I can't see it as a good thing at all. They're effectively being thrown about to yet another operating model which will have a disruptive impact on them.
The new company Songtradr focuses on licensing, it's a b2b, while Bandcamp is a b2c. So it can be easy to see how they'd want to make Bandcamp more like themselves. Of course I'm being negative and cynical, apologies. I share the same fondness for Bandcamp.
Another victim of modern tech acquisitions. I hate it. I hate seeing another service potentially dying because it was bought out by a big tech company that actually didn't give a rat's ass about the service. Google has done it to so many great services, some of which that I really loved. The worst thing about Bandcamp is that it's a platform for smaller artists to sell their music, which affects them in a way other tech acquisitions don't.
Also, what?
> “Based on its current financials, Bandcamp requires some adjustments to ensure a sustainable and healthy company that can serve its community of artists and fans long into the future,” says a statement provided by Songtradr chief marketing officer Lindsay Nahmiache. It says the company will be extending job offers to Bandcamp staff over the next few weeks as the sale is finalized.
Since when does Bandcamp have financial issues? Or is it just not profitable enough and now Songtradr wants to squeeze it for all they can?
That would be the worst move Songtradr could make here. The ability to distribute your music while maintaining the rights to it is one of the main reasons - hell, if not the main reason - artists and labels (and fans like myself) love Bandcamp. Making such a change would, to my mind, royally piss off the entire community and, in particular, the artists that make the platform as successful as it has been. I can only imagine the negative press that such a move would generate.
I also worry about enshittification of Bandcamp. And I'm an artist with music on the site. I was very nervous about the Epic deal when it happened (figured it was a way to get the founders and the A-round VCs some money in a cash-out after an incredibly long period of time, similar to what happened to Meetup).
But now? Songtradr smells like an investment bank, one that looks at music as "content" or "IP" and wants to license the hell out of it -- and ultimately, own as much of the rights as possible.
They do not strike me as aligned with artist interests, or with the spirit of Bandcamp, which, admittedly, at this late date is mostly a fantasy.
Bandcamp represents the last, best refuge for artists in a world where most companies offer you "exposure," what else would you want, stop whining about being paid, etc. Bandcamp means payment. Which means livelihoods.
SongTradr recently acquired 7digital. They plan to put the Bandcamp catalogue in there, so my biggest fear is that they get rid of Bandcamp as a separate product and just force everyone to use 7digital.
That would make sense, considering they fired most writers (which is one of the things that was making Bandcamp special) and would confirm that everyone who said "The buyer doesn't understand what they are buying" were 100% correct. For them, Bandcamp was some sort of "itunes store for weird music".
I really hope Songtradr doesn't enshittify Bandcamp. Recent trends for services like Reddit, Twitter and others make me nervous, especially when it comes to FLAC downloads.
That is unexpected news. Bandcamp has already done so much for independent artists, enabling them to directly publish music/sell merchandise and physical media. They have done so much that I honestly don't see a lot of room to add value to the platform. The new ownership might result in a more usable site; I have been dreaming of better sorting/filtering abilities in the 'Collection' page for years. But as far as the idea of saving independent music, who knows. I have the feeling they are envisioning a mashup of Bandcamp's systems with their future metaverse-type platform. That could result in the music on Bandcamp being exposed to a larger audience. Bandcamp's reputation as 'the lovable underdog' of the music industry will likely begin to fade and be replaced with some other public perception as more people learn the news. Which could have some affect.
While that would be worse, being acquired doesn't have to be the only choice. The main reason everyone liked Bandcamp is its independence. That independence translated into an excellent marketplace which was great for users and artists. The preference is that Bandcamp continues to be Bandcamp, not part of an umbrella.
Hope that explains it a bit. I'm quite sad and pessimistic about this. We'll see how well our reactions fare in about 2-3 years.
