What Happens After Bandcamp?
With the recent acquisition of Bandcamp by Epic Games and the apparent question about taxes and fees and who gets charged what, I can’t help but be reminded that all things digital are inherently ephemeral. As in the physical world, nothing on the internet is permanent, much as it might seem to the contrary as digital media has become the lens through which one’s life is increasingly experienced, be that any number of social apps, online messengers, streaming services or other music stores. So what happens when Bandcamp goes away?
I’m just old enough to remember doing school work before the internet was really a thing. I was there on Napster on my dial-up, I was there in IRC channels, I was there on Soulseek. I’ve seen the rise of Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and all the sundry other moneygrabs and exploitations that artists experience. Bandcamp, admirably, has at least made some moves against this — one could point to Bandcamp Friday and, more generally, their market position as a music store rather than a streaming service to back that claim up — but still. It’s another on the virtual pile.
Never have I been an early adopter of technology, but I have a Bandcamp collection. I just added three records to it, in fact. I use it every day to stream, to listen, to download music, even just to find a release date for an album or to grab a convenient jpeg of the cover art. It has become an indispensable tool for the way in which I currently experience and interact with music, and across the sphere of genres, I don’t imagine I’m alone in that. One could argue that since 2008, it’s helped reshape the way in which people who pay specifically for albums or other releases do so. It is an ecosystem where bands, labels, fans and others coexist, and that’s before you get to its editorial wing, its social aspects (I can follow you, you can follow me), and its intentions toward being a platform for livestreaming.
So what’s the next thing? I look back in my dude-of-a-certain-age way at MySpace. It’s laughable now, but MySpace was not only an encouraging outlet for bands to share their music, but a near-revolutionary direct social engagement with their fandom as well, something that neither Facebook nor Instagram — owned of course by the same company — or even YouTube have been able to do nearly as well, however dominant they’ve otherwise become through video sharing and embed capabilities. MySpace was that home, and now it’s abandoned. I don’t know who owns it — someone, I’m sure — but it is a name, a placeholder and that’s it.
What if the same thing happens to Bandcamp? Where does my digital ‘collection’ go? Am I to believe that a host server will always exist somewhere that I can access via a still-running app even after the ‘doors’ of Bandcamp are closed? Doesn’t seem reasonable. So then, are my purchases and access to this music a lease? And if Bandcamp disappears tomorrow; all that music I bought and haven’t downloaded onto a hard drive is gone?
I’m sure there’s a clause somewhere in some terms of service that I never read that explains this, but I’m curious how the notion of ownership of music can coincide with a platform that’s able to so readily disappear, like a foundation made of sand. Nobody’s going to shut down your turntable, or your CD player, or your tape player — so if you made those purchases, cheers — and you can still find records that are 100 years old at thrift stores if you know where to look and don’t mind wear and tear.
But as pristine as Bandcamp is now, I have a hard time feeling like it’s as secure. Not in the not-getting-hacked sense (that security is an illusion at the best of times), but in the being there sense. How can Bandcamp live up to the standard of having a record on your shelf for the longer term?
And what happens after it’s gone?
Tags: Bandcamp
I will cry and cry and cry if Bandcamp goes away. And Justin Timberlake owns myspace and I wish he’d do something useful with it.
Issues like this are why I will be buying physical media for as long they keep manufacturing it. If a band’s release is digital only, they won’t get my money. My biggest problem with Bandcamp now is when a band does have physical copies but you can only get it digitally on their Bandcamp page. I assume the labels are to blame for that but I could be wrong.
I remember finding so much stoner rock on mp3.com ! heheh
Hi JJ, this is a very interesting topic and a very insightful response on your part. I’m right there with you on all the points you make. I personally only interact with the music I love through Bandcamp and The Obelisk. I’ve thought a lot about this recently, and I’m sure Bandcamp will pass away or morph into something else, as everything does. Eventually, all the memories and experiences of all the great live shows, all the personal emotional reactions to all the transcendent music that we’ve listened to, those will be gone as well. I guess we should just be thankful that we have these things available to us right now, and be present for them as they happen. We should be grateful for Bandcamp, grateful for The Obelisk, and especially grateful to all the bands and musicians who give us the chance to share these experiences with them.
Cheers!
