3 ms·

> It's perfect as it is. Artist uploads music, people pay for music and download it. Don't change anything. Coudn't agree less. Listen: I love Bandcamp and buy

by deng 3y ago

> It's perfect as it is. Artist uploads music, people pay for music and download it. Don't change anything. Coudn't agree less. Listen: I love Bandcamp and buy a lot of music there. However, it could be so much better. It is far from perfect. For starters: the collection view. It's as barebones as possible, just a simple grid of stuff you bought. No way of separating albums and tracks (which is why I don't buy single tracks anymore because it just clutters my collection). No way of sorting according to different criteria. No possibility for more compact views (list view, anyone?). I get that lots of people just download stuff and use their own music management software/app, but in that case: why is there no way to download stuff in bulk? Sorry, but it's simply bad. Another thing that has annoyed me for years is if artists release through labels: If I click on an artist, I want to see their music, not all music from the same label so that I have to painfully look through the whole catalogue to find more music from the same artist. Also, if I want to be notified for new music from that artist, I can only follow the label, so I get notified for everything they release. What kind of insanity is this? With very few exceptions, I don't care about labels (sorry label owners, but that's just how it is). Another point is discovery: Through Bandcamp, I have discovered way more new music than through any other service just by browsing through new releases and the daily picks. However, there's so much more potential here. There already are fans you can follow and artist recommendations, but it's just all extremely clunky and discovering people with similar taste in music is basically impossible. Bandcamp has so much information about my musical taste and which artists I like, it should be able to do much more with this.

thirdsun 3y ago
> Another thing that has annoyed me for years is if artists release through labels: If I click on an artist, I want to see their music, not all music from the same label so that I have to painfully look through the whole catalogue to find more music from the same artist. Also, if I want to be notified for new music from that artist, I can only follow the label, so I get notified for everything they release. What kind of insanity is this? With very few exceptions, I don't care about labels (sorry label owners, but that's just how it is). What you describe only happens if a label uses an artist account. Bandcamp introduced label accounts years ago, encourages using them and to my knowledge offers a way to turn artist accounts into label accounts. With a label account both entities, labels and artists, are separated. The label catalogue merely links to the artist's release page while the artist's account can feature releases on several different labels. Of course the release/album page still offers a way back to the label page. It all works as one would expect. Here's an example for a release by Matthew Halsall on Gondwana Records using a proper label account: https://matthewhalsall.bandcamp.com/album/an-ever-changing-view https://matthewhalsall.bandcamp.com/album/an-ever-changing-v... - notice the link to Gondwana Records in the upper left corner.
- vintermann 3y ago
  Label accounts are very important for verifying authenticity on Bandcamp. It's very easy to pick up some small but niche artist that is not on Bandcamp, and upload their music pretending to be them. (It's of course very illegal, but I personally know artists this has happened to). It's harder to fake an entire label. Before you buy anything on Bandcamp, check that their label links to them, otherwise you could well be supporting a scammer.
  - thirdsun 3y ago
    Unfortunately some labels deliberately use artist accounts. I can only guess they do so because it keeps their visitors within their catalogue more easily. With a label account users clicking on the artist on a release page will go to the actual artist page which might contain releases from all kinds of labels.
  - deng 3y ago
    > It's very easy to pick up some small but niche artist that is not on Bandcamp, and upload their music pretending to be them. Yes, quality control is something else where Bandcamp could drastically improve. New releases are riddled with questionable stuff. Blatantly copying an existing artist is one thing, but often it's popular stuff just slightly modified, usually pitched up/down with some new drum loop and then called a day. I know there's a whole artform in remixing/mashups/etc., but there's a line somewhere where it just becomes a lazy rip-off.
    - hatsix 3y ago
      This is, unfortunately, the most expensive thing that Bandcamp could spend their time on.
- deng 3y ago
  Yes, I have also seen these label accounts, but somehow, I mostly end up with labels using artists accounts. I guess they don't really want to migrate because in the end, it makes the label less visible when doing so... I think it would be in Bandcamp's best interest if they would pressure labels to take this step, but maybe it has other consequences for labels I'm not aware of.
pxoe 3y ago
on discovery, at some point they turned tag pages from paginated into endlessly scrolling kind, and that's been one of the worst thing one could do for discovery. no longer can you actually browse the catalog top to bottom, you're forced to scroll and start from the top every time. oddly enough, there's still pagination in the Discover section of front page, but it only goes back 200 pages, which really isn't that much (those 200 pages might only go back a day/a month/a year, depending on how active a tag is). for how much music there is, the discovery tools are kinda lacking. you can't really browse the full catalog. especially for stuff that's previously released, but not "popular enough" to be surfaced in 'best selling' sorts. stuff that doesn't make it into 'new' - which can literally be like 'oh, this released a week ago? it's not new already', and doesn't make it into 'best selling' that really only makes already popular stuff more popular, which isn't doing much for actual discovery of others. there's a lot of music that's out there and just yet to be discovered, and it's being held back by platforms that don't really do anything with it. held back by a catalog that lacks browsing tools and doesn't get more things brought to surface. i'd rather see platforms move on from 'making popular stuff more popular' and 'only ever showing stuff that's new new new', and make an actual effort to make all things discoverable.

