"So for now, for those who are uncomfortable about Bandcamp’s continually odd trajectory, what I suggest is to start building something now and have it ready. Preferably something you control, something that isn’t tied to another company that feels friendly now but could be acquired later on, just like Bandcamp was."

Bandcamp weirdness aside, its generally a good idea to not have all your eggs in one basket

I've seen artists sell their music on Shopify stores, its just a ZIP file you get with the music in it.

i think if you are gonna use bandcamp, you should use their feature to put your bandcamp page on a custom domain if you are able to do so (I think you have to pay for that feature though)

that way if you need to move off of Bandcamp real quick you can just point that domain name elsewhere or redirect it to the new platform

( and also export your mailing list of people who opt-in to emails from you so you can move that to a different newsletter provider or whatever as 2Mello astutely mentioned in their post )

Manuel whomst blog I follow in my feed reader posted this yesterday

https://manuelmoreale.com/on-blogging-substacking-and-owning-digital-real-estate

I don't like the verbiage of "digital real estate" but the argument itself is sound and applies to Bandcamp as much as it does Substack

buy the cheapest domain name you can find and use it for your stuff Online that you want to have stick around

once again thinking about how if you want to carve your own little space on the internet you have to give someone a little bit of rent every year (amongst other associated costs)

rent seekers every step of the way no matter where you go. everyone wants their cut.

if you cannot afford a domain name then you are at mercy of whatever platform you make a home on to sell your art/make a community

and that is why Facebook pisses me off, it is a corporate seizure of our collective commons

tis just another form of extraction, it doesn't seem as such because it is not a tangible physical thing like the extraction of fossil fuels but it is instead extraction of our desire to socialize with each other

okay I'll stop here, this is a blog post I will eventually write after 10 other blog posts I also want to write lmao