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Anti-algorithmic music: How Bandcamp is helping artists beat the odds

289 points by vemv 6y ago

codevark 6y ago
When most people are "insane", the term "insane" has little meaning. Your point (-ed little head) ?
dhosek 6y ago
Worth noting. Tomorrow (3 July), Bandcamp is waiving their revenue share on all sales. More info here: https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-covid-19-fundraiser https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-covid-19-fundra...
- Melting_Harps 6y ago
  Exactly. I was just about to post that, I'm going to be buying a few discographies tomm. Specifically, Carpenter Brut's stuff who released a really crazy film based [1] on its music video for Turbo Killer [2]. It's worth checking out if you're into rock-sounding synthwave with 80's themed psychedelic visuals. I'm also buying like 3 more to support artists. ABout 7 years go now, Soundcloud enabled Bitcoin donations, and about a team of 5 guys includin me went on a tipping frenzy and tried to get adoption going that way. It was funny, because reddit allowed for direct Bitcoin donations there via a bot and you could name it whatever you wanted. So we did the same on Soundcloud, it's funny because I log into my old soundcloud account at the History of them is still there. Anyhow, I tipped like 20-30 guys on SC and even got some runway from an early adopter ($100?) to take it further and met a few EDM guys coming into Hollywood/LA area for a few sets and tried to explain it to them as none of them picked up there funds. Apparently, Soundcould didn't do a good job of notifying them that they had money waiting for them so ultimately it failed. I ended up giving the Bits I had left into people who set up full nodes on the network. But I always thought, especially as a DJ myself, that supporting artists with micropayments would be a good solution. Youtube now allows for tipping in their chatbox as I saw a few in house performances/sets be tipped by followers and fans, but it was always over $1+, which is awesome, but entirely impractical if you want people to send what little they may have on hand to listen a song/remix/dj set/podcast for most people unless you have a very dedicated and quite frankly affluent followers. I'd rather have a 100k-million fans tip 10-50 cents then the four or five die-hards give $10 so I can continue to make content. Paetreon, Gofundme, Kickstarter and such are just needless middlemen at this point and hosting content is super cheap with even multimedia with a $5/month vimeo account. Anyhow, happy hunting tomorrow, I'm all digital now so I can buy and support a lot more music/artists I otherwise had to ignore because of format. 1: http://bloodmachines.com/ http://bloodmachines.com/ 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er416Ad3R1g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er416Ad3R1g
EamonnMR 6y ago
I can't say enough good stuff about Bandcamp. All of the underground IDM is on there, the app is great (it caches stuff locally) and they let you download the music you buy in high quality. Setting up and customizing a store is also very easy. I even got a sale on there once, which is more than I can say for any other music selling/streaming platform.
- 6AA4FD 6y ago
  Any underground IDM recommendations?
  - nefitty 6y ago
    I personally don’t have any recommendations but I’ve found awesome stuff by following other users with similar tastes. I get an email letting me know when they bought something new, and presumably if they like it enough to pay for it and share my taste then it will probably be really good.
  - Melting_Harps 6y ago
    > Any underground IDM recommendations? If you're a fan of the 90s-2000 stuff from SF's SomaFM [1] their playlist is always pretty good, I actually ripped their entire station (back in the early 2000s there was only Groove Salad and maybe 2-3 others) for 6 months and bought pieces here and there as I went along. My favorite was a rare Lloop album, and a remix album of The Irresistible Force's track Nepalese Bliss. I always wanted a vinyl copy of Stryke - Introspection, I already have the CD version, but couldn't find it anywhere, even on Discogs after all these years. I got a bunch of Higher Intelligence Agency stuff, too somewhere in a box. It's hard to know exactly when IDM turns into Ambient, and where Ambient can cross over to Triphop on that station, but I found a ton of amazing stuff from really niche artists like Global Communication, Mark Pritchard, who eventually got into the same Dubstep sound I was into later on and got his stuff released on one of the most venerates labels at the Time (DeepMedi). He even came from Australia and played at the Dub War nights in NY with Joe Nice. I actually met Gel-Sol randomly in a chatroom, and he gave me a cut of his album with no strings attached [2] when I recognized his name back when I was an incoming freshman living in the dorms to listen and review while we spoke. I never saw him again after we spent all night talking about EDM/IDM