by deng 3y ago

thirdsun 3y ago

> Another thing that has annoyed me for years is if artists release through labels: If I click on an artist, I want to see their music, not all music from the same label so that I have to painfully look through the whole catalogue to find more music from the same artist. Also, if I want to be notified for new music from that artist, I can only follow the label, so I get notified for everything they release. What kind of insanity is this? With very few exceptions, I don't care about labels (sorry label owners, but that's just how it is). What you describe only happens if a label uses an artist account. Bandcamp introduced label accounts years ago, encourages using them and to my knowledge offers a way to turn artist accounts into label accounts. With a label account both entities, labels and artists, are separated. The label catalogue merely links to the artist's release page while the artist's account can feature releases on several different labels. Of course the release/album page still offers a way back to the label page. It all works as one would expect. Here's an example for a release by Matthew Halsall on Gondwana Records using a proper label account: https://matthewhalsall.bandcamp.com/album/an-ever-changing-view https://matthewhalsall.bandcamp.com/album/an-ever-changing-v... - notice the link to Gondwana Records in the upper left corner.

vintermann 3y ago
Label accounts are very important for verifying authenticity on Bandcamp. It's very easy to pick up some small but niche artist that is not on Bandcamp, and upload their music pretending to be them. (It's of course very illegal, but I personally know artists this has happened to). It's harder to fake an entire label. Before you buy anything on Bandcamp, check that their label links to them, otherwise you could well be supporting a scammer.
- thirdsun 3y ago
  Unfortunately some labels deliberately use artist accounts. I can only guess they do so because it keeps their visitors within their catalogue more easily. With a label account users clicking on the artist on a release page will go to the actual artist page which might contain releases from all kinds of labels.
- deng 3y ago
  > It's very easy to pick up some small but niche artist that is not on Bandcamp, and upload their music pretending to be them. Yes, quality control is something else where Bandcamp could drastically improve. New releases are riddled with questionable stuff. Blatantly copying an existing artist is one thing, but often it's popular stuff just slightly modified, usually pitched up/down with some new drum loop and then called a day. I know there's a whole artform in remixing/mashups/etc., but there's a line somewhere where it just becomes a lazy rip-off.
  - hatsix 3y ago
    This is, unfortunately, the most expensive thing that Bandcamp could spend their time on.
deng 3y ago
Yes, I have also seen these label accounts, but somehow, I mostly end up with labels using artists accounts. I guess they don't really want to migrate because in the end, it makes the label less visible when doing so... I think it would be in Bandcamp's best interest if they would pressure labels to take this step, but maybe it has other consequences for labels I'm not aware of.

pxoe 3y ago

on discovery, at some point they turned tag pages from paginated into endlessly scrolling kind, and that's been one of the worst thing one could do for discovery. no longer can you actually browse the catalog top to bottom, you're forced to scroll and start from the top every time. oddly enough, there's still pagination in the Discover section of front page, but it only goes back 200 pages, which really isn't that much (those 200 pages might only go back a day/a month/a year, depending on how active a tag is). for how much music there is, the discovery tools are kinda lacking. you can't really browse the full catalog. especially for stuff that's previously released, but not "popular enough" to be surfaced in 'best selling' sorts. stuff that doesn't make it into 'new' - which can literally be like 'oh, this released a week ago? it's not new already', and doesn't make it into 'best selling' that really only makes already popular stuff more popular, which isn't doing much for actual discovery of others. there's a lot of music that's out there and just yet to be discovered, and it's being held back by platforms that don't really do anything with it. held back by a catalog that lacks browsing tools and doesn't get more things brought to surface. i'd rather see platforms move on from 'making popular stuff more popular' and 'only ever showing stuff that's new new new', and make an actual effort to make all things discoverable.