In part two (of three), deeper dives and a little history lesson are done on both Bandcamp itself, and Songtradr. Afterwards, you’ll find how the two are an unlikely match, though a more than likely, destructive pairing. Part three, delivered on Monday, will reveal my heartfelt emotional feelings on the acquistion.
Bandcamp
Bandcamp was formed in 2007 by co-founder Ethan Diamond as a pay-what-you-can direct-to-consumer platform. The idea, says Diamond in an August 2020 interview with NPR, was about offering a way for fans to purchase music from artists directly. Diamond saw a gap in the market, and decided to fill it. As he puts it, Bandcamp “… should be in the hands of everybody who has the talent to wield it. … And so that’s what Bandcamp is. That’s what I feel like we’re here to build.”
Bandcamp allows artists to upload their music, and sell right into the hands of music fans, with artists typically using social media for publicity. At the time, people pirating music was Bandcamp’s main competition - music streaming wasn’t the giant it is today - and no one had a direct line to the artists themselves, nor was really buying music. By removing the navigation and messy contracts associated with labels, Bandcamp broke the barriers necessary for literally anyone to become a self-proclaimed artist.
Paying artists what they deserved was at the core of Bandcamp’s ethos, and were ahead of their time when the platform began. Streaming companies like Spotify & Apple run on a nuanced and complicated system for artist payouts influenced by labels, ads, and the streaming numbers. The payout artists, especially small acts, make through streaming is peanuts: 90% of the royalties Spotify pays out goes to 0.8% of the artists. Bandcamp’s approach has always been a simple revenue percentage share, typically 82 - 85% after credit card processing fees & Bandcamp’s cut.
Unlike streaming, you own the music you purchase. You’re able to stream your collections via the Bandcamp app, in addition to downloading the music files in a myriad of high quality file formats - singing the praises of audiophiles. For someone who still listens to music on an Apple iPod, owning my music while simultaneously supporting artists is a necessity.
As the company grew, so did the community revolving around Bandcamp. Music lovers and artists alike grew fond of the website and its ability to purchase from the artists themselves, especially in a time when purchasing music, not to even speak on discovering it, was difficult. Both sides wanted the website to feel like more of a home, rather than just a payment screen. Bandcamp’s answer was the integration of more community based features. Unique search capabilities allowed anyone to rabbit hole through obscure genres/artists (Personally, searching best selling albums by random locations across the world is addictive). By integrating collection pages, users could proudly display the music they’ve purchased, while interacting with other like-minded fans. Artists gained the ability to fashion their pages as they saw fit, adding music, videos, social media links, physical products, bios, and concert dates - even a direct messaging system to anyone who follows or has purchased music from them prior. The wall separating artists and their fans had been broken down, inching them closer together.
On any day, the Bandcamp homepage is overflowing with dozens of articles and retrospectives covering everything from deep dives into underground labels, to interviews with up & coming homegrown artists. Bandcamp’s tireless dedication to music journalism, especially when given the landscape of the music journalism industry today, is based solely on articles preaching chart topping radio hits. Bandcamp’s focus has always been on covering independent and underground artists/labels, and pays well doing so. Very few places offer writes up on lounge exotica. Bandcamp Daily has become a wonderful discovery tool on specific artists, especially notable releases. Through all these featured articles, Bandcamp has positioned themselves as a safe haven for music journalists, and a bastion of higher standards amongst an increasingly cutthroat and content farmed industry.
While the platform was an underground hit amongst the indie music communities in the beginning, especially those in the lo-fi & metal scenes, the platform didn’t really gain mainstream attraction until the pandemic. In March of 2020, the company introduced Bandcamp Fridays, a monthly event where Bandcamp waives their revenue share, allowing up to 93% (post processing fees) of the purchase price to head directly to the artist. This act of charity attracted the attention of music lovers and artists everywhere; especially when viable ways of making an income during the pandemic was nearly impossible due to concert venues closing and in-person merch sales drying up. During fall of 2020, Bandcamp integrated live concert streaming through the website itself, allowing artists to sell tickets to fans who pined for a slice of the revelry they gleaned from attending live shows. Fans wanted to support artists during the pandemic, and the artists needed supporting; Bandcamp listened to the community, and gave back. The altruism was a win-win for everyone, including Bandcamp.
Bandcamp is pretty much as you see it today. The Bandcamp website, and subsequent app, often come under criticism from new users due to its clunky, almost antiquated design; the user experience leaves a lot to be desired. If you handed the app to anyone off the street, it would take a minute to understand its navigation properly. Lacking features that other streaming services may offer is another issue amongst users; shareable playlists being the biggest one. Even myself, at times, have felt the popularity of the platform could be increased exponentially if a few adjustments were made to appeal to a large crowd base. Bandcamp is defiantly not the flashy ‘Web 2.0’ apps you’re used to experiencing; the lack of mainstream appeal is a revolving endearment for many, especially those who see Bandcamp as a refuge amongst a tight-knit community.
