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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?

#191

Post by vintermann »

hatsix wrote: post #112
davidgerard wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(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…

I think you're exactly right. Epic thought that buying a music company would let them acquire what they needed to do sync... but sync doesn't matter for Bandcamp, so it was hard for them to align. (while I work for SongTradr, I know nothing of the acquisition, so this is just speculation)

Just hypothetically, if I wrote a Minecraft mod that replaced the in-game music with music from a streaming service (to be clear, one the user would need to have a subscription for, and authorize via the streaming service's OAuth API)...

How sued would I get?

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

#192

Post by vintermann »

rendall wrote: post #163

> 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.

Well, I'm already annoyed that Spotify thinks that because I listened to music that was used in a game once, I must love game soundtracks in general.

I'm pretty sure they'd annoy even more people if they thought, "Oh so you liked Wagner, you must love Zelda".

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

#193

Post by vintermann »

derstander wrote: post #26
7373737373 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, th…

National Geographic is a similarly sad tale.

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

#194

Post by PeterStuer »

CodesInChaos wrote: post #179
PeterStuer wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also watermark free?

Is bandcamp watermark free?

I don't know. It was a genuine question.

My hunch; no way Apple and Amazon will not watermark. But that is just based on behavioral inference, not on knowledge or data.

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

#195

Post by vintermann »

anjel wrote: post #101

So THATS why they shadow banned me out of my account for having registered with an obfuscated email address after being cool with it for a dozen years.

Unlikely. There hasn't been time for any policy changes, and either way both Epic and this new buyer seem to be mostly about owning and less so about controlling.

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

#197

Post by vintermann »

thirdsun wrote: post #171
deng wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> 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…

Label accounts are very important for verifying authenticity on Bandcamp.

It's very easy to pick up some small but niche artist that is not on Bandcamp, and upload their music pretending to be them. (It's of course very illegal, but I personally know artists this has happened to).

It's harder to fake an entire label. Before you buy anything on Bandcamp, check that their label links to them, otherwise you could well be supporting a scammer.

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

#198

Post by lucasgonze »

samtheprogram wrote: post #22
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?

I'm not an accountant, but I know enough to have a sense of much "creativity" is possible. The purchase price might be in the past, while costs are ongoing. Yes there would be a markdown from purchase to sale, but that's a different line item from the annual run rate.

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

#199

Post by thirdsun »

vintermann wrote: post #197
thirdsun wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Label accounts are very important for verifying authenticity on Bandcamp. It's very easy to pick up some small but niche artist that is not on Bandcamp, and upload their music pretending to be them. (It's of course very illegal, but I personally know artists this has happened to). It's harder to fake an entire label. Before you buy anything on Bandcamp, check that their label links to them, otherwise you could well b…

Unfortunately some labels deliberately use artist accounts. I can only guess they do so because it keeps their visitors within their catalogue more easily.

With a label account users clicking on the artist on a release page will go to the actual artist page which might contain releases from all kinds of labels.

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

#200

Post by davidgerard »

vsnf wrote: post #184
davidgerard wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the sort of thing I meant, yes :-) My kid loves (a) game music (b) classical (c) complicated metal, and I will absolutely hold that these are different faces of the same thing.

The large orchestral scores of many games certainly have deep ties to classical. Parts of the Zelda, Final Fantasy, Dark Souls, etc. But, and this is likely obvious to all involved but said for posterity anyway, not all game music is classical derived. Metroid Prime is electrosynth, Paper Mario is pretty jazzy, and Persona is supremely jazzy with dashes of rock.

of course. But cut scenes with orchestral instruments (even synthesized as they frequently are) are soundtrack music in classical style. That's the stuff I mean.
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