26
votes
Is Bandcamp as we know it over?
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- Authors
- Philip Sherburne, Amy Phillips, Dylan Green, Nina Corcoran, Evan Minsker, Jazz Monroe, Matthew Ismael Ruiz, Hattie Lindert, Madison Bloom, Pitchfork
- Published
- Oct 17 2023
- Word count
- 1580 words
Just something that's been in the back of my mind a lot lately; I already have all my purchases downloaded and backed up, but that's because I'm neurotic and have always done that. My bigger concern is the accessibility of the music that I love and the ability to easily go and listen to something new and immediately purchase it.
In the early 2000s, not only due to lack of funds, but general accessibility, I'd pirate a lot of music and while I can go back to it without issue (my favorite genre has more than one dedicated tracker), I really am happy that I can directly give artists money, as well as easily discover them and have a source for all they put out.
I really don't have anything new to say here other than that I am concerned about the fate of Bandcamp and I hope for a reprieve of some sort or another.
Shame I was planning to buy songs during the next Bandcamp Friday. Is that still going on and do you all think it’s still the best way to support artists for the time being?
Bandcamp Friday still runs, and for the time being it's business as usual. My band has material and merch on there and we've not seen any changes to the model just yet. This article is a little doom-mongery, but Bandcamp hasn't changed its operation since before Epic took over. Arguably Songtradr seem more like an organisation that will happily enshittify the service, as evidenced by the lay-offs and treatment of existing staff. For now nothing has changed, but I have a very close eye on the situation and am ready to pull Sir Curse's content at a moment's notice.
As far as I'm aware, nothing about the compensation structure has changed, so I'll still be buying stuff, as I did when Epic owned them; and I really don't like to give Epic my money.
I'll just be on the lookout for enshittification, as with these layoffs and the like, it seems to be looming for Bandcamp.
I never knew it. Was it good? What did it to better than Spotify, SoundCloud etc?
Paid artists a fair share.
https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/how-much-more-money-artists-earn-from-bandcamp-compared-to-spotify-apple-music-youtube/
It is a music store, so fundamentally different than the likes of soundcloud or spotify. bands basically set up their own pages on the site and customize the appearance. it is modeled after how bands used to run myspace pages. it has been the go-to place for independent artists and small labels to self-publish music for a while now.
their current fee structure is 15% of your first $5,000 in sales, after which it drops to 10%.
How much do bands and fans care about the fate of workers?
Certainly “creator economy” firms like Bandcamp and Substack that make money directly from fans are more vulnerable to competition than a company like YouTube which depends on Google’s advertising monopoly. It might be tricky to put together all of the services that Bandcamp offers quickly but offering some of them wouldn’t be hard at all.