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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?

#161

Post by deng »

meindnoch wrote: post #25

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

> It's perfect as it is. Artist uploads music, people pay for music and download it. Don't change anything.

Coudn't agree less. Listen: I love Bandcamp and buy a lot of music there. However, it could be so much better. It is far from perfect.

For starters: the collection view. It's as barebones as possible, just a simple grid of stuff you bought. No way of separating albums and tracks (which is why I don't buy single tracks anymore because it just clutters my collection). No way of sorting according to different criteria. No possibility for more compact views (list view, anyone?). I get that lots of people just download stuff and use their own music management software/app, but in that case: why is there no way to download stuff in bulk? Sorry, but it's simply bad. Another thing that has annoyed me for years is if artists release through labels: If I click on an artist, I want to see their music, not all music from the same label so that I have to painfully look through the whole catalogue to find more music from the same artist. Also, if I want to be notified for new music from that artist, I can only follow the label, so I get notified for everything they release. What kind of insanity is this? With very few exceptions, I don't care about labels (sorry label owners, but that's just how it is).

Another point is discovery: Through Bandcamp, I have discovered way more new music than through any other service just by browsing through new releases and the daily picks. However, there's so much more potential here. There already are fans you can follow and artist recommendations, but it's just all extremely clunky and discovering people with similar taste in music is basically impossible. Bandcamp has so much information about my musical taste and which artists I like, it should be able to do much more with this.

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

#162

Post by Dylan16807 »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #96
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.

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.

I think you overestimate the median encoding.

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

#163

Post by rendall »

> Game music and classical are the same genre, right?

I know that was meant facetiously, but the music in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for one is quite beautiful and made with actual instruments like piano, oboe, violin, guitar. Interactivity is one direction for true innovation in contemporary classical.

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

#164

Post by Dylan16807 »

astrange wrote: post #152
hatsix wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

According charts in google, a jet engine at 100 yards distance is 105dB louder than a whisper. 16 bits can do 96dB without dither.

More importantly, the problem isn't trying to hear 96dB of range all at once. The baseline is fixed in place, so when you have a quiet section all those high bits are 0 and you need the low bits to have enough detail by themselves. And a whisper is pretty far from the quietest thing you might have in a track.

If you can hear the dithering noise, then I'm pretty sure there are sounds you're hearing that would be wrong or missing without the dither.

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

#165

Post by astrange »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #164
astrange wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

According charts in google, a jet engine at 100 yards distance is 105dB louder than a whisper. 16 bits can do 96dB without dither. More importantly, the problem isn't trying to hear 96dB of range all at once. The baseline is fixed in place, so when you have a quiet section all those high bits are 0 and you need the low bits to have enough detail by themselves. And a whisper is pretty far from the quietest thing you m…

It's not a binary decision, there are different dithering algorithms with different noise frequencies.

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

#166

Post by pharmakom »

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…

Things I have paid for have disappeared from store but I can still download them. Is there another level of “disappear”?

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

#167

Post by max_ »

hatsix wrote: post #133
colesantiago wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

famous last words... i'll check back in a year and see how bandcamp has been gutted by songtradr.

From what I can tell, Epic did the gutting today, and it's left to us to pick up the pieces. It doesn't make sense to me, letting everyone go before the acquisition, why not let the acquiring company figure out what to do with the employees. It stinks of internal politics. Songtradr has done a good job with previous acquisitions, including mine. I'm no longer working on that product, but it's doing well. I don't agre…

What product of yours was acquired? I would like to enter the Music services business and it would be great to connect with someone that has hands on experience.

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

#168

Post by Modified3019 »

Helithumper wrote: post #84
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. Don't forget Qobuz: https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/shop They not only have streaming plans but also let you buy the music files directly.

Good to know, thanks!

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

#169

Post by jefozabuss »

meeb wrote: post #134
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…

Of a similar nature, my weekend project last week: https://github.com/meeb/bandcampsync Does much the same thing, but it unpacks the zips and tracks the directories. It can run as a docker container which syncs your collection on a daily timer. The use case is to download your purchases to local directories for use with Jellyfin/Plex/etc. You can just buy music and it'll appear on your local media server automaticall…

didn't want to create an issue on github for this but just looked at it and seems to have a duplicated PUID setting (the 2nd should be PGID I guess) in entrypoint.sh

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

#170

Post by meeb »

jefozabuss wrote: post #169
meeb wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of a similar nature, my weekend project last week: https://github.com/meeb/bandcampsync Does much the same thing, but it unpacks the zips and tracks the directories. It can run as a docker container which syncs your collection on a daily timer. The use case is to download your purchases to local directories for use with Jellyfin/Plex/etc. You can just buy music and it'll appear on your local media server automaticall…

didn't want to create an issue on github for this but just looked at it and seems to have a duplicated PUID setting (the 2nd should be PGID I guess) in entrypoint.sh

Thanks! Fixed in v0.3.3. Feel free to open an issue for stuff like that.
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