In the final part of the series, below you’ll find my heartfelt opinions on the Songtradr acquisition, the role Bancamp has played in my life over the past decade plus, and what may come for the future of the music platform. In brief, the outlook is not good.
All of this straight up sucks. While Bandcamp will not turn overnight (fingers crossed), the threat of immense change is ominously looming. A sense of urgency is upon those who purchased music from Bandcamp: Download it all as soon as possible. Batchcamp is a great Chrome extension for downloading your entire Bandcamp library. And if you’ve written for Bandcamp, save your writings.
The future of Bandcamp is in flux. Gradually, my belief is the platform will most likely succumb to being another burial plot for ‘Enshittification’; a term coined by Cory Doctorow describing how platforms die:
“Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.”
Bandcamp is already listed on the ‘Enshittification’ wikipedia page.
Where do we go from here? When the conversation steers towards Bandcamp alternatives, no music platforms come close to the community Bandcamp created; Don’t even begin to mention the toxic mess that is Soundcloud. Ethan Diamond, and other executives, haven’t been heard from since the sale, and many believe Diamond may have something up his sleeve. A better version of Bandcamp, not too dissimilar to former Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and Bluesky Social. More than likely, Diamond is waiting to show face until the heat over the acquisition dies down. We will not forget, even if everyone else does.
Owning my music, whether digitally or physically, is of the utmost importance. From the inevitable fall of Bandcamp, maybe even sooner, may come a rise in artists setting up their own hosted shops for music & merch purchase. While I’m all for independence, web hosting can be cumbersome, not to mention being an additional expense on the already thin wallets of independent musicians who lack proper pay for their contributions. It would be no surprise if indie labels, who are dependent on Bandcamp, set up online stores soon. My options for purchasing digitally boil down to a succubus like Amazon Music; yuck. From a physical perspective, concerts and live shows will prevail always as the original form of direct to artist pay (even if venues, in typical shit fashion, take a significant cut of the merch). Of course, independent record stores are always a great option, and places like Rough Trade will become a hot commodity, if they aren’t already.
To believe an internet platform, such as Bandcamp, could have a profound impact on my life is a funny notion to ponder. But this is the absolute truth. Music has always carried a direct line of influence on my development. Artists, albums, and songs can be plucked from specific moments in my timeline where their words, melodies, and feelings helped me transform into the person I am today. Bandcamp has been a harbinger on that journey, delivering a tool for music discovery, and a voice for my love of the art. My friends & family know my boundless admiration for the platform, probably to a fault. Bandcamp has brought me deep joy from strengthening the connection between my interaction with the world, and the way music shapes it. Without the platform around, this sense of loss will become an excruciatingly heavy weight for an indeterminate amount of time.
Does the possibility of Songtradr keeping to their word exist, and this whole series is just a lover of Bandcamp crying wolf? Maybe. Maybe Songtradr will leave Bandcamp untouched, other than optimization of its licensing features. In a perfect world, the two companies could co-exist harmoniously, each sticking to what they each do best. The issue stems, as discussed prior in the series, from the core principles of the companies; they’re both remarkably different in terms of business models and ethos. Bandcamp and Songtradr, are hardly congruent. The resulting platform would be like smushing two mismatched puzzle pieces together to make a fit; the whole puzzle would cascade terribly from there. I cannot fathom a future in which Songtradr wouldn’t eventually swallow Bancamp whole, turning each current Bandcamp feature into a revenue booster, essentially destroying the fundamentals of what makes Bandcamp, Bandcamp.
My feelings on this whole malignant acquisition can be simply boiled down in this Kafkaesque thought:
They will come for the things you love. They will come, and they will destroy them. They will manipulate them to their will, squeezing every ounce of worth from the deprived starving bodies of the things you love. They transform the things you love, mercilessly bending and contorting them into unrecognizable mutated forms of their prior selves. And you will look on in horror, feeling distraught, anguished, and helpless. They will do all this, and then move on without a shred of empathy for the path of scorched earth that they, themselves, have created. There will be no recollection of ever doing so, only a shifting of blame as they mutter the narcissist’s prayer. They will come when you’re not looking, and they will come when you’re not ready.
Songtradr will soon cast the final stone in the extinction of a beloved rare species.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this series. The topic is very dear to me, even if Bandcamp is just another music platform to some. Despite it’s solemn informative nature, the series was a fun to write. As the news surrounding Bandcamp develops, I’ll keep everyone updated with the goings on related to the acquisition, and any future thoughts I may conceive.
Thank you for reading, let me know your thoughts below.
Cory