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Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?

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Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?

#21

Post by davidgerard »

mgkimsal wrote: post #4

> Songtradr is talking up using its licensing prowess to give opportunities to Bandcamp artists — including licensing on Epic games. So... Epic sells bandcamp, a profitable business unit, to another entity which will then sell bandcamp assets back to ... Epic. ?? And Epic's competitors. Why would Epic go out of its way to support a company that is supporting its competitors?

(author here) I'm assuming because sync rights are complicated, and Epic didn't quite realise how complicated. But Songtradr literally does rights as its main business. So this would work like Epic outsourcing it to a specialist, with an extra step.

I'm still boggling that Epic thought tiny independent record labels would be good for pressuring the union to stop. Tiny labels these days tend to be set up by musicians who work too hard and who likely have close personal knowledge of working shitty jobs. Epic really had NO IDEA.

Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?

#22

Post by samtheprogram »

lucasgonze wrote: post #12

Epic owning Bandcamp never made sense. Getting Bandcamp off the books is likely to make the business look better to investors.

Bandcamp is profitable. How would selling at what's likely a loss from their purchase price going to look good to investors?

Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?

#23

Post by [deleted] »

Modified3019 wrote: post #20

Make sure to archive your bandcamp collection, which you can do with the following script: https://github.com/easlice/bandcamp-downloader Other downloaders only target the openly available mp3 files. I have a straightforward guide on how to get up and running on windows here: https://github.com/easlice/bandcamp-downloader/issues/21 You should always archive your collection anyways. One negative thing about bandcamp i…

[deleted]

Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?

#24

Post by throwaway15968 »

Throwaway, but I work at Bandcamp. We're all very frightened and don't know what the future holds. We were told that some, but not all, will get offers from Songtradr and it may be up to a month before we receive an offer. It's pretty depressing.

Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?

#25

Post by meindnoch »

I beg you, can you please not fucking ruin it? It's perfect as it is. Artist uploads music, people pay for music and download it. Don't change anything. Don't add new features, don't enshittify existing features, don't make design changes, don't do anything. Bandcamp is done, no need for any further changes, just put it in a cabinet and let it run.

Thanks,

Someone who've spent thousands of dollars on Bandcamp

Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?

#26

Post by derstander »

7373737373 wrote: post #17
tmountain wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could someone predict that? What litmus test could possible evaluate organized groups of humans resistance to greed?

Lichess, legally, is now a charitable organization https://lichess.org/terms-of-service

> Lichess, legally, is now a charitable organization

I’m not saying Lichess will do something like this, but have you heard the saga of the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM)?

It grew out of the University of Michigan — as a non-profit. Its president and board spun off a for-profit subsidiary owning the majority of its work, people, and assets and leaving a small fraction for the non-profit.

Then, the for-profit entity was bought by a succession of other entities: Veridian, General Dynamics, and now MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates.

I only learned of this while working with a graybeard from the original ERIM during their General Dynamics days — he was still sore about it.

So never doubt a president/ceo and board if they’re really determined in going for-profit!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Research_Insti...

Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?

#27

Post by computerdork »

throwaway15968 wrote: post #24

Throwaway, but I work at Bandcamp. We're all very frightened and don't know what the future holds. We were told that some, but not all, will get offers from Songtradr and it may be up to a month before we receive an offer. It's pretty depressing.

Best of luck, hope it all works out!

Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?

#29

Post by AlbertCory »

wnevets wrote: post #13
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #2

> Bandcamp is good, it’s profitable and sustainable and it basically works. If they're profitable then why do we need to play these games? Why can't we keep a good thing going?

> If they're profitable then why do we need to play these games? Because that isn't enough we must have infinite growth.

It's time to adopt the classical Accounting 101 view of businesses:

They reach profitability, then they throw off dividends, which the shareholders invest in (presumably) new businesses.

NOT "they keep the profits to create infinite growth themselves."

Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?

#30

Post by izzydata »

manicennui wrote: post #7

Ugh. I wasn't happy that Epic owned it, but they didn't seem to be doing anything to harm it yet. I don't know much about Songtradr, but I don't trust a company that is focused on licensing and not creation.

You don't trust a company that is trusted by Heineken?

But for real. What kind of company needs to list a bunch of random companies and say they are "trusted by" them. If you need to tell me how trusted you are then I really don't trust you.

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