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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?

#151

Post by pdntspa »

hatsix wrote: post #90
pdntspa wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a DJ on mid-range monitoring hardware and I can definitely hear the difference with apple's encodes vs FLAC, at least on their older encodes. I am not 100% sure its the compression protocol (could be differences in mastering since streaming has different requirements) but the attentuation on bass and watery-sounding cymbals stick out like a sore thumb in the right listening environment I only buy music on itunes…

then you should check out SongTradr's other recent acquisition, 7digital.com... not only do they have flac, but many have 16 and 24bit available.

They have the same problem as nearly every other digital music store that isn't beatport.... and that is that they aren't beatport (or rather, they don't have beatport's catalog)

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

#152

Post by astrange »

hatsix wrote: post #126
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no difference in the data that will be delivered to you DAC using flac or whatever the non-compressed version was. flac is a lossless format. If it started as 24 bit wav, nothing is lost when you get the flac version of that. it's just smaller.

if you digitized at 24 bit, then 16 bit is technically compressed. with flac, the waveforms aren't compressed, but the amplitude is, so audio buffs claim they can hear more separation. I can't hear it, but I also can't taste the difference between coffee bean origins, but I know people who can.

You could hear the difference with a 24 to 16 conversion only because it usually involves dithering, which means there is some injected noise. If they choose not to do that, 16-bit dynamic range is enough to store someone whispering in your ear next to a running jet engine.

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

#153

Post by astrange »

musicale wrote: post #118
JohnFen wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. As a listener, the lossy encodings I've heard are fairly annoying, especially in the higher frequencies. I haven't heard every lossy encoding, of course, and there may be an actually good one that escaped my attention.

Those bad mp3 cymbals and the wash of noise... Higher bit rates (and probably improved encoders) help though.

Cymbals in MP3 sound bad due to fundamental limitations of MP3; even high bitrates can't fix that.

It's not a problem in any other codec though. You probably couldn't hear the difference in AAC or Opus.

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

#154

Post by astrange »

barkingcat wrote: post #144
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no evidence that more than a very small percentage of humans (if even that) can differentiate between reasonable bit-rate pyscho-acoustic (lossy) compression and the source material. Double-blind tests have made this abundantly clear. If you really can hear a difference, you've either got particularly poorly compressed files, or are in a tiny minority of us.

A huge portion of all compressed media files are poorly compressed files. Often these poorly compressed files come directly from music distributor with the wrong compression settings, or with really really bad noise. Remember, many music distributors are working with old systems (unable to upgrade either due to driver/software or licensing issues), outdated software, and plain old junky audio interfaces, etc. Lossles…

Why are you encoding MP3 at all in 2023? It's at least two generations behind the times. (AAC and then Opus)

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

#155

Post by astrange »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #128
eindiran wrote: post #48

Earlier 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.

> downloading an app in order to download a file strikes me as a bit gross It's impossible to be a casual user of the Apple ecosystem. There are photos on my kids iPads that I'd like to save to the family archive, but I can't muster up the energy to work out how to do it again. I've done it before but long enough ago that I've forgotten the method but remember the frustration and effort - I know it's going to be less…

Select them, hit the share icon, and send them wherever you want?

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

#156

Post by Nemo_bis »

7373737373 wrote: post #10
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?

Is there a list of organizations/platforms, like lichess.org that have/will never sell out?

Check the International Cooperative Alliance. There's a list of national federations and you can find coops from there. https://www.ica.coop/en

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

#157

Post by pdntspa »

xoac wrote: post #71
ubermonkey wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wonder if you can do this in a double blind, ABX test.

Note that parent is a DJ and while DJing the files are bot just reproduced but usually there is some digital processing involved. This makes it easier to hear the difference.

Maybe but I don't do critical listening on club systems unless I'm checking my own mixdowns. Unless the DJ is redlining (which they shouldn't be if they're competent) the audio should come out of the mixer relatively unmolested. My critical listening rig is a broadcast amp with two passive studio monitors.

Should also note I can't hear the different between well-encoded 320kbit and FLAC. But lower bitrates (256kbit and lower) on mp3 are audible.

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

#158

Post by barkingcat »

astrange wrote: post #154
barkingcat wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A huge portion of all compressed media files are poorly compressed files. Often these poorly compressed files come directly from music distributor with the wrong compression settings, or with really really bad noise. Remember, many music distributors are working with old systems (unable to upgrade either due to driver/software or licensing issues), outdated software, and plain old junky audio interfaces, etc. Lossles…

Why are you encoding MP3 at all in 2023? It's at least two generations behind the times. (AAC and then Opus)

I'm not encoding mp3's, but a lot of music is sold as mp3's :)

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

#159

Post by throwaway290 »

pdntspa wrote: post #157
xoac wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that parent is a DJ and while DJing the files are bot just reproduced but usually there is some digital processing involved. This makes it easier to hear the difference.

Maybe but I don't do critical listening on club systems unless I'm checking my own mixdowns. Unless the DJ is redlining (which they shouldn't be if they're competent) the audio should come out of the mixer relatively unmolested. My critical listening rig is a broadcast amp with two passive studio monitors. Should also note I can't hear the different between well-encoded 320kbit and FLAC. But lower bitrates (256kbit a…

I showed a friend once how bitrate and sampling frequency start to really matter when doing stuff like slowing down a lot. But I guess it's not typical in DJing.

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

#160

Post by PeterStuer »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #40
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…

> 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…

Also watermark free?
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