[dbspin]

So I've been a bandcamp user since close to the dawn of the service. The issues I commented on above don't relate to their curation emails but the poverty of the interface itself. Bandcamp has been widely and roundly, not to mention accurately criticised for it's technical / UX failures for a long time. It also has no social features whatsoever. Unfortunately a curated email isn't a replacement for proper recommendations based on similar users listening (as lastfm used to to, see above anecdote), content based recommendations, or genuine social recommendations. Not to mention the fact that half the writing staff were fired several years ago, and the quality of their curation fell off a cliff after that point.

The app and site are awful, and even finding stuff you've bought to play or download can be a nightmare if you own a lot of material. To site a specific example - I bought a back catalogue of sound effects records for work reasons. They have many dozens of individual releases - which makes navigating my other purchased records much more difficult.

Bandcamp also only allow you to 'uncover' the download links for tracks or albums one at a time, presumably to save bandwidth costs. I could go on and on.

It's a hypothetically great service that's absolutely crippled by not having been improved for a decade.

[runarberg]

I think me and you use Bandcamp in totally different ways, and this is why you see a problem where I don‘t. I am not judging btw (unlike your parent) just pointing out the differences.

My primary (and now only) use case of Bandcamp is as a marketplace between me and the artist/label. I use it as a super convenient record store. And like a good record store, bandcamp also has the equivalent of music magazine which you can read in the store, and helpful staff willing to point you to new releases. and just like in a record store, the staff won‘t play what they recommended for you, you have to take the sample CD to the listening station, put on the headphones, and hit play your self. I see their streaming feature as basically a super convenient listening station at the record store. I usually stream an album before I decide whether or not to buy it.

After purchasing I never listen to it again in app, but rather download the files and upload to my MP3 player, or wait for the physical media to arrive and listen to it in my living room’s stereo system.

Bandcamp also has the equivalent of a radio station’s music oriented talk show with their podcasts, this is more then your average record store. E.g. I think Easy Street in Seattle nor Lucky Records in Reykjavík have a regular podcast, although I can see it could be amazing if they did.

[dbspin]

That makes sense. Viewed as just a store, it isn't the worst.

However - a store is no longer the competition. In terms of promoting independent music and giving the artists both control over distribution and profit, Bandcamp is almost the only game in town. However the complimentary service is streaming and the typical user is on mobile. It's awful for both mobile streaming and browsing. As well as recommendations in general.

If we were still in 2003 and Napster and it's successors were the alternative, bandcamp would be great. But record stores (outside of a few independent marquee stores like Amoeba in hip, high income cities) are now glorified merch stands and music is gatekept on evil services like spotify.

Just loaded up the bandcamp app for the first time in a while and my goodness is it godawful. Worse than I remember. Arcane icons, unclear features, total lack of centring the music I've already bought or the artists I've bought it from. It's a shop and that's not been enough for a very long time.

Lets bear in mind that most folks don't even have an mp3 player client on their phone. The distribution platform must - to stay useful, also be a listening solution. Bandcamp fails at even that.

Just to be clear - I very much want Bandcamp to succeed. Hell if I could roll back all technology to a point in the mid-late 2000s just before the smartphone I would. But in todays climate it has to improve or eventually become irrelevant.

I applaud bandcamp radio's existence, but their player doesn't even have a jog function. It's shocking.

[runarberg]

Speaking of record stores, my last trip to Easy Street in Seattle my vinyl purchases had 0/3 download codes in the sleeves. Luckily all the albums were for sale as digital albums on Bandcamp and I could buy a second copy there for fairly cheap. In fact It probably saved me money buying the physical copy at a physical store and the digital copy at the digital store, as the records were slightly cheaper in Easy Street and I didn’t have to pay shipping.