artists we liked and the album ahead of its release. My GF at the time just rolled her eyes and told me I could have just told her I didn't want to hang out instead of making up some elaborate lie to stay in my room all night on the computer. I just played Few and Far Between while updating this with links and it still puts a smile on my face remembering that night. Those were crazy fun days that I'm still fond of, especially given where my musical tastes have gone throughout the years spanning/DJ'ng dark deep UK halfstep 140/170BPM and now into Darksynth and Dark Elctro as it doesn't make any sense as I originally come from the chiller, cerebral, calmer IDM ambient side of EDM, too. Here is another playlist with featured Groove salad tracks to check out [3]. Glad to see the Bandcamp guys checking in, thanks for what you do, guys! 1: https://somafm.com/ https://somafm.com/ 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOCSzUMn4MA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOCSzUMn4MA 3: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC92F5746C6D6A454 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC92F5746C6D6A454
hanklazard 6y ago
Bandcamp is the best. Reasonable prices on drm-free, lossless downloads plus an app that lets you easily stream your purchases on the go. I happily spend my money there on a weekly basis. On a related note, if there were a similar site for drm-free movie purchases, I’d be all over it.
- bhauer 6y ago
  > On a related note, if there were a similar site for drm-free movie purchases, I’d be all over it. No joke. Call me old fashioned, but I love self-hosting my music collection and BandCamp is a key in facilitating that. I would do the same with movies if it were an option.
greenie_beans 6y ago
I love Bandcamp!
grmnygrmny2 6y ago
Hey, we're on HN! As mentioned elsewhere we're waiting revenue share tomorrow. We've got a handy timezone-aware site for tomorrow and other future fundraisers: https://isitbandcampfriday.com https://isitbandcampfriday.com A few records were announced this week that I'm pretty excited for, if you need some inspiration: http://music.sufjan.com/album/the-ascension http://music.sufjan.com/album/the-ascension https://videoage.bandcamp.com/album/pleasure-line https://videoage.bandcamp.com/album/pleasure-line https://washedout.bandcamp.com/album/purple-noon https://washedout.bandcamp.com/album/purple-noon
- hobg 6y ago
  Y'all are awesome! Any chance that the app will get Chromecast support?
  - grmnygrmny2 6y ago
    Hey, thanks! I can't really comment, but it is a common request... I'm curious, are you using Chromecast via TV or Chromecast Audio (or something else)?
    - rch 6y ago
      I'm using both Chromecast widgets.
    - eythian 6y ago
      This is something I'd really like too, I have the speakers in my apartment set up with a pair of Chromecast audios, and would use the bandcamp app a lot more if it could work with them. At the moment I just try to find the bands on Google music instead, because that does work.
    - hobg 6y ago
      I have both devices but in this case it would be Chromecast Audio. I currently get by with casting my screen but native Chromecast support in Bandcamp would be much better - music would go directly from bandcamp.com to Chromecast Audio as opposed to bandcamp.com to my phone to Chromecast. Would save a lot of phone battery and the extra decode + reencode on phone that happens in casting the screen.
herewulf 6y ago
I love that Bandcamp provides FLAC downloads. I have racks of CDs and I'm not keen on buying more physical items which I just rip and listen to digitally. A FLAC download completely replaces a CD for me. And for my convenience they also provide Ogg Vorbis downloads which I prefer for putting on mobile devices due to reduced storage requirements. With most any other site you can only get MP3s. When I first discovered Bandcamp ~5 years ago it was pretty hard to find (metal) bands of interest. By now the site has really caught on and tons of established bands that I have been listening to for years are releasing their music there. It's still also really good for obscure stuff too. There was a band from my city (in the USA) whose album could only be bought in Germany. Only after they made a Bandcamp release was I finally able to obtain it!
- sk0g 6y ago
  I've been waiting Caladan Brood to put their music on streaming services for ages, but they've been on BandCamp forever! You're not from Salt Lake City, are you?!
  - herewulf 6y ago
    I am, in fact! Good guess! I was actually referring to the related project Gallowbraid. Caladan Brood is great too. Ironically, I heard about both of these bands from a friend in Germany. https://gallowbraid-northernsilence.bandcamp.com https://gallowbraid-northernsilence.bandcamp.com
    - chupasaurus 6y ago
      Waited for your confirmation, although there aren't many bands from US on Northern Silence IIRC. Brood's album was on Spotify for a brief time until it was retracted (by label or guys no one knows). Since there was some movement on GB's site there might be some hope, as that request is literally under each video with songs from either project. Cheers from Urals!
