette tape
seriously make a soulseek account
The laid off workers need to (it would be great if they-) group together and make a new platform/site - one community owned.
I have been wishing for a community-owned music platform to crop up forever. Now's the time, if ever.
Ah man, I'm dreaming already, that then the remaining workers all resign (with maybe a bit of sabotage) and join this new platform, and the new platform offers quick easy transfers of content from bandcamp.
Lmao ya theyd love yo go through allthat work just to make it community owned
"community owned" lmao what
@@Ultravenom1 have you ever been to a co-op
Epic Games had to pay out multimillions in a lawsuit they loss last year against the FYC for unfair practices in advertising by violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and deployed design tricks, known as dark patterns that duping users into paying unwanted charges related to Fortnite. They had to pay the FTC $275 million penalty and $245 million in refunds for tricking users into making unwanted charges, they laid off 830 employees this year which was about 16% of its workforce, so I think the reason they sold Bandcamp seems to be to recoup losses from the lawsuit and possibly revenue.
They didn't have to violate COPPA laws, use dark patterns and trick users into making unwanted purchases. But Tim Sweeny decided it was worth the risk, he's the owner and CEO after all, so if things go wrong he can just throw his employees under the bus...
Remembering back when Indie meant independent
Also got me thinking of the 2013 movie “Begin Again”, in which a corp buys out an original indie producer.
The rabbit hole of self destruction he falls into ends up being a new transition with innovations of the dawn of digital music.
Maybe it’s time for a sequel to “begin Again” as the corps screwed up another exciting phase for musicians & those of us who appreciate creativity.
we keep getting lumped into a spreadsheet as being just consumers as capitalists suck the life out of possibilities
Cycle, Cycle repeats, it doesn’t Recycle when it becomes Trash
Cycles cyclone sickle
Hey siri, Play Blue Oyster Cult, don’t fear the reaper
I really hope that a new Bandcamp owned by musicians and employees comes along or at the VERY least, the writers of those editorials go and get work with whatever is left of music publications
They were very talented and pretty much have been one of the best resources in parcing Bandcamp's Digital Underground
I shall miss them :(
this is kind of a dumb thing to worry about, maybe. But let me share my very personal stake in this. I reached out to quite a few places, not only from the US, to see if they'd be interested in making a story about the brazilian underground emo scene - which is a very talented, but underrated one, even whithin the confines of the genre. The only, ONLY, place that showed interest was BC Daily, and JJ herself (who was fired, as shown in the video) was the one who took that leap of trust in me, the record my band ( @umquartoemo ) is releasing and our scene as a whole. It was so cool to feel that we, as a very marginilized corner of the music biz, could get some space in a major publication - and now I don't even know if the interview/article is coming out afterall and I fear that opportunities like this - which are already scarce - will be pratically non existent from now on.
Please recommend your favorite bands in the scene!! And what's your band's name? 🙏
-"this is kind of a dumb thing to worry about"
-proceeds to give an in depth reason to worry about it that will apply to many more people in a similar scenario.
thanks mate!
woah your band is cool dude
labrador right?
Boa sorte mano
Fantano looking out for the smaller musicians, respect.
Someone should make a bandcamp 2 with all the ideals of the first bandcamp.
Be the change you want to see. Find and support the alternatives.
@@TheSaltyGendoHave you ever heard “easier said than done”
There already is a Bandcamp 2, it’s called BandLab
@@mylerwilson4879that's why you need to be the change smarty pants, rile up the people and spread the news.
well SOMEBODY did it the first time!@@mylerwilson4879
ah yes, capitalism sucking the life out of anything worthwhile or creatively engaging. love it here.
As a longtime Bandcamp user, i dont think ive ever been to their homepage or read any of the editorial stuff. All I've ever seen it as was a place where i could conveniently buy music and support a band with minimal middlemen.
PLEASE DO NOT RUIN THE LAST MUSIC PLATFORM I LIKE
They fired a lot of the staff that made it unlike spotify and which were trying to unionize. It is already ruined
Better start looking for alternatives now.
