Re: Bandcamp

On the first Friday of each month, Bandcamp donates 100% percentage of the profits from downloads and physical purchases to artists. (They normally give them 85%, which is astonishing considering that Spotify pays a hundredth of a penny when someone streams a song.) Today, many artists are in turn donating some or all of their proceeds to organizations supporting Black civil rights, bail for protesters, and other necessary political causes as the U.S. hurtles into fascism. Here's a list of the artists and labels doing so: [daily.bandcamp.com]

[steeveecom.wordpress.com]

It's been very cool that Bandcamp has been doing this as a way to help out artists whose touring income streams abruptly stopped. That so many of those same artists are donating that income today to these organizations speaks well of everyone involved. I'm getting ready to go Bandcamp shopping myself.

I dislike downloads compared to CDs, but can't fault Bandcamp. They have the best ecosystem and I enjoy buying from them. I can get uncompressed, CD quality files and they are not evil. Files are still much more inconvenient than CDs for my lifestyle, but that's not their fault. They run a good ship.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

I bought mostly CDs, but some stuff was available solely via download. (Like a surprise new David Torn album.)

Bandcamp have certainly hit on a winning formula. Easy to use, categorized well for browsing, highlights and most importantly they respect and pay their artists. I too prefer CDs to downloads, but I will gladly pay for a few downloads if I like the music.

I have been buying a lot more from Bandcamp as part of its promotions, and I bought a number of things yesterday for the benefit to support Black Lives Matter and related causes. I typically just pay for the download but for some I have bought vinyl or CD packages; caveat emptor that they have been slow on some of their deliveries in part due to increased demand and in part due to COVID-19 mail slowdowns.

My purchases yesterday, mostly DC- and Baltimore-based artists: Beauty Pill, Aaron Abernathy, Jenn Wasner, plus a new live record from Fruit Bats and the Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever record that came out (which I had pre-ordered on a prior Bandcamp Friday).

In many cases, you can order CDs, LPs and even merchandise through Bandcamp. I preferred CDs to downloads till I realized that I had become a hoarder in a small apartment and I needed to get rid of thousands of them for the space to become livable. Since then, I've had to be very cautious about what I buy on physical media.

A little over a year ago someone here linked to an article on “Mallwave”; I found it an interesting concept but let it lie.

This weekend I somehow found myself learning about the whole ‘vaporwave’ genre. I guess it’s been around since 2011 or so, and still seems to exist. I was TOTALLY OBLIVIOUS to this whole style of music. There are an exhausting number of artists, releases and sub-genres to this music and aesthetic. I learned that ‘aesthetic’ is a big deal in this movement.

Not saying I love it, not saying I don’t, just saying I’ve had fun exploring this brand new rabbit hole.

Basically all of the artists I started discovering were on Bandcamp.. It was an amazing place to go to quickly learn what the hell this scene was all about. What a repository!

Have to admit I was aware of Bandcamp but had really never visited it (I usually spend my time visiting used record stores). What a revelation! Seriously... bravo Bandcamp! Thanks for welcoming me to the 21st century!

Fire-Toolz is the most interesting vaporwave producer I've heard lately. I'm not a big fan of the genre (it has a weird association with the alt-right, possibly because of the '80s nostalgia element, although this isn't the fault of the vast majority of its artists), but her music manages to incorporate elements as different as black metal vocals and smooth jazz saxophone on the same song and make it work. Here's a link to her latest album, RAINBOW BRIDGE (on Bandcamp, of course): [fire-toolz.bandcamp.com]

OMG. I first ran across "vaporwave" when I saw the art for the seminal [apparently] "Floral Shoppe" cassette by Macintosh Plus.
and as a Mac user since 1985, this piqued my interest. Then I saw the prices that this cassette [then barely a year old] was exchanging hands for! ¡Mamacita! Then I had to investigate the whole "vaporwave" genre and came to the conclusion that I much preferred reading about it to actually hearing it, which would be easy enough on the web. Actually, I like the idea of genre's existing that you never actually hear, but just imagine in your mind.

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2020 08:45AM by Post-Punk Monk.

I fully agree that reading about vaporwave and its countless sub-genres may be more interesting than the music itself. BUT I have to say that I haven’t really hated any of it. I can see how it might really grow on a person, if only for a passing phase. (Maybe your interest is supposed to fade like vapor?)

The amount of artists operating in this field, and having made multiple albums, is just mind-blowing to me.

And for a genre so grounded in atmosphere, I haven’t read boo about Eno, who you’d think would be an obvious influence. It’s almost as if this whole genre operates outside any mainstream music press and maybe wants to be unaware of any stylistic predecessors. (Yet it borrows from and bends liberally the music it thinks you might’ve heard in a Chess King dressing room circa ‘85).

Very surprised at how cassettes appear to be the preferred physical format. A reflection of the obsession with 80s consumerism I guess?

If there’s any alt right connotations, I guess I don’t want to know— or believe it. Can’t imagine too many ultra-conservatives seeking out a music as intentionally hazy and languid as this. Most of the artists appear to be Japanese.

I fully agree that reading about vaporwave and its countless sub-genres may be more interesting than the music itself. BUT I have to say that I haven’t really hated any of it. I can see how it might really grow on a person, if only for a passing phase. (Maybe your interest is supposed to fade like vapor?)

The amount of artists operating in this field, and having made multiple albums, is just mind-blowing to me.

And for a genre so grounded in atmosphere, I haven’t read boo about Eno, who you’d think would be an obvious influence. It’s almost as if this whole genre operates outside any mainstream music press and maybe wants to be unaware of any stylistic predecessors. (Yet it borrows from and bends liberally the music it thinks you might’ve heard in a Chess King dressing room circa ‘85).

Very surprised at how cassettes appear to be the preferred physical format. A reflection of the obsession with 80s consumerism I guess?

If there’s any alt right connotations, I guess I don’t want to know— or believe it. Can’t imagine too many ultra-conservatives seeking out a music as intentionally hazy and languid as this. Most of the artists appear to be Japanese.