- f1refly 6y ago
  You could also just reencode the flac files to opus/ogg yourself, it's not like that takes any resources to speak of
Sektor 6y ago
Frankly I've stopped using any kind of 'less legal' method of getting MP3s and just buy FLACs from Bandcamp daily now. It's a great site and pretty much everything I've ever wanted is there.
- dijksterhuis 6y ago
  This. Absolutely this. I used to be terrible for "less legal" downloads until I discovered beatport, Juno and bandcamp. I'm pretty sure bandcamp is one of the reasons for my vinyl habit now. Complete 180.
  - te_chris 6y ago
    Me too. Though I went spotify -> vinyl -> bandcamp. Spotify is still useful, but much better to own.
sickcodebruh 6y ago
Bandcamp has been of the best things to ever happen to DIY music. It’s given a tremendous amount of power to artists, power that used to be held almost exclusively by labels. We’re finally at a point where many bands can make decent money without having to worry about “getting signed” to a label and losing so much control in the process.
- hnhg 6y ago
  While this is true, it should also be noted that distributors have already updated their business model to take a cut of Bandcamp sales. e.g. label X uses distributor Y to manage the process of their tracks in as many online stores and streaming platforms as possible, and to collect revenue. Distributor Y then takes the credentials for Bandcamp and operates that in the same way as it does everywhere else, taking a certain sizable. It's still better than the old model but it doesn't mean all money goes to the artists.
  - sickcodebruh 6y ago
    I’m not aware of any digital distribution platforms that automate the Bandcamp process and take a cut of that revenue, though I wouldn’t be surprised if that was happening somewhere. Which distributors are doing this? It should also be said that plenty of labels are operating Bandcamp pages, where they can take a cut of digital sales and then pay (or not pay...) artists. It can make sense for artists who are trying leverage the resources of a larger organization. IMO it’s something bands should negotiate aggressively since Bandcamp might be their best (possibly their only!) shot at recouping their expenses or selling merch.
shmerl 6y ago
Bandcamp should implement support for Media Session API, to be able to use desktop integrated player controls when their playlists are opened in the browser. Youtube supports it and it works pretty well with Firefox and KDE plasma browser integration. But Bandcamp palylists don't.
- grmnygrmny2 6y ago
  This is cool.. I was trying to figure out how to get macOS next/prev controls to trigger events in Safari but haven't had any luck. This seems like a cool API for doing that sort of thing (though, sadly, no Safari support)
  - shmerl 6y ago
    Yeah, it's pretty cool. I discovered it after noticing that Youtube playlist in Firefox started reacting on the player controls in KDE notification area.
    - ognarb 6y ago
      And with KDE Connect, the Youtube videos automatically pause then you get a call and resume immediately after the call ended.
comprev 6y ago
Can we please have playlist functionality? I have to download then manage via iTunes and upload to my phone, which seems crazy as I have 100s of tracks available on BC itself...
- tweetle_beetle 6y ago
  I actually find it refreshingly anti-commercial that Bandcamp has a fairly basic app and a low key approach to curation. I think having a very basic player in the app fits well with a kind of anti-DRM "it's your's now, we don't care what you do with it/BYO[everything else]" mentality. Focusing on an app often seems to lead to a slippery slope of metric driven development, feature creep, engagement analytics, notifications, etc. First it's personal playlists, then it's publishing playlists, then it's liking other people's playlists, then it's artist endorsed playlists, then it's sharing playlists to other social media platforms, then it's being notified that a playlist you like has been updated, etc. etc. (My one gripe with the app is the slightly childish decision to hide the download links for music you already own.)
rendaw 6y ago
Self plug because it's super relevant (I think)! I made Bandhiking https://bandhiking.isandrew.com/ https://bandhiking.isandrew.com/ to help find new music on Bandcamp. It's basically a randomized top list player, but it lets you just put some music on in the background and mark the stuff you liked.
PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
I love bandcamp. Just the other day I read some reviews of the new Jessie Ware album. She's a fairly mainstream, moderately successful pop artist from the UK. I thought ... no way she's on Bandcamp. But ... there it was, her brand new album, available in FLAC, ogg, whatever. Bandcamp is the union of everything that was good about the original mp3.com and cdbaby. ps. if you like 80s sophisticated disco, that Jessie Ware album "What's Your Pleasure" is totally awesome.
