Where can art grow?
Some thoughts on music platforms
It’s Bandcamp Friday this upcoming end of the week, August 1st. This is a celebration of independent art that started during the depths of the pandemic. It is a day where any money spent at Bandcamp goes straight to the artists. However, this is not a post about paying for things, it is about where people that care about this stuff can gather and proliferate.
I have always loved Bandcamp, it offers artists a music-purchasing-forward platform with a super low barrier to entry and a really high ceiling of success. Anyone can upload their original music and host it for anyone to buy and then download or stream. Straightforward, simple, basically all people want. It is not a streaming service like the big names out there. Spotify has been the subject of criticism from musicians for years as its model both pays poorly and cheapens the art. More recently their CEO doubled down investing literal Spotify money into an “AI military defense company” on whose board he now sits. Bigger artists are starting to react to this odious behavior and pulling their music from the platform.
Bandcamp continues to represent an alternative in the digital world. A model that pays better and elevates music as something to be sat with, processed and collected. This difference in approach has a big effect on the community that forms as a result. Gathering around these alternative spaces creates a place where people appreciate artists and independent media. All the best shows I have been to are house shows or tucked away in non-comercial area. Barriers to entry such as word-of-mouth directions (let me know if you are in Massachusetts) or being a little uncomfortable bring the most engaged to the show. And these communities poor out of themselves into the spectacle, the creation and, of course, the party. So many artists: visual, sonic and plastic have found an audience and brood at a house show. Selling glass pendants out of suitcase or being inspired to ask a drummer to finally join your band.
Some of the coolest stuff has come out of reactions to the hegemonic systems of “content delivery,” or slop. Of course these rich spaces do exist, but it is hard to feel deny that they are fewer and father between as mass media’s clutches tighten. As Spotify and others lean into AI generated music I sure hope that the backlash creates fertile ground for counter stories and scenes.
Today, I continue to be heartbroken that Bandcamp’s independent streak ended (2008-2022) as it sold out to Epic Games and then again switched hands to Songtradr who promptly laid off half its staff. While for now it still holds to its tried and true model, users are nervous. I totally understand that a site needs to make some dough to pay staff, hosting and upkeep etc, but I feel like the artist-forward spirit of the project is tainted as it is liable to keep getting passed around different corporate acquisitions. Lord knows private equity is the distillation of the contradictions in our system.
Anyways, we are dyi artists that just like to get our stuff out there for anyone that wants to hear. As far as the plug goes though, my band Ceramic has everything up there for free :)
In that same spirit I want to embrace spaces (physical and digital) that are community building and thoughtful. As the internet continues to evolve (not so encouragingly so far) let’s look forward to and participate in places that have a people first vision. I would love to hear from anyone about alternative distribution/community music corners.
For now I am excited about
and
who seem to be trying just that. Low barrier to entry, community forward, and Subvert plans to use a CoOp artist-owend model as an antidote to the temptation of corporate buy out. Might be cool.