@@TheSaltyGendoBandcamp was the alternative though
I loved bandcamp because of its page design, spacious descriptions, and the ability to set optional bonus tracks. I never had a following so this doesn't affect me greatly but I would be lying if I said abandoning ship doesn't hurt me. Sorry for everyone who made a living through the site :(
It was the labor of love success story...looks like the story ends here
@@startervisions It's such a shame, truly.
Epic didn't wanna stick with killing video games they just branching out
Epic didn't lay off the people though the company they sold it to did
@@lithiumeater100found the tim sweeney burner
I don't get why bandcamp doesn't get any criticism for selling out to Epic in the first place. They sold out the artists for the bag, they knew what was going to happen after the acquisition.
@@-Sai There was a ton of critisisms about it in facebook's official page of bandcamp comment sections and Bandcamp sub reddit. Many said they would quit the platform
@@eyeamstrongest I'm not an epic games fanboy I'm just saying that they basically have no responsibility for the layoffs
This is actually kinda scary for me.
I’ve been wanting to release music tbh, and was planning on doing so through bandcamp (thank u pegster for the idea), but this is getting me worried. It’s really sad that a small, independent platform got absorbed by a capitalist blob.
Don’t let this discourage you about your upcoming releases! Go for it!
I don't see what this has to do with artists. They laid off half the staff, those people weren't making the music.
@@lukeshioshiothe editorial is how a lot of people discover up-and-coming artists. obviously a chunk of the staff being gone doesn’t directly affect artists, but it was a great tool for discovery and this news could be foreshadowing some bad decisions down the road for bandcamp.
It's so sad, Bandcamp was kinda the utopia of what digital ownership and artistry of any kind on the internet was meant to be. It's the only place I've really bought...anything outside of like farmer's markets where I never felt bad about what I was buying or where my money might be going. Fuck Songtradr and I hope the employees who made Bandcamp such a great place to visit weather this OK.
I only purchase from bandcamp, bleep and qobuz
at this rate songtradr is going i wouldn’t be surprised if people went back to hustling local venues and selling homemade cds directly to fans
Not going to happen in America. #1 most of the clubs shut down during pandemic and never opened back up. In most cities the clubs had been attacked by the greed of the owners refusing to promote. #2 Nobody has CD players.
America has me exhausted
The whole world's been tired of America for a good while at this point
Take a nap
One thing worth noting about the union aspect: the owners tried to claim that the lay-offs were done randomly without knowledge of who was in the union. This is obviously untrue when you consider that the bargaining team had met with the owners before they were all laid off. This is textbook union-busting
Wasn't there some law passed recently on the US that more or less made union busting illegal?
@@JeanMarceaux Sure, if you can prove it
As an independant artist from a band who was about to drop their first album this is just devastating. Where do we have to go now to allow people that like your music to help you? :(
Songtradr are going to kill Bandcamp and steal the rights to all these independent artists’ music. Absolutely gutted by this as Bandcamp seemed like the best option for discovering and supporting artists and now its at risk of being another corporate asset stripping wasteland.
Their name is literally Song Traitor
Bandcamp is such an oasis in this current environment of pay to play and nepotism. The editorial staff there was second to none. I’m scared for indie music. Bandcamp is not currently replaceable.
"Art is going only significant if it can generate me and my rich friends more money" - the world.
Furrows of worry. We have a sort of collective with around 70 albums of experimental music, noise ambient and drone. Where to even put this and reach people after BC, I don't know. We don't reach many as is, and that is absolutely fine, but it's a place to upload what you can view as an album.
I hope the editorial staff make a new music discussion/news site.
Right
Move on
New name, new ideas, new everything
I always felt good knowing bandcamp existed. Guess that feeling has gone now.
This is like what happened to Comixology, bought by another company and all they did was make it a much worse experience for the fans.