jcun4128 6y ago
I do find it interesting how you pay your own price(I don't know what to choose). Also RIP Her's, their albums are on there.
discordance 6y ago
Bandcamp is proof that you don't have to be a predator to your clients or your users to run an online business. I love your service and I hope you all keep it up!
wintorez 6y ago
Even-though I have an Spotify subscription, I buy music from Bandcamp to support lesser known bands and artists, such as The Midnight and FM-84.
comprev 6y ago
I've probably spent thousands of Euros over the years on music via Bandcamp, mostly in the form of vinyl. Big thank-you to the team behind Bandcamp and their fairer payout model to artists (compared to other outlets)
tomduncalf 6y ago
I built a tool a few years ago to search for your top Spotify artists on Bandcamp. It’s just a simple front end on a Spotify API query, unfortunately there’s no Bandcamp API so all it can do is link to a search for that artist, but it could still provide a useful jumping off point for discovery: https://tomduncalf.github.io/supportify/ https://tomduncalf.github.io/supportify/ It all happens client side, no tracking or data collection or anything - you can view the source to check :)
- bambax 6y ago
  Excellent! The code looks clean too. I'm looking for a tool to export Spotify playlists to text/csv and can only find weird commercial solutions; maybe the way to go is to use `spotify-web-api-js` and build it on the client side.
  - tomduncalf 6y ago
    Ah I used to use https://www.playlist-converter.net/ https://www.playlist-converter.net/ but seems it has recently stopped working :(. Yeah you could do something with the API fairly easily I think, the Spotify API is actually awesome, has some really cool stuff like audio analysis and recommendations for tracks in there.
woudsma 6y ago
As a DJ I use Bandcamp a lot. There's so much stuff on there that you just cannot find on other platforms such as Beatport. It also feels great to pay the artist or label directly. Often they let you set your own price for an EP or album (with some low minimum, like 5eu for the whole EP). Truly an amazing platform.
dharma1 6y ago
Love bandcamp. Being able to buy the whole catalogue from an artist with one click is great. Maybe patreon style subscription for artists you like could also be interesting - reliable subscription revenue would make a world of difference to many artists. And please add playlists!
thdrdt 6y ago
The "Selling Right Now" feature on the homepage shows it's success. Some years ago you could read what was being sold. Today it's scrolling too fast :)
meta_boy 6y ago
Very nice to see Bandcamp here. As it so reminds me, I have some ambient tracks on Soundcloud that I made during a really crazy trip over here in the pandemics. If any fellow hackers would like to listen, here. Would these be interesting in bandcamp? https://soundcloud.com/nidnogg https://soundcloud.com/nidnogg
hootbootscoot 6y ago
Bandcamp is great! (speaking as an artist & a fan/listener both)
whywhywhywhy 6y ago
Love the UI and feel of Bandcamp, it's like a glass of iced water in algorithm driven hell.
l72 6y ago
I love Bandcamp. It is my primary place for exploring and purchasing new music. Their generous policies around previewing, the ability to browse through niche labels to find similar music, and flac support make it hard to beat. I am also really happy that Paysage d'Hiver got a call out in the article. Such an amazing, one person, lo-fi, atmospheric black metal. It's great to program to as it just drowns out any distractions. > Someone grabs an LP from Paysage d'Hiver, the Swiss black metal band.
- herewulf 6y ago
  Nice.. https://paysagedhiver.bandcamp.com https://paysagedhiver.bandcamp.com The one (20 minute) track that I listened to had sort of a atmospheric Bathory feel.
geden 6y ago
Bandcamp experience for an artist is good but the backend could sure do with a spruce, particularly the reporting and the API for merch fulfilment. That said anything pushing against the chilling affect of Spotify is a win.
greenie_beans 6y ago
This might the most positive comment thread in the history of Hacker News?
brooklyn_ashey 6y ago
I can say that Bandcamp made this release possible... it just got released this week! and this is a record that waited years to come out and is a big band featuring some of the best/most interesting jazz musicians in NYC - the compositions are incredible— https://andrew-dangelo.bandcamp.com/ https://andrew-dangelo.bandcamp.com/
e12e 6y ago
Love to see Bandcamp get some love on hn. I'd like to give a shout out to their Bandcamp weekly podcast, which I think to a great job of showcasing releases and artists: Current episode: https://bandcamp.com/?show=378 https://bandcamp.com/?show=378
1MachineElf 6y ago
For discovering artists, I primarily use YouTube. When I want to listen more to said artists, it's usually Bandcamp where I can find the rest of their discography. Probably my preference for the general Vaporwave genre and their prevalence on that platform has a lot to do with this.

