I don’t know how to feel about the #Bandcamp situation. It certainly doesn’t decrease my disdain for Epic Games, and I’m disgusted by Songtradr’s stance of “supporting the band camp community is our top priority but let’s fire half the staff.”
But what’s the alternative? Isn’t it the only well-known music platform that doesn’t screw over musicians? Are there other places where I can launch a vinyl release for no upfront cost? Control my pricing?
Musicians need to take back this industry. how?
@killyourfm I honestly think there's a solid argument to build something on top of activity pub and the fediverse that meets those basic needs.
@daswickerman Absolutely. And I would support that however I could. Unfortunately, I don’t know the first thing about building it or even who to rally together to build it
@killyourfm Yeah, I know enough to guide that kind of project, but I'm not a programmer and have a day job so my time would be limited. I imagine we could rally people to the cause. I heard there's a wealth of former bandcamp staff looking for work.
@daswickerman Well listen, if things get to the point where signal boosts and marketing help is needed come find me.
@killyourfm Definitely. I'm talking to a few people about it and if we can come up with something viable, I'll make sure you know. Really just following the Mastodon model, with revenue share off sales to cover server costs (and maintaining a large percentage back to the artist) would be ideal. Plus, activitypub integration for easier sharing and cross-platform integration.
@daswickerman @killyourfm There was a similar conversation a short while ago when the sale of Bandcamp was announced. Let me see if I can find it...
@daswickerman @killyourfm The plot thickens!
https://retro.social/@ajroach42/111252007152556212
@AimeeMaroux @killyourfm Looks interesting, but there's a TON of scope there. It does feel like they're biting off more than necessary to solve this specific problem, but there's definitely potential!
@daswickerman @killyourfm I think that might be because it was part of distribution platform plans.
But in any case, I'm watching the project
@AimeeMaroux @killyourfm Absolutely! the basic plan for Aural Isle is interesting. I would be concerned about competing priorities across the overall "revolutionize all media" strategy cutting into development of a truly robust bandcamp alternative but at this point I'm more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt!
@daswickerman @killyourfm if this gets traction and you could use a hand on the product/project side I'd be interested, I already have a couple volunteer software projects but this feels like it's achingly possible if resourced. I could draw up a plan for it tomorrow. Do the whole thing on the Fedi model and add an optional Patreon style layer. Kill the middleman totally, bands/labels pay the costs and keep all revenue (with running the server as an operating expense)
@mrcompletely @daswickerman @killyourfm I'm capable of writing Python and JavaScript (but would welcome some income to pay the bills).
Count me in if you need another developer.
@daswickerman @killyourfm There's no shortage of tech talent. The business side of things is the bottleneck (with "business" meaning "how do we feed these people for 18-24 months while we implement a decent platform, then cross our fingers for musicians noticing it, listeners buying their music, and generating enough revenue to keep going")
@astrojuanlu @killyourfm This is absolutely the biggest blocker, but I think one way around it is to take the OSS approach to start. Pull together an open source core, and then focus the financial side on running instances and providing services rather than the software directly.