🔵 Could we maybe support Bandcamp more?

This "[INSERT SERVICE HERE] is the next Bandcamp" line is getting a little tiresome when the current Bandcamp seems just fine

Hi there -

Something I feel I am seeing more and more is the emergence of new music platforms that either proclaim themselves, or are described in the press, as being “the next Bandcamp”.

Here’s the thing though: we don’t need the next Bandcamp. The Bandcamp we have is just fine. Furthermore, I think a mindset adjustment is needed to really focus on what Bandcamp might be able to do for us as an industry, rather than try to build something else.

To be clear, I am not denigrating all other music services that might launch. There’s a few out there now vying for traction, and they’re all interesting. Sites like Nina show huge promise. However I think at some point there’s a need for any service to offer something more beyond one of the two angles I keep seeing trotted out.

Angle 1: “you can keep X% more of your money”. Services out there do this, and that’s great, but I do take issue with the idea that Bandcamp taking its percentage is in some manner egregious. It isn’t, not in the context of its overheads anyway. Look at how much Apple gouge just for being on its platform and suddenly Bandcamp’s percentages, for all it provides, feels quite reasonable - to me anyway.

Angle 2: “Bandcamp has been sold twice in the last couple of years”. This is of course correct, but people seem to miss that in reality, the site itself really hasn’t changed much at all. Even after some redundancies were made, it felt hard to differentiate much, at least from where I was sat. Yes, the new owners are some kind of corporate entity. It is a smaller corporate entity than Epic, who owned it previously, but let’s be clear: it does not seem to have changed much, if anything about Bandcamp itself.

The issue I have in the main is that these kinds of comments paint a kind of “Bandcamp is over” narrative, that, frankly, I think is just BS. If anything, it looks in better health than ever, not least as this anti-streaming narrative gains traction (albeit on a “vinyl sales are growing” niche level).

Right now, as an industry, there are many people bemoaning the state of Spotify, the lack of general editorial support etc. Bandcamp, last I checked, still has humans running the editorial side, and it is capable of generating more immediate revenue for artists.

It also, lest we forget, has added all manner of pretty cool additional features of late, listening parties being a favourite of mine.

Really my point here is that I feel Bandcamp has a huge amount to offer, and if labels are prepared to lean into those benefits, they could profit accordingly.

I know that there’s ongoing sticking points with streaming, with the majors in particular evidently taking issue with Bandcamp not paying for someone streaming their own album (that they’ve paid for, let’s not forget) through the Bandcamp app or via Sonos etc. I have to be honest: whatever money is “lost” through a lack of payments on streaming is surely gained via the upfront payment for the album. At some point, it feels like we have to just be sensible here. I don’t see artists complaining about this, only labels (and larger ones at that), which is certainly telling.

Again, I want to be clear that new music services popping up is great. However I think the comparisons to Bandcamp might even reveal that these services are struggling to find a new angle that really makes them worth investigating. That in turn lays bare another harsh truth here: any new service has to win over new users based on what it can do for them, not what it can do for the artist.

Personally, if I were launching a new music service in 2024, I would focus on curation, every step of the way. The music and how it pays out means nothing to the end user, so you need to find something they can latch on to. Right now, that is most definitely the paradox of choice and the general lack of gatekeepers.

Ironically (given it is a written word platform in the main), Substack and sites like The Quietus are where I am now discovering most of my music. Why? Because of the editorial that tells me about the music and why it is worth checking out. That is what Spotify et al fail miserably to deliver. What promise there was of an integrated editorial site with means to directly stream music has failed to materialise.

So, new music platforms: focus on curation. Focus on solving a problem that the end users have - not the artists - and you might gain traction far, far quicker.

In the meantime though, let’s not treat Bandcamp like it’s “done” or “over”. From where I am sat, it has a great model and entirely warrants more attention and love from the industry.

Before someone leaps up to say “but it might get sold again” or “its new owners don’t care about artists”, I can only say this: ALL platforms run that risk of being sold. If they’re not sold now, they might be in future. So no platform is ever going to be guaranteed as safe in my view, as its position can always change.

Often I feel we spend too much time looking around as if new platforms or developments are required to address the current issues in music. Maybe, just maybe, solutions are already out there and we need to explore engaging more with those before insisting we have to find something new.

Have a great evening,

D.

🎶 listening to “Smokebelch II (David Holmes Remix)” by Sabres of Paradise. In my head there’s a killer article waiting to be written about how Sabres’ Smokebelch managed this rare feat in creating all manner of variations (the ambient beatless version, this pumped up techno version etc) that covered the spectrum of dance music at the time. Every version is a stone cold classic, and this remix from David Holmes might rate as one of his finest ever - no small statement given the quality of this man’s output. It takes that most simple and glorious of riffs and somehow takes you on a 14 minute journey that starts light, then goes ultra rave heavy replete with 303s, before finally bringing you back down gently. Legendary, wonderful, blissful, uplifting stuff.

📺 watching this performance of “Wedding Dress” by Pentangle. One word: DRUMS. As any beat diggers know, Pentangle had a fair few amazing samples hidden in their music, but this one was new to me, not least because I think on this TV special performance the drums sound especially meaty. It’s a killer performance too: pure 70s. Check that hair!

🤖 playing with VZfit. Imagine cycling (using an exercise bike), in VR, through any place on earth using Google Maps. That’s what VZfit does, and it is proving oddly compelling. Certainly better for me than normal cycling, which I hate, and am only doing because I can’t box thanks to a pretty nasty rotator cuff injury.

