Thread for awesome stuff on Bandcamp that costs money but is still awesome

Yes, you need resources and motivation. You also need to be somewhat business oriented and probably employ people who are very much so if you're not to crash and burn. It's almost necessarily built in. (And that's what I took JCLC to be saying.)

That said, I'm surprised BC has sold out so soon.

Fourteen years is "so soon"?

I mean so soon into being really established. But I guess when you're winning is when you cash in / cash out (or seek partnership, more charitably.)

It seems to have come as a surprise move to just about everyone in any case.

It just really bums me out that the one avenue that really seemed, both by design and increasingly in practice, to help artists out through the pandemic couldn't just stay the pretty damn wonderful tool it was.

On a more selfish level, it became such a balm during the worst weeks of the pandemic to use Bandcamp Fridays as a way to replicate the record store shopping experience and get hipped to new things from all the great Twitter thread recommendations people started doing. It was a level of community engagement and support that was really nice to see. Even though I can regularly shop in stores again, I'd hate to see that crumble.

This is some interesting background:

This, my dear indie musician friends, is a private equity firm's exit strategy on its investment in Bandcamp, so (a) you're not wrong in feeling mangled by greed and (b) I'm going to tell you, in broad terms, what's behind the curtain. #bandcamp 1/? pic.twitter.com/IO7LeWKLZh

— Eilonwy has an emu, symbolically (@myemuisemo) March 2, 2022

yeah, i figured the sale was related to paying back an investor or some sort of debt obligation. i have spent most of the pandemic learning stuff about real estate financing and valuation, acquisition debt, bridge loans, construction loans ... and this is actually similar.

it's also weird thinking of Mat D as some sort of pundit, as opposed to the tech dude with a British accent lecturing me about the significance of dubstep outside West Oakland warehouse shows

Haha, didn't know you knew him. I knew he had that DIY/punk scene background, and it's kinda too bad his music with Herndon has been overshadowed by his web3 evangelism. He seems like a well-intentioned and smart dude, but I just can't hang with anything blockchain-related and if that makes me a regressionist old person, so be it.

well, i also associate him with GAFFTA (sorry, Gray Area, which for some reason was very annoyed by the use of the acronym GAFFTA ...) which has some cool programming but also some problematic aspects in terms of their vision/mission, which I understand, but I'm not really on board with, but possibly because I am not in techworld, and so I can't appreciate them? Idk. He left that org and moved to Europe prior to Ghost Ship, so I don't really associate him with the way Gray Area handled the relief funds and the fallout there.

the tweets pointing out that bandcamp had vc investment so something like this was inevitable go a long way to explaining it. i can certainly believe this was the least bad option from bandcamp's perspective.

He seems like a well-intentioned and smart dude, but I just can't hang with anything blockchain-related and if that makes me a regressionist old person, so be it.

being into cryptocurrency junk means he's not well-intentioned, or not smart, or both,

i'm trying to build a prestige cassette tape collection for a recently acquired 40-tape wall rack. does anyone have suggestions for must-have albums that are available in cassette format on bandcamp? thanks.

All the prestige Bandcamp-era tapes are sold out!

no I returned mine this morning, it was just a 60 minute cassette of Casey Kasem cussing over a dead dog dedication, so you should see that one back in stock soon

This is in print

https://dilla.bandcamp.com/album/donuts

Haven't really weighed in on the Bandcamp/Epic thing yet because I'm trying not to be negative. I do wonder where it will put people like me who put stupid amounts of bedroom recordings on there for free without the option to pay. Seems like that's something that will not stick around.

RE: cassettes — Donuts is indeed a fine choice. This is a recent favorite.

The mighty Horse Lords have a cassette on there: https://horselords.bandcamp.com/album/horse-lords-expanded

The Bitchin Bajas Sun Ra tribute album on cassette is great: https://bitchinbajas.bandcamp.com/album/switched-on-ra

Also enjoy Dan Melchior's guitar instrumentals on cassette: https://cudighirecords.bandcamp.com/album/other-odes-and-further-excursions

love that Bitchin Bajas one

it's cool that it's not some super limited thing, yeah it's great

also Sonic Youth just reissued Sister on cassette

Anyone know of an app that can compare one's music library to Bandcamp and generate a list of matches? I've been trying to go through artist-by-artist and it's tedious...

