Bandcamp Friday

Bandcamp just held another one of their “Bandcamp Fridays,” during which the company waves its share of the revenue from the music and merch sold on the site, allowing the artists to capture more of the proceeds. The monthly event has been a huge success and many record labels and musicians specifically advertise their participation with sales on those days.

When Songtradr acquired Bandcamp from Epic games in 2023, there was speculation that the new owner would discontinue Bandcamp Fridays. Much to the delight of the customers and music community, Songtradr’s commitment to the tradition doesn’t seem to have wavered.

Since you asked, on 3/7, my purchases were Fine China’s new album I Felt Called and the Pia Fraus album Evening Colours from 2023. I almost missed the opportunity when I realized in the middle of the evening that I had better hurry to contribute to saving the music industry two purchases at a time.

I have a colleague who is much younger and is in a band (it’s quite a good band, at that). It disappoints me when I get his take on Bandcamp. He compares it to Spotify and wonders why you can’t create playlists. Of course, it’s apples and oranges, but it shows the mentality that the newer generations have about the need for music ownership. When all they’ve ever known is the rental model, they have a harder time than someone my age imagining the value proposition. My colleague’s band sees Bandcamp as too small time to even put their music on the platform, despite the fact that the payouts are much more in the artist’s favor.

If Spotify disappears, and Apple decides they no longer want to invest as heavily in services, the renter has no equity built up and would have to start collecting music from scratch. I’m not necessarily great at predicting the changes in the technological landscape and, as Edgar Fiedler said, “He who lives by the crystal ball soon learns to eat ground glass.” I have no idea if the streaming service model will last. I have seen bit rot, though, and certain works of art disappear from the streaming landscape.

More people are starting to wake up to the possibilities of vanishing culture and more creative content becoming inaccessible. My buddy and I are frequently in conversation about it. Amazon’s move to limit downloading your Kindle books seems to have raised awareness about the precariousness of the current models.