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Stories worth reading from the Music Industry:

YouTube Music was 'most adopted' music service in Q2 2024

Now research firm Kantar has offered some more data on that trend. Its new report describes “strong growth in 2024 for YouTube Music and YouTube Music Premium, solidifying their position as leaders in the evolving music streaming market” adding that “YouTube Music was the most adopted music service in Q2 2024”. Kantar also claims that “Spotify also maintained its momentum, achieving a 2-percentage point increase in penetration year-on-year amongst all music streamers”.

👆🏻Hot take: I wonder if this development is simply down to YouTube being so intrinsic in most peoples’ lives, or whether its sole focus on music makes it somehow preferable to those signing up.

Ten additional US states join DOJ antitrust lawsuit looking to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster

The state prosecutors of Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah and Vermont have now added themselves to the lawsuit that was originally filed against the live music giant in May, the DoJ said in a statement issued on Monday (August 19). That means a total of 39 US states, plus the District of Columbia, are now part of the lawsuit.

👆🏻Hot take: the sheer momentum against Live Nation surely now means this break-up is inevitable.

Anthropic asks court to ‘prune’ Universal lawsuit to focus legal battle on ‘whether it is fair use’ to train AI using copyrighted works

“The copying is merely an intermediate step, extracting unprotectable elements about the entire corpus of works, in order to create new outputs. In this way, the use of the original copyrighted work is non-expressive; that is, it is not re-using the copyrighted expression to communicate it to users.” The company also suggested that liability for any copyright infringement in using AI technology should fall with the user.

👆🏻Hot take: the telling thing here is just the nature of the defence from Anthropic. Once again, it reverts back to this warped view that anything out there in the world is fair game for training.

Blackstone’s Hipgnosis is getting ready for its next phase…

Could a publishing admin deal with a major music company now be on the horizon for Hipgnosis? If so, it could be significant to the industry’s biggest players. Hipgnosis Songs Fund generated $147.2 million in revenues in the 12 months to end of March 2023 – and that didn’t include Blackstone’s privately-held catalog of songs (including Leonard Cohen, Justin Bieber etc.).

👆🏻Hot take: I’m certainly curious to see which ‘major music company’ might win this bid. Really for me it’s whether this goes to a major, or someone like Concord instead (who, lest we forget, did bid for HSF when it was up for sale)

‘The party is back’: rise in European music festivals banning smartphones

Across Europe, live music promoters are coming up with similar strategies this summer. At Voodoo festival, a boutique electronic music event held in the shadow of Humbeek Castle in Belgium’s Grimbergen municipality on 7 September, visitors to the Oracle stage have to put a sticker over the camera on their smartphone before they can enter, a routine that was pioneered by nightclubs such as Berlin’s Berghain.

👆🏻Hot take: what I am most curious about with this is whether visitors to these events leave agreeing that it was indeed better without phones. If that viewpoint were to gain traction, that would be another step against our reliance on tech.

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Notable news from the world of tech:

Swift Could Sue Trump Under State Law for Fake AI Endorsement

Whether he knows the Swift images are real or not, the AI posts could be illegal under a new law passed in Tennessee, where Swift’s companies, including 13 Management and TAS Productions, are registered. In March, Tennessee governor Bill Lee signed into law the Ensuring Likeness, Voice, and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, the first legislation of its kind to protect the property rights of artists’ voices, in addition to their names and likenesses.

👆🏻Hot take: per my comments about Elon Musk being held criminally responsible for his tweets, so the same goes here with Trump. Personally I hope she does sue.

10 Reasons Why Technological Progress Is Now Reversing

It’s now time to address the causes, not just complain about symptoms. Once we do that, we can move to the next steps, namely outlining a regimen for recovery and an eventual cure. So let me try to lay out my diagnosis as clearly as I can. Below are the ten reasons why tech is now breaking bad.

👆🏻Hot take: if you only read one thing today, make it this. In his piece, Ted Gioia breaks down exactly why tech is now becoming a bigger and bigger problem to us as a worldwide population. I agree with all of this points.

No Place Left Unplugged

We need to find our unplugged places. Because we forget we can so we don’t. We’re always connected, available, online, plugged. Your phone doesn’t weigh in your pocket anymore but it weighs in your mind, like an earworm. And when you burn out, you dream of escaping to the most secluded places so that no one finds you. Those cannot be our options. A middle ground. Pluggable but unplugged. That’s what I want.

👆🏻Hot take: consider this a companion piece to the one above. In it, the author asks the same questions of our reliance on tech and our need to create unplugged spaces where we disconnect from our phones and the internet. It also crosses over thematically with the festivals article above.

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Looking for something else to read? Here you go:

Paris Olympics 2024: Breaking dragged into Games without its consent

Breaking is an art that grew on the street. It’s about underground dance battles and wild creativity and people who feel like outsiders. It’s still scarred by the mainstream belief that it’s a “stale joke from the ’80s”. It’s the antithesis of everything the Olympics is about. And yet, without its consent or knowledge, breaking was co-opted into the Olympics almost by accident.

👆🏻Hot take: if the whole Raygun saga wasn’t weird enough, this article outlining exactly how breaking came to be in the Olympics is quite the read. Truly bizarre.

Why Does Every Netflix Show Look the Same? An Investigation.

A completely serious look into the streamer’s visual oeuvre.

👆🏻Hot take: it’s a fair question - these shows do indeed share a lot of the same visual positioning - but what I like is how it is all broken down here.

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