Add to your #BandcampFriday shopping list with this handy tool - takes your mean green music machine 2021 wrapped playlist and finds the albums on @Bandcamp https://t.co/FVvOLECUOa

— john jervis (@wiaiwya) February 26, 2022

this looks at your spotify playlists and finds matching bandcamp entries

Ooh, I need to try this.

so, any lawyers want to unpack these new user terms for me? has anything actually changed?

I don't understand the covers thing. You don't have to get permission to cover a song as long as you pay royalties to the songwriter.

For more than a year I haven't been able to create an account in bandcamp because my email was linked to a defunct account that I couldn't access, so all my purchases were made as a guest and download only. I finally reached out to customer support, and they very helpfully unlinked my email from the old account. I set up a new account, and like magic, all my guest purchases got automatically linked to it, so I can now stream them whenever I want.

Is the covers thing retroactive? If you've previously uploaded a cover, do you now have to remove it unless you have the artist's permission?

Hmm, if you read the changelog at the end of the terms of use page, it seems nothing much has changed. The covers thing was already there.

I don't understand the covers thing. You don't have to get permission to cover a song as long as you pay royalties to the songwriter.

Things I bought this Bandcamp Friday:

Gideon "Mgibe" Nxumalo, Early-Mart (rare South African jazz reissue)
Torn, Exit (Russian drum 'n' bass)
Beastmaker, Left For Dead (one-man biker doom project from California)
Peter Brötzmann/Fred Van Hove/Han Bennink, Jazz in der Kammer 1974 (Euro free improv)
Alastor, Onwards and Downwards (psychedelic biker doom from Sweden)
Black Sky Giant, End of Days Pilgrimage (instrumental psych/stoner doom from Argentina)
Sirone, Artistry (reissue of an album by legendary free jazz bassist)

new Charalambides (single 36-minute track)
new albums by Legendary Pink Dots and Edward Ka-Spel
and this on the Optimo label: https://rudolfabramov.bandcamp.com/album/losing-perspective?from=fanpub_fb

Anyway we have Bandcamp Friday in two days and as I'm apparently now the king of Bandcamp I'm here to help.

https://48hills.org/2022/05/ned-raggett-the-king-of-bandcamp-shares-tips-on-discovering-new-music/

This may be inappropriate to ask, but do they give you credits of some kind or do you have to buy everything yourself?

There are people i follow who seem to purchase an astonishing amount, and it's not like they're trading in VG+ Steely Dan LPs for exchange

Yeah, the article def does not ask the burning question of how Raggett stays so caked up

https://miro.medium.com/max/720/1*ZvHgvo-YQLf6PLDwXcF9VQ.jpeg

This may be inappropriate to ask, but do they give you credits of some kind or do you have to buy everything yourself?

Totally fair question. I've never received anything like that from Bandcamp itself, just the payments for my freelance writing and I of course do whatever with that. There's a small clutch of promo releases I've received download codes over time that are part of the collection but we are talking, say, a couple of hundred releases at most. Otherwise the rest of it, I'm just purchasing away.

Very nice interview Ned.

Thanks!

honestly stoked that Ned has answered a question i have long wondered about! good on ya for supporting artists, etc.

i see Ned in Bandcamp more than i see my own family.

This is a vision.

that is a nice article featuring you Ned, and it's a great picture! and through you I've discovered 48 hills

Glad to know!

always nice to see Neds bandcamp icon on a release page & know I'm on the right track

remembered to buy things from bandcamp on a bandcamp friday before teh americans wake up...

https://homenormal.bandcamp.com/album/places-for-peace

Home Normal guy(s?) back from japan. have a couple of their earlier releases, mainly for the Isan tracks, but i like their aesthetic and this is for charity

might buy the aforementioned hydroplane compilation later

KING! OF! BANDCAMP!
I'm so glad you exist, Ned, so that there's at least one person who buys (much) more than I do.

From a running list, Bandcamp Friday buys this afternoon: The Aluminum Group - new s/t, Sigur Ros' first Liminal sleep release, Caroline Loveglow - Strawberry, some back catalog Film School, Lucid Express, Flyying Colours, The Bathers' new non-album comp, Pjusk, and probably something spur of the moment.

lol I considered starting a "bump this thread when you see Ned's face on a bandcamp page" thread a while ago and it hadn't even occurred to me this would be a universal BC experience. Shufl looks pretty great, already overwhelmed by the African stringed instrument guide

This hasn't left my headphones since buying last week:
https://paltoflats.bandcamp.com/album/kiren

xpost -- Glad you like Shfl! It's been a really great experience all around, for reasons exactly like that.