Have continued using it as an artist and listener, and there's no way I'd have known anything changed from the site. They updated the terms of use, but only as necessary to reflect the change in ownership. And they are still doing Bandcamp Fridays, where the company gives up its cut on the first Friday each month, even though there was no promise or other indication they'd continue before the sale. I've seen rumors that support is getting worse, but only from reporters and not users, and it's a pretty easy site to use so I wouldn't think poor support is that much of a problem.
I'd rather Bandcamp be independent and am still upset they sold out, but I like Songtradr much better than Epic as an owner. Their main business is facilitating B2B sales, which I think of as the same category as what Bandcamp does. They don't own music (except incidentally, from acquisitions) and don't have ties to RIAA and major labels like Spotify does.
That's a bit disappointing. As a user I just want Bandcamp to be owned by someone who gets it and leaves it alone. As far as I could tell, Epic barely touched Bandcamp. I'm unfamiliar with Songtradr but they have more incentive to integrate the core product into their services as they're in the industry and a smaller company (more need to make the acquisition work for them.) I hope it goes well.
I didn’t know about these acquisitions, I really hope you’re right.
At the moment, I’m heartbroken because of this. I’ve been using Bandcamp for a very long time now and it has been the single best thing to happen to independent music and musicians in the modern age. For me, one of its best features was the fact that it barely changed in all that time. It seemingly never chased the metrics that drive similar platforms to reinvent themselves constantly, so it’s always been a reliable, predictable partner. It’s the only product like it that I can think of where I can say that I truly believe that our interests are (were) aligned.
Now? It seems like a matter of time until their flashy front-end revamp, their new profit share agreement, a DRM option, a proprietary music player to compete with Spotify. I’m going to hope that their commitment to not changing dramatically holds true, but almost every acquisition starts with an email like this, so I’m not holding my breath.
And one of the worst parts, Bandcamp’s dominance is so thorough and its users so loyal that I’m unaware of a true competitor in their space. I’m not sure what I’d do if they did get progressively crappier.
I too wonder how this will affect the platform. I've always been a fan of how Bandcamp was operated in the past (access to high quality lossless audio, directly support the artist, nice app, etc).
This was interesting:
> Bandcamp United is looking forward to bargaining with Songtradr in the near future regarding wages, working conditions, and benefits. It’s our hope that Songtradr honors our existing progress (including Union Security and and preserving our artist first mission in our Collective Bargaining Agreement) that we’ve already made at the bargaining table.
If Songtradr doesn't screw it up, I'm fine. I too used to look at their hiring page a lot. I think that Bandcamp has so much untapped potential, but it's held back by a mediocre site and terrible interface if you own more than 100 albums.
They added playlists, I think, this year but I have > 1200 albums on the service (I buy a lot of full discographies and subscriptions when labels have them) and it's so painful to try to go back past the first 100 or so.
Music discovery is OK through the site - their Bandcamp Daily and other content is great - but it could be so much better. And it's screaming for better social features. Sigh.
I really hope this is just one bad move and doesn’t point to a larger, inherent flaw in the business models of smaller, indie companies. With Bandcamp now gone, there’s one less case study of truly free consumption and ownership in an increasingly rented/“streaming”/subscribing world.
As a chronic music pirate- I love Bandcamp. I've purchased more music through Bandcamp than anywhere else. I'm not going to let myself be bummed by this news until Bandcamp actually changes for the worse. Once again everybody is letting themselves be upset by some hypothetical scenario where the new owners drive the service into the ground.
I'm somewhat hopeful about the synergies here. Giving musicians an easy path to monetize their catalog, as well as market their availability to be commissioned by brands, is a good thing... especially when artists are being dually hammered by Spotify's deci-cents-per-stream industry baseline and live music promoters' anticompetitive behavior.
That said, there are ways Songtradr could abuse their new position of trust. I hope they're smart enough not to do that, but I also hope that an archival project for free downloads on long-inactive Bandcamp accounts is underway...
The new company Songtradr focuses on licensing, it's a b2b, while Bandcamp is a b2c. So it can be easy to see how they'd want to make Bandcamp more like themselves. Of course I'm being negative and cynical, apologies. I share the same fondness for Bandcamp.
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