Bandcamp bought

Media

When market forces lead CD Baby to wrap up, I felt pangs of concern for people who’s livelihoods depended on independent distribution. I redirected my money and links to Bandcamp, though I feared we were just delaying the inevitable there too.

I saw the news that Bandcamp has been bought my Epic Games. I know little about them, but my gamer friends burn with loathing for them which doesn’t bode well. I do know they’re dabbling in NFTs, which illustrates they have no interest in independent creators, instead opting into the redundant, planet-burning grift.

I’m starting to think we can’t rely on the private sector for distribution like this. We need to establish a trust of some sort, or a non-profit. This is too important a project to leave up to the whims of people who’ll cash out. What that would look like, and how it would work across a global audience base, I’m not sure. But I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.

I say this as a technical person: we badly need to treat our artists better. I’m beyond tired of people in my industry screwing over those who make our lives worth living.

Author bio and support

Me!

Ruben Schade is a technical writer and infrastructure architect in Sydney, Australia who refers to himself in the third person. Hi!

The site is powered by Hugo, FreeBSD, and OpenZFS on OrionVM, everyone’s favourite bespoke cloud infrastructure provider.

If you found this post helpful or entertaining, you can shout me a coffee or send a comment. Thanks ☺️.