I listen to a lot of guitar driven instrumental music. Before digital music there used to be a site guitar9.com and they sold CDs of guitar oriented music. It was awesome, the home page had 2 columns one for new music and another for recent purchases and these were updated very often making it easy to find new music.
One day they got out of the business of selling CDs. I was crushed. Then I found BC and it was love at first click. Now that could go away too (but who knows maybe its profitable enough to justify leaving it alone or even making it better). Bottom line is change and the unknown suck but maybe we’ll get lucky and Epic games will keep it around or someone else will come up with something even better.
Thankfully, Bandcamp does allow purchases to be downloaded in multiple formats. I had made a habit of saving my new bandcamp buys because I wanted to keep listening in places where internet wasn’t available or where mobile data was too expensive.
But, you make a great point about the Bandcamp ecosystem. That can’t be replaced quickly. If it goes, musicians and music lovers will scatter again and who knows where they’ll land.
I don’t know the answer to any of these questions but I would like you (or anyone reading this) to know that this post and the replies above made me feel old and sad and I’m not even 40 yet.
I am.
This was an interesting & scary read. I just purchased 14 albums this weekend!!! Luckily like some others on here I also download my purchases to my hard drive, but still this frightens me if BC goes away, quite interesting this topic came up. I just read an article about another possible format coming:
https://metalinjection.net/news/has-this-legendary-producer-invented-a-new-way-to-listen-to-music
I appreciate this piece a lot; I’m a big ol’ BC supporter and realize I’ve never really pondered this question. I don’t know that I think the pondering of the what happens after…query really would ever provide a satisfying enough answer. It’s enough to know that the camp is beautiful without having to have to wonder if there are bands at the bottom of it (apologies to Richard Dawkins). By that, I mean that whether, we’re talking BBC or ABC (before bandcamp/after bandcamp), it’s a wonderful hub for people who listen to music, and/or the bands that make that music (or the labels that release it in quantities the bands themselves can’t), etc. I supported the bands I supprted and the labels I supported because I dug what they were laying down, prior to bandcamp. BC has absolutely broadened my horizons, and I dig the digital release only thing when it’s for a good acuse. Mainly, I buy CDs because my car has a CD player and that’s mostly what format I dig. When I buy through BC, if I want, I can write my little writing and hopefully make the band some new fans by doing so; reading about music is generally how I decide if I want to listen to a new band, and as it happens, generally takes place here. The free streaming part is where I get to discover new bands’ sounds, without purchasing a thing. If I dig what’s being laid down, and there’s a CD to purchase, I’ll usually end up trying to grab it, wallet permitting. My “digital” collection doesn’t really mean much to me as I don’t have the ability to listen in my car, but BC is like an open air market; everything is allowed room to breathe and is ready for aural consumption. If/when there comes to be a time after BC, yeah, I’ll mourn its demise, but my hunger for riffs runs deeper than the internet. If there weren’t a ‘net, I’m sure I’d still seek out new bands, just in some old-school reclamation of printed ‘zines or some such ancient thing. Who knows. It’s definitely an interesting time to be a riff merchant.
If the band only has digital releases on Bandcamp, I download my purchases off of to my desktop computer and then burn them to CD. Yes, I still do that. Yes, I am that old. Yes, I still have a desktop computer. In fact I’m still on Windows 7 Haha!
If the band only has digital releases on Bandcamp, I download my purchases off of to my desktop computer and then burn them to CD. Yes, I still do that. Yes, I am that old. Yes, I still have a desktop computer. In fact I’m still on Windows 7 Haha!
A great and thought provoking article JJ.. I do not think bandcamp is going anywhere. I think what we will see though is that they will not be able to keep their monthly take (10% if you have sales over 1000$ or 15% if you have less) the same since they are only earning 3% (said in another article costs are 7%).. Google Play and these that are pressuring them, if they lose the lawsuits against them, they will either have to raise the costs and accept some loss or they will lose the entire Android phone market. We will see.. I want to believe in Epic Games and hope they can pull this off.. Bandcamp is not going to go out of business though and disappear. I can not see that happening.. It might change though and bands might earn less.. We will see..
Sgt. Sunshine would be an early version of this situation. I bought the Plataformas record on Bandcamp and then their account disappeared before I downloaded it. Because of this everything I buy I download in flac and save it.
I did end up buying a vinyl copy but it’s a different version of the album. Possibly re-recorded and missing a track.