technology that offered us a bit of autonomy is regressing to the top down model of corporates.
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Just send it all to me directly 
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Ah yes, i remember the leaks, videos of people showing how they stole logincookies from people visiting their profiles etc
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That’s cool, did not know that. 2 out of my 4 software dev related employers have been owned by their founders, it has it’s drawbacks as well tho, especially when the founders have too many roles in the company AND control the board
Well currently nothing has changed (in terms of it being standalone). Things always change though. I’m not discounting that. Let’s keep things amicable. This isn’t Facebook.
Bandcamp has changed. We can’t change that. Instead of focusing on the potential negatives, wouldn’t focusing on the potential positives be better?
That’s all I am trying to focus on. Mergers are always a sour subject. It is what it is.
Optimism is to be commended but…
Acquisitions primarily benefit founders and shareholders.
Any resulting positives for employees, artists and customers are secondary and by no means guaranteed. I sincerely hope there will be positives but I’m under no illusions and I don’t plan on buying or releasing music on Bandcamp.
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Nitpicking my “change” statement is beneficial to your jab. I meant in terms of Bandcamp being standalone. Why do you feel it’s ok to do that?
I also sincerely hope there will be positives. Obviously there will be negatives eventually. Always will be.
Your choice of where you put your music is entirely up to you!
The apparent contradiction amused me. I’m sorry for causing offence.
UPDATE: In hindsight, I can see how my comment came across as flippant and trollish. I’m sincerely sorry. I know how frustrating it is when healthy debate gets derailed by shitposting.
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I had misunderstood the setup, thought the artist was getting less
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Other than that they don’t take as much % as the other streamers and have those Bandcamp Fridays things, what’s so great about Bandcamp? I don’t see how they help anyone promote their work or get it out there. The layout of for the artists pages I’ve always felt is a little weird, where the background image has just that solid block floating on it with the album/artist info. It doesn’t look great to me and you’re stuck with their design. I guess Bandcamp’s a nice little hub where you can sell physical copies, merch, and digital. Basically what you would do if you had your own website but they host it. Is there anything beyond this that I’m missing?
I don’t think the sky has fallen quite yet, but:
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Some people here have genuine misgivings about an otherwise independent group getting swallowed up by a major company (one that has no obligation to care in the same way that said independent group did). There is precedent for these buyouts/mergers to make things worse for creators and users
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Others take issue with Epic and Tencent in particular, for reasons that have been articulated elsewhere in this thread.
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If I assume the worst and am wrong, I gain nothing and at most have lost is a bit of time fretting and hand-wringing. If I assume the best and am wrong, I’ve gained nothing AND lost planning time
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Understood on the planning time. If you use Bandcamp to sell your music I can totally understand.
It’s unfortunate that you have to adapt and plan ahead for multiple unknowns.
Not a big fan of Tencent either but they own so much it’s going to be hard to avoid them moving forward.
I guess I just try to stay positive but always have a backup. It’s more work but at least you are prepared.
It would be nice to have the product landscape not be subject to change. If Bandcamp goes south there is a market. I just hope that market gets filled by a bootstrapped company (aka no exit strategy).
Appreciate the rundown 
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Me too! An ethical, bootstrapped Bandcamp alternative would get my money (and possibly a job application). I hope there’s enough of a gap in the market for that to become a reality.
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The good news is that it’s a lot cheaper now to bootstrap this kind of product than it was back in 2007/2008. We shall see what emerges. Even if Bandcamp doesn’t go south, having a choice would be nice. Epic proved there is a market by doing this. Signal is strong.
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I agree. Time will tell.
Maybe if my current employer gets acquired, I can convince them to bootstrap such a product. 
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Banquet?
Palace Vinyl.
Ah the other South London 
I love going to a tiny shop full of records and accidentally spending far too much money! Banquet is always good for that. Last time it happened to me was in Whitstable, wasn’t expecting to leave the seaside with a dozen new records. Bandcamp sometimes has that feel of browsing around and finding a load of new artists or labels you didn’t know. It’s the only music site that finally got me into buying digital and not only records and CDs.
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Exactly! Thats why Ive always liked it. Its like a small record shop. No distracting visual noise, no adverts, no subscription, no algorithm telling me what to listen to, no playlists. Just a big pile of music to dig into at my own leisure.
Very rare on the internet these days.
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