about half of my colleagues at #Bandcamp just got laid off, after Epic Games sold us to Songtradr a few weeks ago
so if your company has any vacancies and you want to hire compassionate and highly-driven people, especially in any musical or altruistic tech businesses, please share your links and I'll pass them along
Solidarity alert! #Bandcamp has been sold to #Songtradr, and Songtradr's CEO has not recognized the the #BandcampUnited union and is not promising to offer jobs to all current employees.
At #FediForum, @n00q discussed a Federated music service for #BandCamp refugees. After a few days of drawing up requirements and specs, and a couple days of code, something interesting is taking shape.
Here's a too-fast-tour of a hypothetical album page built with #Emissary. Custom skins, uploads, and transcoding music is still TBD, but so far this feels like magic.
Bands' profiles will be native citizens of the Fediverse to like, share, and comment. Excited yet?
Remember: you’ll do more for musicians if you delete Spotify, pirate all your mp3s and buy a single album every month on a platform with fairer percentages (Bandcamp, formaviva, heck even iTunes).
oh god Songtradr’s takeover of #Bandcamp has ended up being way worse than anyone expected much more quickly. tl;dr: Songtradr isn’t honoring the union, has locked out employees from critical systems, and is basically trying to steamroll everyone in the handoff.
Setting up your own #Faircamp site, just in case #Bandcamp goes to total shite?
If you're a self-hosting beginner, or just a bit rusty, this new-fangled "static site generator" thing can seem a bit arcane. A lot of manuals assume you know stuff you don't know.
https://jam.coop now has a simple homepage to help you find artists and their releases. If you're an artist, we're ready for you to add and sell your music - get in touch here or contact at jam dot coop.
We're working to make a #Federated alternative to #Bandcamp where up and coming bands can connect with fans and share their music on the Fediverse.
The progress is really encouraging, so it's time to get some feedback from real #musicians
My goal is to have something you could actually use in the next month or two. So please get your ideas in so's I can squeeze them into my launch calendar.
Please boost this: Today is another #BandcampFriday where artists get 93%[!] of the money people spend on their music. This is something like 1000x better than they get if you just steam their music—they make about a tenth of a penny per song streamed. Support your bands people! #Music#bandcamp
My debut EP is FINALLY ready for your ears! It's an emotional, melodic journey through love, loss, and personal demons, but wrapped in a catchy, cathartic rock & roll package.
I think you're gonna love it!
It's available at #Bandcamp 10 days ahead of streaming platforms, and each $4 purchase also bundles in the original demos of each song. Turn it up, sing along, and rock out!
It's #BandcampFriday babies! As usual, I'm asking music fans to consider spending AT LEAST as much on independent artists today as they spend on their monthly music streaming subscriptions. Most of that money goes to Spotify (or whoever) and the top 1% of artists on the platforms, leaving the majority of artists fighting for scraps.
Spending $10-20 thru #Bandcamp, #Faircamp or simply sending them some money via #KoFi or #cashapp will have a FAR greater impact than giving it to Spotify.
This Greasemonkey script automates downloading your #BandCamp music collection, in the format of your choice.
I've been using it for years. Don't forget to download everything in FLAC or ALAC format! (So you have it in a lossless format that you can transcode as you please in the future.)
Not to be too doomerish, but with the future of Bandcamp in question yet again (look into Songtradr if you don't know what I'm talking about), this would be a great week to support artists on the upcoming Bandcamp Friday. I'm confident that we will, uh, find a way, but things could very well become more challenging for many artists soon.
Gonna drop a plug here in case you'd like to support my most recent release. :)
We're building a co-operatively run alternative https://jam.coop. Owned by musicians and the people who build it, it'll never be sold. Sign up to find out more.
Rainfall is a Bandcamp exodus tool that lets you upload your music and create a static site using the lovely Faircamp (https://simonrepp.com/faircamp/). You can download this site as a ZIP and host it anywhere on the web.
Future features include editing of ID3 metadata (which Faircamp uses to generate song titles and release/artist names) and one-click deployments to Netlify.
For anyone, like me, who is worried about the future of #Bandcamp following the latest sale and lay-offs. Might I suggest using the #Batchcamp plugin for Chrome or Firefox, which is currently making light work of downloading everything I've ever purchased on there.
No idea what happens next for artists, but at least making sure as a listener I have my purchases backed up.
We want to hear music and art, comradery and a collective uplifting spirit exploring how to support one another as best we can.
We're aghast to hear the sound of artists silenced in fear or exhaustion, or worse.
It's hard to self promote as an indy artist. It's hard to balance platform agility, ethics, and surviving. Mute #bandcamp tags fine, but please listen and reflect on artists' needs before you throw in.