[Semaphor]

At least so far, Bandcamp has not changed after the sale (neither sale). You can still buy music, and try it out for multiple album streams before buying (unless the artist or label disable it, which is rare), and download as FLAC.

Granted, not always useful if what you want is from major labels, but still, keep in mind that there are options.

[chimeracoder]

> At least so far, Bandcamp has not changed after the sale (neither sale)

The second sale was just a couple months ago, and while you can still buy music and download it, it's not true that "nothing has changed" since then. There have been quite a lot of changes, just not on that one front. And it's only been two months, so it's way too early to conclude that Songtradr won't gut it more thoroughly.

Not much changed during the time Epic owned Bandcamp, sure, but that's because Epic only bought it in order to gain standing for their lawsuits with Apple. It didn't fit into their business strategy otherwise, so they had no need to mess with it - they literally just needed it to be a legal subsidiary as a pawn for an unrelated legal battle. The same is not true with Songtradr, which has its own motives and objectives that relate to Bandcamp's actual operations and business.

[Semaphor]

I know. Still don't expect any changes. Nothing has changed for any part of Bandcamp I cared about.

[Syonyk]

Wasn't there some recent article about how Bandcamp got acquired by a competitor and is more or less being left to rot on the vine?

I agree, the FLAC downloads are a major perk of it, and I'll happily buy music there. But I wouldn't trust it to be around long term at this point. It's too consumer-friendly to exist long term in this modern world we live in. :(

[Semaphor]

Bandcamp doesn't need to change, it can just keep going. That's what I meant with "neither sale", because there were also some (if fewer) doomsayers for the epic sale.

It got sold. Nothing changed. And again, you own the music, if it stops existing that sucks, but only for the future, everything you bought, you still have.

And fwiw, I don't think anything for Bandcamp will change.

[pavel_lishin]

> And again, you own the music, if it stops existing that sucks, but only for the future, everything you bought, you still have.

Only if you downloaded the mp3s/flacs, and also backed them up.

[Semaphor]

Do people use BC in other ways? I mean, I guess technically, you could just keep streaming, but do people do that? I’d assume anyone using bandcamp cares about having the music actually available.

[pavel_lishin]

I think some people assume that it'll always be there to re-download. I certainly download things immediately, and stick it somewhere where it'll be backed up nightly.

[xerox13ster]

Bought by EPIC, conducted layoffs to crush unionization attempts.

[vanchor3]

Bought by Epic Games then Epic sold to Songtradr, which is when the layoffs happened.

[JohnFen]

In the long term, everything is temporary. Enjoy the good stuff now while it's here!

[Syonyk]

In the long term, yes.

In the human lifespan terms, our digital stuff is a lot more stupidly temporary than it has any good reason to be, and physical media (especially in the realm of music) has rather outlasted it.

Records (vinyl) from 60 years ago still play perfectly fine with a cleaning, and CDs are holding up quite well too in general. Because my ability to play a record from the 1960s or 1970s is not dependent on the company that created it still being around, and being willing to license it to the company that delivers it for me to play it, at favorable contract terms, etc, etc, etc.

[JohnFen]

All true -- which is what makes Bandcamp such a treasure. Download the flac and you have it forever (or a reasonable approximation of that).

[rakoo]

That's the thing: everything is temporary, but who gets to decide how temporary it is ? If it's you, fine; if it's not you for totally avoidable reasons, that's a problem.

[solarkraft]

Nothing, neither for good nor for bad, has noticeably changed about Bandcamp in the 5+ years I've been using it. I'd call that "leaving it to rot" - but hey, at least it hasn't gotten any worse. If the new owners keep the course, it'll be okay.

[bloomingeek]

For what's it's worth, I use mp3caprice.com to download zipped music. The prices are pretty fair and I don't have to store another CD on the shelf. The bitrate is decent and I can find albums that aren't available anymore. The bonus for me is, since I subscribe to Mojo magazine, I can Youtube new artists and if I like them, go download the music.

[Semaphor]

That looks like piracy, but paying someone for it? Thanks, but I actually prefer to support the artists I listen to, and when I can’t afford to, or it’s impractical, to not pay those who prevent artists from getting money.

[soylentcola]

Yeah, I never understood this sort of thing.

I get paying to support artists and stay on the right side of the law/ethics.

I get downloading a copy of something without paying for a license because it's easier/unavailable to purchase/want to check it out first/it's free!!

But why pay for a bootleg copy?

[bloomingeek]

Where's your proof? Show it and I'll gladly quit buying from them.

[Freak_NL]

It's not too hard to figure out that this one of those cowboy sites operating from Ukraine¹ with quite dubious claims as to their legality:

https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/2412fb/the_web...

https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-and-mpaa-report-notorious-pira...

The gist seems that buying stuff there may be legal if you are Ukrainian or are actually in Ukraine, and quite probably isn't if you are anywhere else.

The RIAA certainly considers them shipless pirates. You are probably paying criminals, and almost certainly are not paying artists.

1: There seem to be a bunch of them, which smells a bit like a coordinated effort.

[Semaphor]

If you think bands actually sell albums on one site for $2 that they sell for $10 everywhere else, then I guess you can just go and keep believing.

I just think it might be better to not support sites like that and instead torrent directly for free. No need to sealion.

[averageRoyalty]

> No need to sealion.

I'm lost. What do seals have to do with this? Is this a typo, or a turn of phrase I've never seen?

[Semaphor]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning

[bloomingeek]

Still waiting. Maybe you should go and look again in the comic strip you got the reference from?

[Freak_NL]

You posted this four hours after my comment (above) which already provides two links which cast a clear doubt on the legality of mp3caprice.com. A quick web search returns dozens of links to people questioning the legality, and several of people or organisations giving good arguments as to why they are not.

If you want more proof, just look at mp3caprice.com itself. Where is the usual legal stuff like the procedure for reporting claimed infringement? Their single form of contact is a web form. Their privacy policy even lacks a way to contact them.

[bee_rider]

Bandcamp has remained amazingly functional throughout all their ownership drama. I hope they somehow hold it together.