289 points by vemv 6y ago

When most people are "insane", the term "insane" has little meaning. Your point (-ed little head) ?

Worth noting. Tomorrow (3 July), Bandcamp is waiving their revenue share on all sales. More info here: https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-covid-19-fundraiser https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-covid-19-fundra...

Melting_Harps 6y ago
Exactly. I was just about to post that, I'm going to be buying a few discographies tomm. Specifically, Carpenter Brut's stuff who released a really crazy film based [1] on its music video for Turbo Killer [2]. It's worth checking out if you're into rock-sounding synthwave with 80's themed psychedelic visuals. I'm also buying like 3 more to support artists. ABout 7 years go now, Soundcloud enabled Bitcoin donations, and about a team of 5 guys includin me went on a tipping frenzy and tried to get adoption going that way. It was funny, because reddit allowed for direct Bitcoin donations there via a bot and you could name it whatever you wanted. So we did the same on Soundcloud, it's funny because I log into my old soundcloud account at the History of them is still there. Anyhow, I tipped like 20-30 guys on SC and even got some runway from an early adopter ($100?) to take it further and met a few EDM guys coming into Hollywood/LA area for a few sets and tried to explain it to them as none of them picked up there funds. Apparently, Soundcould didn't do a good job of notifying them that they had money waiting for them so ultimately it failed. I ended up giving the Bits I had left into people who set up full nodes on the network. But I always thought, especially as a DJ myself, that supporting artists with micropayments would be a good solution. Youtube now allows for tipping in their chatbox as I saw a few in house performances/sets be tipped by followers and fans, but it was always over $1+, which is awesome, but entirely impractical if you want people to send what little they may have on hand to listen a song/remix/dj set/podcast for most people unless you have a very dedicated and quite frankly affluent followers. I'd rather have a 100k-million fans tip 10-50 cents then the four or five die-hards give $10 so I can continue to make content. Paetreon, Gofundme, Kickstarter and such are just needless middlemen at this point and hosting content is super cheap with even multimedia with a $5/month vimeo account. Anyhow, happy hunting tomorrow, I'm all digital now so I can buy and support a lot more music/artists I otherwise had to ignore because of format. 1: http://bloodmachines.com/ http://bloodmachines.com/ 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er416Ad3R1g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er416Ad3R1g

EamonnMR 6y ago

I can't say enough good stuff about Bandcamp. All of the underground IDM is on there, the app is great (it caches stuff locally) and they let you download the music you buy in high quality. Setting up and customizing a store is also very easy. I even got a sale on there once, which is more than I can say for any other music selling/streaming platform.

6AA4FD 6y ago
Any underground IDM recommendations?
- nefitty 6y ago
  I personally don’t have any recommendations but I’ve found awesome stuff by following other users with similar tastes. I get an email letting me know when they bought something new, and presumably if they like it enough to pay for it and share my taste then it will probably be really good.
- Melting_Harps 6y ago
  > Any underground IDM recommendations? If you're a fan of the 90s-2000 stuff from SF's SomaFM [1] their playlist is always pretty good, I actually ripped their entire station (back in the early 2000s there was only Groove Salad and maybe 2-3 others) for 6 months and bought pieces here and there as I went along. My favorite was a rare Lloop album, and a remix album of The Irresistible Force's track Nepalese Bliss. I always wanted a vinyl copy of Stryke - Introspection, I already have the CD version, but couldn't find it anywhere, even on Discogs after all these years. I got a bunch of Higher Intelligence Agency stuff, too somewhere in a box. It's hard to know exactly when IDM turns into Ambient, and where Ambient can cross over to Triphop on that station, but I found a ton of amazing stuff from really niche artists like Global Communication, Mark Pritchard, who eventually got into the same Dubstep sound I was into later on and got his stuff released on one of the most venerates labels at the Time (DeepMedi). He even came from Australia and played at the Dub War nights in NY with Joe Nice. I actually met Gel-Sol randomly in a chatroom, and he gave me a cut of his album with no strings attached [2] when I recognized his name back when I was an incoming freshman living in the dorms to listen and review while we spoke. I never saw him again after we spent all night talking about EDM/IDM artists we liked and the album ahead of its release. My GF at the time just rolled her eyes and told me I could have just told her I didn't want to hang out instead of making up some elaborate lie to stay in my room all night on the computer. I just played Few and Far Between while updating this with links and it still puts a smile on my face remembering that night. Those were crazy fun days that I'm still fond of, especially given where my musical tastes have gone throughout the years spanning/DJ'ng dark deep UK halfstep 140/170BPM and now into Darksynth and Dark Elctro as it doesn't make any sense as I originally come from the chiller, cerebral, calmer IDM ambient side of EDM, too. Here is another playlist with featured Groove salad tracks to check out [3]. Glad to see the Bandcamp guys checking in, thanks for what you do, guys! 1: https://somafm.com/ https://somafm.com/ 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOCSzUMn4MA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOCSzUMn4MA 3: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC92F5746C6D6A454 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC92F5746C6D6A454

