https://bandcamp.com/jerhewet
Very sad. Bandcamp was wonderful ... while it lasted.
Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?
51–60 of 254 posts
Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Because of their no DRM policy and full on downloads, not just streaming, Bandcamp has basically become the only place I’ll buy music outside of CDs. Just so you know, Apple and Amazon also offer DRM free music downloads. Obviously, you have to actually buy the individual song or album, not a streaming plan. In Apple's case you do need to install iTunes to get your DRM-free file (on Windows, I'm not sure what the s…
I have also purchased music on Amazon and let's not pretend its "full on downloads", Amazon has V0 MP3 only iirc and Bandcamp offers ever format under the sun including FLAC and ALAC. Don't know about Apple because iTunes doesn't have Linux support and the whole setup of downloading an app in order to download a file strikes me as a bit gross.
It's true Amazon doesn't offer lossless audio downloads, but they're very good quality, and DRM-Free.
iTunes downloads are AAC, 250+ kb/s (remember this bitrate is with a more efficient codec).
I'm probably opening a can of worms here, but I'm really quite skeptical more than one in a million people could tell the difference between iTunes and lossless in a blind test. Maybe drop that to one in a thousand for Amazon vs Lossless. (I really do wish Amazon offered AAC downloads.)
Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?
#53> 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?
Is there a list of organizations/platforms, like lichess.org that have/will never sell out?
I'd cite the Apache Software Foundation.
* Unlike many other tech foundations, it's a 501(c)(3) charity, which dramatically limits the ability of industry titans to buy influence — since donations are tax deductible and thus cannot be used to unduly advantage any commercial entity.
* The Board of Directors is elected by the "Membership", which is primarily comprised of individuals who have contributed the most towards ASF projects. It's a sort of co-op structure which ensures that the org stays aligned to the interests of certain stakeholders.
(FWIW I used to be very involved at the ASF but have not been active for several years.)
I've often wondered whether an analogous charitable organization owned by musicians could slot into music distribution, in the space of DistroKid / TuneCore / CDBaby — handling royalties, QC'ing releases, and bargaining with audience-facing distributors like Spotify, Amazon, Apple, etc.
Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?
#54Epic bought Bandcamp less than 2 years ago. No one had any idea why at the time and now they are already selling it, almost certainly at a loss. This is the type of situation that would cause senior leadership heads to roll if there was any justice in the world, instead 16% of employees get laid off.
Turns out that growth based on an assumption that your model of "slot machines for children" is not infinitely exponential and cannot subsidise "free games on PCs to compete with Steam while trying to dictate to Apple how they build their products".
Epic stopped selling lootboxes a couple years before grabbing bandcamp.
Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?
#55Now more than ever I think it's important to support small, independent music sellers. I buy a lot from Bleep and Boomkat but there are a lot of other good options too.
Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have also purchased music on Amazon and let's not pretend its "full on downloads", Amazon has V0 MP3 only iirc and Bandcamp offers ever format under the sun including FLAC and ALAC. Don't know about Apple because iTunes doesn't have Linux support and the whole setup of downloading an app in order to download a file strikes me as a bit gross.
It's true Amazon doesn't offer lossless audio downloads, but they're very good quality, and DRM-Free. iTunes downloads are AAC, 250+ kb/s (remember this bitrate is with a more efficient codec). I'm probably opening a can of worms here, but I'm really quite skeptical more than one in a million people could tell the difference between iTunes and lossless in a blind test. Maybe drop that to one in a thousand for Amazon…
> It's true Amazon doesn't offer lossless audio downloads, but they're very good quality, and DRM-Free
They are DRM-free, but I wouldn't characterize the MP3s as "very good quality". They're only OK. It was the quality of their encodings that got me to stop buying music downloads from Amazon.
Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
How could someone predict that? What litmus test could possible evaluate organized groups of humans resistance to greed?
> How could someone predict that? Sell the service to users and re-launch as a co-operative.
That wouldn't be a guarantee, though. I've seen businesses do that and years later go down the bad road anyway.
Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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, th…
> working with a graybeard This language is offensive (to me [0]) and sexist. Feel free to use it if it really floats your boat, but you could get the same effect without the implicit sexism just using "oldster". You could also say "older colleague", or even just "person". [0] and I don't even have a beard
Thank you for sharing your feelings on this one, I hadn't heard of "graybeard" categorized that way by anyone before, though I can see your point-of-view and respect it.
That being said, if the person was an actual human being, and subsequently had a graybeard (as I do!) - would that still be offensive?
I don't intend to be combative, simply trying to learn!
Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have also purchased music on Amazon and let's not pretend its "full on downloads", Amazon has V0 MP3 only iirc and Bandcamp offers ever format under the sun including FLAC and ALAC. Don't know about Apple because iTunes doesn't have Linux support and the whole setup of downloading an app in order to download a file strikes me as a bit gross.
It's true Amazon doesn't offer lossless audio downloads, but they're very good quality, and DRM-Free. iTunes downloads are AAC, 250+ kb/s (remember this bitrate is with a more efficient codec). I'm probably opening a can of worms here, but I'm really quite skeptical more than one in a million people could tell the difference between iTunes and lossless in a blind test. Maybe drop that to one in a thousand for Amazon…
Lossless is mainly for mixing/remixing, not listening.
Re: Bandcamp has been sold to Songtradr. What does this mean for the musicians?
#60Throwaway, 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.
Do you think this sale was intended as a union-busting move? It sounds like they're not retaining staff with the sale, and this timing seems to match with Bandcamp's staff unionization efforts.
These decisions take time to make. Not sure when the union efforts started though - but not sure how likely this would be as a result of those efforts..