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About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

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Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#361

Post by lawgimenez »

jmuguy wrote: post #352

I’m not sure what the experience is with other niche genres of music but I’ve found more black and death metal on Bandcamp in the past month than has ever been recommended to me elsewhere. I get the impression that HN posters who don’t use Bandcamp just see it at some place where a band can make a MySpace profile - but it has a serious network effect going on. For instance, the label 20 buck spin, has a boat load of…

As a listener of hardcore and punk since I was a teen, Bandcamp is the place to be. It is the only site where I can get music from my local scene too even though I don't go to shows anymore. I am grateful to Bandcamp, hope someone will acquire them that truly knows music business, etc.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#362

Post by redserk »

silisili wrote: post #295
FireBeyond wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Around here (near Seattle) they are having to explain why the foam floor mats behind the counter used for anti-fatigue were removed as trip hazards, but only in stores attempting to unionize...

I'm not going to get into the why's at Starbucks, but I worked retail years ago and one person insisted on having a standing mat, and I tripped over that thing -all- the time. Just get more comfortable shoes. As ugly as Crocs type shoes are, my back pain disappeared when I started wearing them. They don't -have- to be gaudy, I wear the Santa Cruz often which just looks like a typical loafer. They also make 'work shoe…

I've worked behind the counter in a similar job to Starbucks while in high school and college. Shoes were not an end-all-be-all solution. Anti-fatigue mats helped significantly in my case.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#363

Post by amrocha »

gizmo wrote: post #240
amrocha wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you on not wanting to fuck the users over either. Personally I don't want to do that. But the reality is, I have other things I need in life too, and those things require money. My dad is working into his 70s, what if I could fund his retirement? What if I could pay for my brothers uni? Or for my grandma's nurse? When our basic necessities are not secure, we can't always make the ethical choice. Until th…

Literally everybody has family members who could use extra money. If having family absolves you from ethical constraints we can dispense with the notion of ethics altogether.

Sure, and that's why most people would sell.

Having a family doesn't "absolve you" from ethics, but it means that you have to weight doing right by your family vs doing right by your users. Most people choose their family, and nobody blames them for it.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#364

Post by ShamelessC »

iainctduncan wrote: post #139

Background, I work in diligence for software aquisitions. There are a lot of assumptions on this thread. I don't know the answers in this case (not sure if anyone does?) but I think it is naive to assume that Bandcamp was wise to be employing all these people. While acquisitions tanking a company with stupid decisions are super common, it's also super common for companies who are trying to look like they are growing…

> Background, I work in diligence for software aquisitions.

It shows. I don't see lay-offs from this perspective. Instead, I think about each of the employees impacted by the company's reckless behavior. Did the employees have any say in this matter? No? Then who cares if the job they were there to do was unimportant in the first place? That is absolutely the fault of the company.

Your stance is not effective when treating human beings like human beings and not some `num_workers` configuration in some kubernetes yaml.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#365

Post by redwall_hp »

diggan wrote: post #123
callalex wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iTunes Store never went away and fits your description.

How much of my money goes to the artists when I purchase with iTunes Store? If I recall correctly, Bandcamp gives ~80% usually to the artists, except on Bandcamp Fridays when they give ~90% to the artists (waiving their own fee).

iTunes, Amazon, streaming platforms, etc. do not deal directly with artists. Apple gives the majority (not sure of the percentage) to a distributor (LANDR, DistroKid, CD Baby, etc) who is responsible for the song, and then they take a negotiated cut and pay it to the artist.

DistroKid, for example, charges about $20/year to keep all of your music releases on 100 or so streaming and download services, but takes no cut of the proceeds.

This distribution method is far and away the norm nowadays, especially with dance music, because it gets music everywhere, right alongside artists signed to labels. Bandcamp appeals more to the hipster crowd.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#366

Post by justatdotin »

matt_j wrote: post #296
nomel wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly why I have Spotify rather than bandcamp. It finds music I like, regardless of musician effort. I found more new musicians in the first year of Spotify than decades before. It’s a loss for everyone if good music goes unheard.

Spotify has a catalogue that appeals to people that like pop music. Bandcamp provides an outlet for artists that aren't part of the pop music spectrum. I'm deep into electronic music and Bandcamp is the _only_ place that some artists are even listed, and it's become an amazing space for artists that want to release limited press special edition records - pre-ordered by fans to cover the manufacturing price. Prior to…

yep. I use both daily but find bc more valuable. bc does little to help me find new music (so I get my leads elsewhere) but once I know what I want it is more likely to be on bc than spotify. spotify does a good job of helping me follow artists I already know, but not so great identifying new ones. I'm sure that depends on what you're looking for tho.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#367

Post by amrocha »

JohnFen wrote: post #243
amrocha wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few mil won't get you those things, but they'll guarantee your basic necessities. For example, my dad is working into his 70s. If I could fund his retirement I would. And here's the kicker: you can always go build something bigger than yourself after selling. Having fuck you money means you can make the ethical choice next time. Edit: on your comment about founders regretting their first sale. I'm guessing most fou…

> Having fuck you money means you can make the ethical choice next time. If you weren't able to make the "ethical choice" the first time, you almost certainly won't make it the next time, either. All of the motivations that informed your first choice will equally inform your next.

Calling it the "ethical choice" was a mistake on my part. It's more of an "ethical calculus" between doing right by your family, and doing right by your users.

So it's not that choosing your family is unethical, but it does have consequences for your users. If family was taken care of them the ethical calculus shifts in the users favor.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#368

Post by jasonladuke0311 »

bee_rider wrote: post #347
colinsane wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

funny thing: i recently happened into the solution to that age-old question of "how do i transfer some file(s) between two computers in the same room". i now run an anonymous FTP server on my laptop, open to the LAN. prior to this Dropbox _was_ one of the solutions, but recently i've used that FTP server for the job several times with both Linux and Windows users. yet, you jest.

Sometimes I’ll just throw up python -m http.server In a directory as a lazy way to transfer a file (especially to my phone). It is not encrypted, and I wouldn’t be that surprised if it was also vulnerable in some ways, but it sure is easy (and it is only for lan, and pretty brief).

Exactly what I do as well

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#369

Post by justatdotin »

reactordev wrote: post #167
winternett wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Spotify is a terrible alternative for the musicians. Myspace and Mp3.Com used to be the road map to how sites should be run, but venture capitalism and publicly traded companies ruined the entire ecosystem.

I had high hopes for SoundCloud but in the end, VC’s always win.

yes, I was very hopeful for sc: such a waste.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#370

Post by foresto »

bsder wrote: post #355
colinsane wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

funny thing: i recently happened into the solution to that age-old question of "how do i transfer some file(s) between two computers in the same room". i now run an anonymous FTP server on my laptop, open to the LAN. prior to this Dropbox _was_ one of the solutions, but recently i've used that FTP server for the job several times with both Linux and Windows users. yet, you jest.

The keywords you want for that file transfer are "Magic Wormhole". Yes, it works on Windows, Linux, and OS X.

Magic Wormhole is great, but sometimes unbearably slow for bulk transfers. (I imagine the public relay server used for the common NAT-to-NAT case is sometimes overloaded.)
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