Back

@jrp Probably, yes.

But at least they've kept some Bandcamp Fridays.. they could have just cancelled them entirely.

@jrp I was surprised they kept any bandcamp Fridays at all. And I am as suspicious as everyone else, but while there's still bandcamp fridays we can still buy with a clear conscience :)

If there aren't any more next year, well that's the time to buy elsewhere, and hopefully some of the other nascent projects will be more mature and more artists will have moved over.

If nothing else, this buys time for people to find alternatives.

@keefmarshall @jrp silver lining is, now that I fear it's going away I actually managed to make purchases today. When it's monthly I took it a bit for granted (ingrained habits from music streaming services...)

@synkr3tyk @keefmarshall I mean—even if they cut it completely it’s still a better deal for artists than any other major service you can buy from?

@porglezomp @synkr3tyk definitely better than any *major* service, yes, especially compared to the streaming services.

But there are some community-driven alternatives that are starting up.. see #Mirlo, or jam.coop.

We have a #FairTradeMusic hashtag and #fairTradeMusicFriday as well as #BeYourOwnPlatform for the more tech savvy artists. Maybe something will come out of these in time.

@keefmarshall @porglezomp @synkr3tyk thank you for sharing about Mirlo!

@synkr3tyk @keefmarshall like how much more miserly can you get

@synkr3tyk @keefmarshall Just ask *any* artist how much of the money they make from touring goes to e.g. venues or ticket platforms compared to selling their music directly on bandcamp, DRM-free.

@synkr3tyk @keefmarshall Before bandcamp, any musician got the biggest cut from physical CD sales, with bandcamp it’s bandcamp, hands down, after bandcamp they will go back to being in a shittier place.

@synkr3tyk @keefmarshall Except after bandcamp they won’t even have to have the infrastructure of CD in place anymore, so they’ll be at the mercy of even shittier and more extractive platforms like Spotify or Apple Music again.

Yeah, maybe the platform could go down to 7.5% or something, but we already live in close to the best possible worlds for artists and music lovers, economically.

@synkr3tyk @keefmarshall Okay I’ll stop now or I’m gonna explode.

@Profpatsch @synkr3tyk

I think the issue is not what Bandcamp is now, or has been, but what it might become under the new owners.

The current setup for Bandcamp is absolutely the best out there for us artists. But how long will it stay that way? Who knows.

And how long will that "network effect" remain useful, after they've got rid of most of the reviewers who wrote their site content? I honestly don't know.

Is this change just the first of many?

@synkr3tyk @keefmarshall That’s a completely different issue, and I agree it’s gonna fuck bandcamp.

But you wrote
> For a long time, I've been describing BC as a site where independent musicians sell music to each other one Friday a month.

and I was reacting to that, because Bandcamp Friday has been around a lot longer than the ownership transfer. I got a problem with that, yes.

@synkr3tyk @keefmarshall Also check out the rest of my thread, it shows why I have a problem with that, because “getting shit for free” is not how anything works.

@synkr3tyk @keefmarshall If you want to exchange music between truly independent artists, I have a solution for you, it’s called bittorrent.

@synkr3tyk @keefmarshall Like if you really want a “platform takes no cut” solution, I can build you a website with some album covers, a torrent download link and a paypal “donate here” button in a day if you want.

@synkr3tyk @keefmarshall I will even seed your albums, for free, if you so desire, so you don’t even have to pay for the networking and server cost.

@Profpatsch @synkr3tyk

We already have this, and do this - it's called #Faircamp - we even have a webring :)

And there are a number of other sites setting up that provide a space for artists - see my other comments on this thread and check out #FairTradeMusicFriday as a hashtag.

I guess all that's happening here is people seeing a much-loved website potentially starting to degrade. And everyone is worried about what that might mean.