Time to start looking for alternatives everyone. Let's show the suits that we are not powerless.
legit waiting for the day one of two things happens. one is that a company that gives a damn, like stereogum for an example, swoops in and buys bandcamp out from these two union busting assholes and the other is the bc tells epic & songtradr to bite them, give them their money back and goes back to being fully indie.
I don't think the latter is legally possible
What if Stereogum and Pitchfork teamed up...?
Adam Smith and his consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
lifted millions out of poverty you mean (though I think Adam Smith's contributions outside of theory are vastly overrated)
@@wandregisel6385 bro is making it his mission to spread neoliberal gospel under a video showing a textbook case of it's anti-human nature
I sure hope you're at least getting paid for this by some think tank, it's straight up sad otherwise
Correction: Mathematics has been a disaster for the human race. Without mathematics, there cannot be economies or capitalism.
@@wandregisel6385just ignore the millions more it forces to remain in poverty in order to sustain itself
@@SpoopySquid world poverty has been on the decline for decades actually
Capitalism and corporate control/domination over the working class’s livelihoods are bad things
That makes absolutely NO SENSE as to why they would fire the editors who work at bandcamp. I don’t see the company staying afloat after this mishap, unless they hire someone who has the same experience as the editors or better than the ones they let go.
Epic Games is where dreams go to die.
Patreon, and the artists purchasing a domain to upload their own songs to ... They're just about the last two ways that independents can make money. It's soul destroying.
Most people will not flock to unknown sites. They are just creatures of habit.
Well say goodbye to Bandcamp, it'll just disappear one day with a quick note left on the URL about how it went bankrupt.
how about selfmanaging bandcamp. Music to the community, bandcamp to the workers and the musicians. Maybe the staff that got layed off, could create a selfmanaged cooperative version bandcamp that would never be sold to anyone, and will never be owned by anyone other than the workers as a collective.
Shareholder capitalism doing its usual I see
Maybe this will push people to go to shows to find indie artists, and maybe push solo artists to perform live(I've seen quite a few people do this in engaging and interesting ways) to attract new fans. Sad that big corporations have to monetize everything into death.
Not happening. Most major cities are in ruins and clubs have shuttered or shut down the last 10 yrs, esp. with Covid. People thanks to covid are afraid to go out and in Cities like Chicago its too much violence.
Thank u capitalism. We truly live in the most economic system. Hope they can still unionize and fight back.
OMG, I am so freaking PISSED RIGHT NOW! The whole Epic Games thing had me already wincing, but now this CRAP???!!!!!! I can't believe this.... Mondo's gone and now my Bandcamp is essentially gone. Stupid disgusting Capitalist freaking world we live in is BS man! I am so SICK OF THIS CRAP! Why did the original founders sell BC to Epic games to being with? Why didn't they offer it to the employees to purchase? Like where are those founders now? Research will be had about this.
Well this sucks bc i just started really digging into this community
This is my main means of buying vinyls and supporting bands. It would depress me a lot to see this company go under.
What if TheNeedleDrop became the new Bandcamp
I think the cost of the album should be determined by what score it gets. Then people wont be mad about MBDTF anymore because they can buy it for $5 instead of the $10 it deserves
look - if they shut down or screw things up, then it will create an opportunity for someone else to come in and offer a new service that fills the void of the old bandcamp. People don't need to freak out.
Epic Games wouldn't have just let Bandcamp be either.
At the beginning they got Google's fee lowered to 10% temporarily through a lawsuit, but even then they wanted to change Bandcamp's business model even if that was permanent.
This is awful news
Many thanks for making us aware of the changes made lately. Bandcamp really helped me reach a new audience and made me more aware of my surroundings. Not to say way more appreciative of other artists. I hope they'll never change their work ethic because they were the last good platform.
We'll see how this goes but if anyone wants to rebuild Bandcamp the way it was from scratch under a different name and slowly rehire the editorial staff I am here for it. I have no idea how sustainable it was financially but for me it was / is an essential part of the music industry
I will never forgive Epic for this
Don't forget SongTradr either.
