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

Oh believe me, imagine how I feel. But turn it around, how happy am I that all that cash went mostly to the artists and labels? Incredibly so. They needed/need it more than I.

I'm sure there are many, many artists and labels who with to bestow eternal love on Ned.

Honestly I feel bad I haven't been able to pick up a number of more recent Optimo releases! Shfl had to parcel out work more carefully this year (understandable, it is a one-person-deal really) so there ya go.

And thanks to Brimstead, noted!

You should absolutely not feel bad about it. x post

i have downloaded everything as i purchase.
like spotify i have always been concerned re when the day comes and ££/$$ becomes an overriding factor, and services/record label catalogues start to get dropped and adverts become the norm even for subscribers.
i will of course continue to use BC for as long as the various labels/artists advise its their best option re revenue.

and yeah, i saw that advise re grabbing the email list.
i then saw one small set up explain how amazing the email function is in BC and replacing it via Mailchimp would cost over $30 a month just to send out emails.
i.e. knowing this you just know that the new BC crew are clearly going to screw over this aspect of the service.

There's also the ability to send an email to everyone who follows you on BC (from their dashboard), which could be way more than the number of people who have bought something. Like, I just exported the email list which is ~200 people, but can message ~750 followers (of which at least 650 probably filter them due to how many Bandcamp emails they get, lol).

Re: that Anil Prasad facebook post upthread, I soooo disagree with his proposal that artists focus on building their own websites and drive people to them using social media. It's the latter part that's the problem, everyone who's used social media should know how futile that is for most people, and even more reliant on the vicissitudes of corporate platforms.

i did not know this! also, how does one export the email list, jordan?

x post

I found it by going to "Tools" under the dropdown menu, and it was right at the top under 'mailing list'.

Also the dashboard messaging thing might be a Bandcamp Pro thing (a label that I was on has that, and was able to extend it out to the artists, so luckily I don't have to pay for it).

Lol DJP

Thanks Jordan. i somehow hadn't noticed that before.

and i can see i have 2.5 times the followers than i have people on the mailing list. interesting. i message from the dashboard all the time (proably too often!). it's a very useful feature.

it would be interesting to know if there is literally anyone on the planet who has bought/downloaded more stuff from BC than Ned. serious question.

henry rollins probably. ned and rollins.

That'll be our spoken word duo.

Who's Got The 3.14159?

Maybe this was "old" news or already covered, but apparently the entire Bandcamp union bargaining team was laid off? Get fucked Songtradr.

Yeah linked above.

OK, I actually looked up the size of Ned's collection. Wow, Ned.

Hey, I like music.

anyone itt live in sydney?

Anyways does anyone here live in Sydney and want to do something really really really funny on Friday? https://t.co/LoYeRo9IDB pic.twitter.com/FmoNKsiw1G

— lamemeyoung.bsky.social (@la_meme_young) October 18, 2023

https://www.404media.co/bandcamp-editorial-director-fuuuuuck-bandcamp-united/

gee why would you want a union with management like that? a mystery

thing I hate about 404media is anytime I click a link of theirs I think it's broken until I remember the site I'm visiting.

also fuck the hell out of that guy. I didn't realize there were salary limits to unions after which your rights no longer mattered.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck that guy.

I would really and truly like for that article to be satire.

Anybody who says "only blue-collar workers should unionise" secretly means "nobody should unionise". It's a complete lack of understanding of what unions are, and are for.

"There is a strong piece in white-collar tech workers who make north of 70k a year appropriating the language of the legitimately oppressed for anyone with the guts to write it," Keyes wrote in an Instagram stories post in May, shortly after Bandcamp workers voted 31 - 7, overwhelmingly in favor of forming a union. "TL;DR: Fuuuuuck Bandcamp United."

70k a year isn't what it was in the 80s, buddy. it can be comfortable, but throw 3 or 4 kids, a debilitating chronic illness combined with a high deductible health plan, and/or a few major house repairs, spouse being laid off etc and the belt is still tight, motherfucker.

xpost emil.y otm

Good comments from Phil S at the end:

"I have a lot of respect for Joe—I wrote for him at eMusic and then Wondering Sound—so obviously his comments sadden me," Sherburne told 404 Media in an email. "And I hope it goes without saying that I don't want Bandcamp to fail; it's hugely important to me as both a listener and a label owner, and I will be thrilled if in five years I can look back at my piece and think, ’Boy, I sure overreacted.’ But from Epic and Songtradr's lack of transparency around the layoffs to the very nature of Songtradr's business model, nothing about these events has inspired confidence in the future of the company. I would love to be proven wrong."

Yeah, JEK brought me on at BC after we worked together at Wondering Sound. He's a good editor, and this is pretty disappointing.

Indeed. I very much agree with Phil, solid editor, encouraging. But, you know, I've been a union guy for over a quarter of a century now, and as one of those 'privileged workers' -- like, in the sense that only now AFTER all that time does my pay approach that amount he mentions, shall we say, but more importantly, who knows that 'office' work or admin work or anything like that is still frickin' WORK, thanks -- I know where my line is.

its weird to read a business article where i know the people in it! i didn't know that phil s. had a label. J. Edward has always been nice to me. such a fucked up time in the world all around. people need to get away from these mammoth money companies if they can.

there has to be a way to have a streaming/selling site that is a co-op model or worker-owned model or whatever.

It’s the most normal thing in the world to be a journalist and in a union in this part of the world; indeed it would be very weird to find a newsroom that isn’t packed with NUJ members unless they’re student journos who don’t know any better.

There's this, which I should seriously start using more: https://resonate.coop/

But as always I imagine the difficulty is getting a critical mass of users to transition...

xp

unfortunately, you need a lot of money to make it a thing. and when you need a lot of money you need to go to the money people. why can't any of these asshat tech billionaires fund something cool like that? and then never get involved with it. like a tax write-off.

it gets worse

This guy uses Bandcamp's back end to annoy anonymous artists' via their personal email accounts (he did it to a band I was in and also a friend of mine who prefers to keep a low profile). That's not journalism, that's a data breach. https://t.co/8HySoFH137

— jon 🎃 (@ronofjosenthal) October 24, 2023

Post has been deleted?

feel weird posting this (but also can't you still see deleted tweets if you log out?):

This guy uses Bandcamp's back end to annoy anonymous artists' via their personal email accounts (he did it to a band I was in and also a friend of mine who prefers to keep a low profile). That's not journalism, that's a data breach. https://t.co/8HySoFH137
— jon 🎃 (@ronofjosenthal) October 24, 2023

Sorry I wasn't clear -- the embed is still visible here but the actual post over there got deleted.

have known that dude parasocially/professionally since forever, like at eMusic, this is a real disappointment. the "these people make plenty of money, they don't need a union" schtick is so basic and wrong. you know who they don't make as much money as? the bosses! "unions only for people whose jobs suck" is a really stupid position to take

what does "annoy anonymous artists" mean?

like shitposting them unprovoked?

I was trying to figure that out before tweeter deleted the tweet

prob trying to get interviews? point being that the email address was supposed to be private.

sounds like a shitheel through and through.

i'm guessing the tweet above wasn't deleted for reasons of factual inaccuracy as much as "having second thoughts about having livelihood destroyed for sticking neck out", which is understandable

I also wrote for eMusic from 2007-2009 and am angry and depressed.

holy shit i wrote stuff for emusic. i had no memory of it until now. i don't know who asked me to. or what i wrote.

I reviewed Jon Meacham's Andrew Jackson, among other things.