hanklazard 6y ago

Bandcamp is the best. Reasonable prices on drm-free, lossless downloads plus an app that lets you easily stream your purchases on the go. I happily spend my money there on a weekly basis. On a related note, if there were a similar site for drm-free movie purchases, I’d be all over it.

bhauer 6y ago
> On a related note, if there were a similar site for drm-free movie purchases, I’d be all over it. No joke. Call me old fashioned, but I love self-hosting my music collection and BandCamp is a key in facilitating that. I would do the same with movies if it were an option.

greenie_beans 6y ago

I love Bandcamp!

grmnygrmny2 6y ago

Hey, we're on HN! As mentioned elsewhere we're waiting revenue share tomorrow. We've got a handy timezone-aware site for tomorrow and other future fundraisers: https://isitbandcampfriday.com https://isitbandcampfriday.com A few records were announced this week that I'm pretty excited for, if you need some inspiration: http://music.sufjan.com/album/the-ascension http://music.sufjan.com/album/the-ascension https://videoage.bandcamp.com/album/pleasure-line https://videoage.bandcamp.com/album/pleasure-line https://washedout.bandcamp.com/album/purple-noon https://washedout.bandcamp.com/album/purple-noon

hobg 6y ago
Y'all are awesome! Any chance that the app will get Chromecast support?
- grmnygrmny2 6y ago
  Hey, thanks! I can't really comment, but it is a common request... I'm curious, are you using Chromecast via TV or Chromecast Audio (or something else)?
  - rch 6y ago
    I'm using both Chromecast widgets.
  - eythian 6y ago
    This is something I'd really like too, I have the speakers in my apartment set up with a pair of Chromecast audios, and would use the bandcamp app a lot more if it could work with them. At the moment I just try to find the bands on Google music instead, because that does work.
  - hobg 6y ago
    I have both devices but in this case it would be Chromecast Audio. I currently get by with casting my screen but native Chromecast support in Bandcamp would be much better - music would go directly from bandcamp.com to Chromecast Audio as opposed to bandcamp.com to my phone to Chromecast. Would save a lot of phone battery and the extra decode + reencode on phone that happens in casting the screen.

herewulf 6y ago

I love that Bandcamp provides FLAC downloads. I have racks of CDs and I'm not keen on buying more physical items which I just rip and listen to digitally. A FLAC download completely replaces a CD for me. And for my convenience they also provide Ogg Vorbis downloads which I prefer for putting on mobile devices due to reduced storage requirements. With most any other site you can only get MP3s. When I first discovered Bandcamp ~5 years ago it was pretty hard to find (metal) bands of interest. By now the site has really caught on and tons of established bands that I have been listening to for years are releasing their music there. It's still also really good for obscure stuff too. There was a band from my city (in the USA) whose album could only be bought in Germany. Only after they made a Bandcamp release was I finally able to obtain it!

sk0g 6y ago
I've been waiting Caladan Brood to put their music on streaming services for ages, but they've been on BandCamp forever! You're not from Salt Lake City, are you?!
- herewulf 6y ago
  I am, in fact! Good guess! I was actually referring to the related project Gallowbraid. Caladan Brood is great too. Ironically, I heard about both of these bands from a friend in Germany. https://gallowbraid-northernsilence.bandcamp.com https://gallowbraid-northernsilence.bandcamp.com
  - chupasaurus 6y ago
    Waited for your confirmation, although there aren't many bands from US on Northern Silence IIRC. Brood's album was on Spotify for a brief time until it was retracted (by label or guys no one knows). Since there was some movement on GB's site there might be some hope, as that request is literally under each video with songs from either project. Cheers from Urals!
f1refly 6y ago
You could also just reencode the flac files to opus/ogg yourself, it's not like that takes any resources to speak of