These restrictions, in a way, have made Bandcamp flourish, becoming a defining feature of the platform. By changing perspectives, can one truly understand Bandcamp’s position in a crowded room of egomaniacal music streaming services. Bandcamp stands alone outside of its often misaligned grouped comparisons to Spotify. Bandcamp, though a music platform, isn’t a streaming service (even though you can stream your music limitlessly from the platform once you purchase it). Bandcamp has evolved into a full-fledged community model; a way to discover/share new music, and directly support the artists you have already come to love. Despite its navigational misgivings, Bandcamp is a platform to be cherished and loved. The last of its kind, swimming amongst a sea of capitalist growth grabbers; a beautiful beloved endling.
Hopefully now you understand what’s at stake.
Songtradr
Oh man, where to even begin with this pile. As you may have already ascertained, my writing formalities will be significantly turned down due to my disapproving opinions on this so-called company. Despite this, an overview of Songtradr is necessary in attempting to grasp the foggy future of Bandcamp.
Songtradr is a business-to-business (B2B for you non-marketing plebs out there) subscription based music licensing company founded in 2014 by this dude, music executive Paul Wiltshire. Cool. Songtradr touts itself as the “largest music licensing and digital rights management platform in the world”, according to the description on their about page, followed by a bunch of over bloated stereotypically marketing copy about ‘changing the world’. Condensed down, Songtradr allows companies to purchase a subscription based license to discover/use music from Songtradr’s extensive database featuring artists/labels who have uploaded their catalog; the artists/labels also pay a monthly fee, and retain the rights to their music. From the looks of things, selling music to advertisers and content creators is their exact wheelhouse.
Artists can monetize their music through Songtradr using several avenues, such as Tiktok for Business, or ‘Business Overheard Radio’, where a business such as a restaurant, would require a license to play the music. All of the aforementioned monetizations come with hazy stipulations, and sound like the artist is fighting to get their music heard, or even discovered in the first place.
Songtradr’s marketing is exactly what you would expect from a start-up company focused on extreme growth. Their blog is chalked full of SEO driven copy, showcasing monthly Tiktok music trends, or how companies can persuasively utilize sound to retain customers. Songtradr also breaks down marketing campaigns, with companies such as Taco Bell, to draw parallels between Songtradr’s self-identified ‘energy level’ of a specific song used in Taco Bell commercials, and the relationship it serves as a psychological tactic to bring customers into stores. Using an AI called ‘Musicube’, Songtradr is apparently adept at predicting target audiences that songs will resonate with the most. Sell those crunchwrap supremes, baby! Loaded with 100% empty jargon and tricks.
Even in an interview focusing on the future of the company, Songtradr CEO Paul Wiltshire throws around buzz words and nonsensical phrases like “Music as a whole is inherently more valuable as a consequence” when describing artists who fear selling out. What?
Incompatible Pairings:
So how does Bandcamp fit into this picture? When Epic released the news last month about the sell off, many people were inquisitive of Songtradr’s interest in a platform like Bandcamp. While Songtradr’s intentions appear to be offering Bandcamp artists the ability to license their music to advertisers and content creators, the rest of the vision feels a bit cloudy, if not intentionally.
Cut down to brass tacks, the two platforms’ only shared interest is music, before the dichotomy branches outwords. They exist on different planes of philosophy and operation. Both companies’ business models, not to mention ethos, are cut from different cloth. Bandcamp is an artist first, community driven platform, focusing on selling independent music to fans, while Songtradr is a music licensing service who views music as ancillary to its overall business model. Songtradr cares more about profiting off of artists by selling innocuous background noise to Tiktok videos and fast food commercials, than the livelihood of the artists themselves. When trying to stage the companies as pieces, they just look a bit mismatched, as though thrown together by brute force.
Bandcamp, for Songtradr, is an opportunity for growth; a new toy to play with and grow from. Especially as the company revenue has stagnated over the past 3 years.
Despite all this, Wiltshire attempted to alleviate doubts raised over the acquisition: “We think Bandcamp is a great platform as it is,” he says. “There’s not a need to change it into anything other than what it is.” He even acknowledged the Bandcamp community, sorta, with a business focused spin: “Bandcamp legitimately has that core independent artist market. We looked at the business model, and we love the business as it is; there’s no plans to change the existing model. What we wanted to do was connect licensing to the Bandcamp offering.” All stereotypically business lines fed to quell the heated opinions of hungry beasts.
Even Wiltshire’s announcement on LinkedIn of Bandcamp’s purchase is remarkably fascinating. While one would expect the comment section to be riddled with typical LinkedIn congratulatory fodder, lovers of Bandcamp can be seen seeking reassurance, pleading for Wiltshire to clearly recognize Bandcamp as a unique platform created for/by artists, not something for venture capitalists to violently scrounged over like a piece of roadkill, and eventually lose interest in when the returns fail to show up.
Until news of the Bandcamp layoffs arrived this past Monday, Wiltshire may have gotten away with his assuaging statements. Adding insult to injury, the layoffs “disproportionately” affected the entire Bandcamp union bargaining team, even though Songtradr had “no access to union membership information”. Songtradr hadn’t recognized the Bandcamp union prior to the layoffs, only an acknowledgement of its existence.
How convenient.
See you on Monday.