Last week I discussed my opinions about streaming music. It was that the problem is not actually streaming, but how artists are paid. At the end of my article, I mentioned the site Bandcamp. Now, I want to talk about how it is one of the easiest ways to find new music, which should be important to you. In this piece, I want everyone to know why they should be engaging with Bandcamp. This does not mean you need to cancel your Apple Music plan or delete your Spotify account — it means you should use Bandcamp in addition to your current streaming service.
The most interesting function of art is that when you are curious about it, you are also curious about yourself. Why put this poster in my room? Why own this DVD, or this book? The answer is space — not the final frontier, but the places you are in. The other answer is that you like it. You like that book, you like that movie, you like that poster. You can then be asked by someone, or in your own existential riot, ask, “How did I even come to like this … thing?” The answer is complicated. I think discovering art for yourself is an intense and turbulent process with hundreds of choices happening at every step.
These choices challenge you to make the right decision and, in the end, avoid wasting your time. Spotify and Apple Music are guilty of eliminating those factors and, therefore, limiting your choices. You have your own vision and your own way of engaging with things you like. You still find things, but why make it sound so hard? You could say, “Sam, I listen to my Discover Weekly every week, and I get plenty of new songs. I don’t see how this could be more dynamic than that.” To that, I say the function is fine. I think the search for any art, not just music, should not be in the hands of any algorithm, and it should not be determined by your activity on an app. I think a playlist based on what you are listening to over time is going to limit what you are listening to. Your consciousness and your previous experiences are a dynamic enough “algorithm,” if it isn’t absurd to call it that. I think you can curate your own selection and you can find new music on your own.
Bandcamp puts complexity and care into its website to elevate all artists. The front page is enough for you to find a multitude of music. Below is an example from Friday, Nov. 8. Without leaving the front page, I see:
- Ten upcoming album release parties
- An article about a Hellenic black metal band
- Featured tracks from a gothic indie band from Germany
- A Persian tar player’s newest collection with a composer
- Tracks from a West African Togolese band
- A post-punk San Francisco band
Bandcamp is not a service that curates music for you. That is just one of the functions that it performs better than Spotify or Apple Music. For decades, there have been musical movements that emerged from the spaces people create. I am referring to Seattle’s grunge scene, East Coast and West Coast rap, Kentucky bluegrass, the jazz of New Orleans and everything else that came from everywhere else. Bandcamp lets you search by country. It also lets you search by town. This is a great way to find emerging bands and artists that aren’t defined by anything but the place they come from, and part of the fun is seeing what that sounds like. But you can also filter the genre and place at the same time if you are just looking for post-punk garage rock from Iowa.
Bandcamp is accessible, and it pays its artists in meaningful ways. Your experience on Bandcamp will vary. Some musicians put all of their music up for free, some engage with “pay what you want” and some have a price for their music. Of course, Bandcamp is a company, and it needs to make money, so it takes a cut of every purchase you make when you purchase music or merchandise on Bandcamp from a band or artist.
I suggest you stay on the lookout for “Bandcamp Friday.” This is when Bandcamp waives the cost from the artists on their platform. That means if you buy an $8 cassette from an indie band, they aren’t giving a percentage of that sale to Bandcamp. You are instead paying that artist the full amount. I think it is these actions that feel small but impact our relationship with artists in significant ways, ways that are limited from popular streaming services like Spotify and all the others.