Sektor 6y ago

Frankly I've stopped using any kind of 'less legal' method of getting MP3s and just buy FLACs from Bandcamp daily now. It's a great site and pretty much everything I've ever wanted is there.

dijksterhuis 6y ago
This. Absolutely this. I used to be terrible for "less legal" downloads until I discovered beatport, Juno and bandcamp. I'm pretty sure bandcamp is one of the reasons for my vinyl habit now. Complete 180.
- te_chris 6y ago
  Me too. Though I went spotify -> vinyl -> bandcamp. Spotify is still useful, but much better to own.

sickcodebruh 6y ago

Bandcamp has been of the best things to ever happen to DIY music. It’s given a tremendous amount of power to artists, power that used to be held almost exclusively by labels. We’re finally at a point where many bands can make decent money without having to worry about “getting signed” to a label and losing so much control in the process.

hnhg 6y ago
While this is true, it should also be noted that distributors have already updated their business model to take a cut of Bandcamp sales. e.g. label X uses distributor Y to manage the process of their tracks in as many online stores and streaming platforms as possible, and to collect revenue. Distributor Y then takes the credentials for Bandcamp and operates that in the same way as it does everywhere else, taking a certain sizable. It's still better than the old model but it doesn't mean all money goes to the artists.
- sickcodebruh 6y ago
  I’m not aware of any digital distribution platforms that automate the Bandcamp process and take a cut of that revenue, though I wouldn’t be surprised if that was happening somewhere. Which distributors are doing this? It should also be said that plenty of labels are operating Bandcamp pages, where they can take a cut of digital sales and then pay (or not pay...) artists. It can make sense for artists who are trying leverage the resources of a larger organization. IMO it’s something bands should negotiate aggressively since Bandcamp might be their best (possibly their only!) shot at recouping their expenses or selling merch.

shmerl 6y ago

Bandcamp should implement support for Media Session API, to be able to use desktop integrated player controls when their playlists are opened in the browser. Youtube supports it and it works pretty well with Firefox and KDE plasma browser integration. But Bandcamp palylists don't.

grmnygrmny2 6y ago
This is cool.. I was trying to figure out how to get macOS next/prev controls to trigger events in Safari but haven't had any luck. This seems like a cool API for doing that sort of thing (though, sadly, no Safari support)
- shmerl 6y ago
  Yeah, it's pretty cool. I discovered it after noticing that Youtube playlist in Firefox started reacting on the player controls in KDE notification area.
  - ognarb 6y ago
    And with KDE Connect, the Youtube videos automatically pause then you get a call and resume immediately after the call ended.

comprev 6y ago

Can we please have playlist functionality? I have to download then manage via iTunes and upload to my phone, which seems crazy as I have 100s of tracks available on BC itself...

tweetle_beetle 6y ago
I actually find it refreshingly anti-commercial that Bandcamp has a fairly basic app and a low key approach to curation. I think having a very basic player in the app fits well with a kind of anti-DRM "it's your's now, we don't care what you do with it/BYO[everything else]" mentality. Focusing on an app often seems to lead to a slippery slope of metric driven development, feature creep, engagement analytics, notifications, etc. First it's personal playlists, then it's publishing playlists, then it's liking other people's playlists, then it's artist endorsed playlists, then it's sharing playlists to other social media platforms, then it's being notified that a playlist you like has been updated, etc. etc. (My one gripe with the app is the slightly childish decision to hide the download links for music you already own.)

rendaw 6y ago

Self plug because it's super relevant (I think)! I made Bandhiking https://bandhiking.isandrew.com/ https://bandhiking.isandrew.com/ to help find new music on Bandcamp. It's basically a randomized top list player, but it lets you just put some music on in the background and mark the stuff you liked.

PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago

I love bandcamp. Just the other day I read some reviews of the new Jessie Ware album. She's a fairly mainstream, moderately successful pop artist from the UK. I thought ... no way she's on Bandcamp. But ... there it was, her brand new album, available in FLAC, ogg, whatever. Bandcamp is the union of everything that was good about the original mp3.com and cdbaby. ps. if you like 80s sophisticated disco, that Jessie Ware album "What's Your Pleasure" is totally awesome.

jcun4128 6y ago

I do find it interesting how you pay your own price(I don't know what to choose). Also RIP Her's, their albums are on there.

discordance 6y ago

Bandcamp is proof that you don't have to be a predator to your clients or your users to run an online business. I love your service and I hope you all keep it up!

wintorez 6y ago

Even-though I have an Spotify subscription, I buy music from Bandcamp to support lesser known bands and artists, such as The Midnight and FM-84.

comprev 6y ago

I've probably spent thousands of Euros over the years on music via Bandcamp, mostly in the form of vinyl. Big thank-you to the team behind Bandcamp and their fairer payout model to artists (compared to other outlets)

tomduncalf 6y ago

I built a tool a few years ago to search for your top Spotify artists on Bandcamp. It’s just a simple front end on a Spotify API query, unfortunately there’s no Bandcamp API so all it can do is link to a search for that artist, but it could still provide a useful jumping off point for discovery: https://tomduncalf.github.io/supportify/ https://tomduncalf.github.io/supportify/ It all happens client side, no tracking or data collection or anything - you can view the source to check :)

bambax 6y ago
Excellent! The code looks clean too. I'm looking for a tool to export Spotify playlists to text/csv and can only find weird commercial solutions; maybe the way to go is to use `spotify-web-api-js` and build it on the client side.
- tomduncalf 6y ago
  Ah I used to use https://www.playlist-converter.net/ https://www.playlist-converter.net/ but seems it has recently stopped working :(. Yeah you could do something with the API fairly easily I think, the Spotify API is actually awesome, has some really cool stuff like audio analysis and recommendations for tracks in there.

woudsma 6y ago

As a DJ I use Bandcamp a lot. There's so much stuff on there that you just cannot find on other platforms such as Beatport. It also feels great to pay the artist or label directly. Often they let you set your own price for an EP or album (with some low minimum, like 5eu for the whole EP). Truly an amazing platform.

dharma1 6y ago

Love bandcamp. Being able to buy the whole catalogue from an artist with one click is great. Maybe patreon style subscription for artists you like could also be interesting - reliable subscription revenue would make a world of difference to many artists. And please add playlists!

thdrdt 6y ago

The "Selling Right Now" feature on the homepage shows it's success. Some years ago you could read what was being sold. Today it's scrolling too fast :)

meta_boy 6y ago

Very nice to see Bandcamp here. As it so reminds me, I have some ambient tracks on Soundcloud that I made during a really crazy trip over here in the pandemics. If any fellow hackers would like to listen, here. Would these be interesting in bandcamp? https://soundcloud.com/nidnogg https://soundcloud.com/nidnogg

hootbootscoot 6y ago

Bandcamp is great! (speaking as an artist & a fan/listener both)

whywhywhywhy 6y ago

Love the UI and feel of Bandcamp, it's like a glass of iced water in algorithm driven hell.

l72 6y ago

I love Bandcamp. It is my primary place for exploring and purchasing new music. Their generous policies around previewing, the ability to browse through niche labels to find similar music, and flac support make it hard to beat. I am also really happy that Paysage d'Hiver got a call out in the article. Such an amazing, one person, lo-fi, atmospheric black metal. It's great to program to as it just drowns out any distractions. > Someone grabs an LP from Paysage d'Hiver, the Swiss black metal band.

herewulf 6y ago
Nice.. https://paysagedhiver.bandcamp.com https://paysagedhiver.bandcamp.com The one (20 minute) track that I listened to had sort of a atmospheric Bathory feel.

geden 6y ago

Bandcamp experience for an artist is good but the backend could sure do with a spruce, particularly the reporting and the API for merch fulfilment. That said anything pushing against the chilling affect of Spotify is a win.

greenie_beans 6y ago

This might the most positive comment thread in the history of Hacker News?

brooklyn_ashey 6y ago

I can say that Bandcamp made this release possible... it just got released this week! and this is a record that waited years to come out and is a big band featuring some of the best/most interesting jazz musicians in NYC - the compositions are incredible— https://andrew-dangelo.bandcamp.com/ https://andrew-dangelo.bandcamp.com/

e12e 6y ago

Love to see Bandcamp get some love on hn. I'd like to give a shout out to their Bandcamp weekly podcast, which I think to a great job of showcasing releases and artists: Current episode: https://bandcamp.com/?show=378 https://bandcamp.com/?show=378

1MachineElf 6y ago

For discovering artists, I primarily use YouTube. When I want to listen more to said artists, it's usually Bandcamp where I can find the rest of their discography. Probably my preference for the general Vaporwave genre and their prevalence on that platform has a lot to do with this.