Hey kiddo!
I’m writing to you today to talk about something that’s shaking up the independent music scene right now.
In case you haven’t heard, Bandcamp, the website used by nearly every independent musician today, has been sold for the second time in just 2 years. Previously it was bought by EPIC, the video game company, and most recently by Songtradr, a music licensing company. During this buyout, only 50% of the Bandcamp staff was offered to continue their jobs. That’s just a nice way of saying they laid off half the people that make Bandcamp one of the best places for musicians to sell their music.
But I’m not writing to talk about business. I wanted to remind you what you already know: You’ve got to take care of the good things in your life, cause they are not guaranteed.
20 years ago MySpace was a huge boon to independent musicians, because, in the middle of a bustling social media platform, artists were able to put their music up where anyone could hear it. This launched the careers of artists like Paramore, Panic at the Disco, Lily Allen, hell, even Adele.
But MySpace was overshadowed by Facebook, a platform that did not (and still does not) allow musicians to upload their music to it. And since then every other social media platform has followed the same path. Videos are a-ok, but music alone is a no-go.
Because of this, musicians have an especially difficult time getting their music in front of people. Music is meant to be an experience over time, and much of the internet is focused on super short attention grabbing images and videos.
So we have a lot of “noise” out there. I don’t use that term to disparage other people, just that what you want is often in the same pool as things you don’t, and that means finding ways to stay in touch with the artists you appreciate can be a bit of a chore.
YouTube is a fantastic example of this. In the beginning, you would subscribe to an artist, and every video they posted would show up in your Subscriptions Feed. But then YouTube realized that people didn’t visit their Subscription Feed (and YouTube didn’t push it), so they introduced the “Bell” which would notify you when a new video came out, because they felt you weren’t paying attention to your subscriptions. So now you have artists asking you to do 3 things for every video. It’s a mess.
And finally, we have services change their business models, die out, or fall out of fashion. Personally, I grew a very engaged community on Twitter, only to watch it all slowly dissolve as it changed owners and was mismanaged to death. So not only have I lost that community I spent so much time fostering, I’ve also lost another avenue of getting my music above “the noise.”
With Bandcamp’s future in question, a lot of musicians are very nervous that the best means they have to sell their music to people that care will go away, and they’ll be stuck selling their music through megacorps like Apple, Google, and Amazon. It goes without saying that those guys have little to no interest in independent musicians other than to boost the number of songs in their libraries. They don’t even allow musicians to upload music themselves. We have to go through paid 3rd parties like Distrokid and CDBaby to get our music up there. (So Distrokid takes a cut, iTunes takes a cut, not much of your dollar per song is actually coming back to musicians.)
Despite this disturbance in the musical force, I am not too worried, personally. I do worry for the scene as a whole, but for Vampire Step-Dad, I think I’ll be OK. Why? Because I have you. People like yourself that have subscribed to my newsletter, who I don’t need a third party to communicate with. As long as you keep opening your email, I’ll still have a means to talk with you. Also, many of you have chosen to purchase my music through my website, where I get the largest cut by far, and I have no fear of losing control through some change in terms of service or ownership. So thank you for not just supporting me, but supporting me through the means that help me the most. That means a heck of a lot.
In the same way, care for the relationships in your life. Don’t rely on social media to stay in touch with people. Reach out, spend time together, talk to each other. Don’t lose track of people just because of a change in terms of service.
And hey, if you’re wanting to celebrate the spooky season, don’t forget that I have an album made just for it, Songs To Haunt A House To. It’s all about setting that creepy vibe so kids are reluctant to ring your doorbell.
And lastly, I can’t talk about people that support me without mentioning my amazing patrons on Patreon, Barl0we, Oakley Barton, Andrew Dodd, Jeff Kouns, Nadia Lee Monaghan, Matthew Lister, Matthew Gambrell, Michael Talbert, [ T Ÿ Ł Ę R ], Mike Shema, Lori F., The Ghost Story Guys, Timperator of Man, JodyFowler , Fabian Frizzi, Kara, Watch Out For Snakes, Chris Hayes, Miriam, Amanda Reep, James Baxter, Erin Murphy, and Leia Eloise Dow. I don’t pick favorites, but if I had to…
Now, Go listen to some good music!
Love you,
Vlad, your Vampire Step-Dad
Vampire Step-Dad
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