@@TheSaltyGendo of course. i guess i should say i will never forgive capitalism for.... well anything
Be mad at the one who sold-out. Just like the creators of RUclips. They either did it in order to sell it off for money.,.... or got offered a huge sum of money and couldn't resist.
This is why right of first refusal is so important
If someone can just set up a site so musicians can sell cds to each other, I’m in.
The thing is companies are cutting down in all industries .. so it maybe just a way how to handle low profits and protect themselves in the times of crisis. Maybe most people don't really feel this yet or realize but things goes to shit for quite some time now and it will be worse ..
ALL ABOARD THE ENSHITTIFICATION TRAIN!
TOOT TOOT!
Fantano is the best music reviewer of all time. Our goat. The main man
W
shawn cee better
@@qinkster isn't he just doing reactions?
They bought Bandcamp to use in court against Apple if I remember right. They didn't care at all about it.
Wow... I've had my miusic on Bandcamp since 2017 this is disheartening to hear that the editorial staff is gone.
Well, damn! With Bandcamp Friday looming, I’m going to have to find my records elsewhere.
Back to the artist’s website, 🤞🏽if they have one.
Thx for the heads-up! 🙌🏽
im gone kms if half my wishlist gets wiped due to sampling thx to this new acquisition
I hope they change the name to reflect what's about to happen and call it "House Plants" for all the industry plants that's about to flood in.
I’m surprised you chose to go in depth about going to band camp as a kid instead of talking of the situation at hand.
👎
CONFIRMED...Fantano does not enjoy the American Pie sequel
Fuck! They just added streaming and local playlists im crying rn.
SoundCloud would do really well to pick up all the people laid off from bandcamp
maybe, but soundcloud fucked themselves just as bad. that's why everyone switched in the first place
very poetic of the captions to say "song traitor" instead of song trader
What a fortnitemare):
So for the last 10 years or do, I have been trying (and failing) to use Facebook as a means of following my favorite bands. Now I discover this bandcamp thing and it's too late? Ffs... how do I keep up with 100+ bands effectively? I'm tired of missing every single show finding out after the fact... same with discovering cool music. I always find it like 2 years late...I'm mad.
Edit: A letter.
Huh songtradr copyright claimed one of my beats for using an 808 lmao
The age of greed,corporate suits are killing humanity.
Fantano, plz use your journalism skills and platform to reach out to BC layoffs and form a community-driven nonprofit music platform. Someone needs to and no one is.
Bandcamp being bought by a licencing company -- on its face -- seems like it could be good for everyone: giving musicians a one stop for selling their music to consumers as well as for commercial use & (as you said) giving the licensing company a larger library. I feel like licensing is a distribution avenue that a lot of upstart musicians either overlook, are ignorant of, or get overwhelmed by (based on my brief time working for an indie distro like 15 years ago). And, as you said, this grows the offering that the licensing company can bring to the table (which could be beneficial to the artists). It would depend on if the licensing agreements a good deal.
If that had been the news on its own, I would've felt optimistic about it.
However, I do agree that them dumping a large portion of staff and potentially shedding the "cultural" aspects of the site drastically diminishes my hopes for it.
Between the points you were raising at the end (editorial content, "people who give a shit", etc.), it does seem more... Disingenuous... Like it's a cash- (or content-)grab, like there's no interest in growing the site by nurturing its (years of established & successful) "culture." It makes me worry they'll try to pull some shit where new (or even existing) users' music becomes part of the catalog just by making (or having) an account (opt+out instead of opt-in -- imagine worse: you're default opted in to the catalog but opted out of receiving payment). But idk if they could go as far as that, legally...
So that's unfortunate.
Sorry to those who got laid off, and hopefully the existing artists don't get burned.
Thank you for this information, I'm dropping band camp as a platform entirely now
At this point im starting to think the only chance ive got to make money with my music is to license it for toilet paper ads so maybe this will be better anyways
fuck, this is sad to hear. love bandcamp :/