Be Your Own Platform
My newest favorite slogan is “#BeYourOwnPlatform”. This is a movement on the internet where artists are trying to be more independent from locked in systems that can change and delete everything you have built up there (where are my Myspace followers?).
The content of the movement is nothing new in itself, but the reason to do it seems to have caught some steam after all the Bandcamp drama. So what does it consist of? Well basically instead of something like Spotify, Bandcamp, Instagram or Facebook being your main platform where you post everything, you do it yourself on your own website.
On your own website you have full control. There will not one day be adds that pops up that you didn’t order, or be hard to find your newest post because it gets buried in some algorithmic feed. People can subscribe via e-mail or RSS. I still use those other platforms, but this is my home base.
So let me tell you about some of the newest things I am using to do this!
Faircamp - Stream my music
Faircamp is your own streaming platform. All my albums can now be streamed via this platform. If you like something and want to support me, there will be (my solo releases have this already) links to buy it on Bandcamp like before, but also on Jam.coop!
Jam.coop - Buy my music
What is Jam.coop? Jam.coop is a music store
Why sell your music when I can listen for free?
- A transaction helps bond the artist and the listener.
- Money contributes to the artist being able to make more art.
- Supporting your favorite artist feels good.
Simply put, you don’t need to buy my music, you get to buy my music!
We already have Bandcamp. Why do we need another store? Listen, Bandcamp is great. Really great. It is ALMOST perfect as a platform. I am currently listening to music I discovered and bought on Bandcamp right now while writing this. So why do we need another platform? Let me copy paste some stuff for you.
Bandcamp:
- “Bandcamp lays off half its staff after buyout by Songtradr.”
- “Bandcamp’s founders sold the company to Epic Games, the software developer behind Fortnite. It didn’t bode well.”
- “Every member of Bandcamp union bargaining team was laid off in huge cuts at Oakland firm”.
Jam.coop:
- “jam.coop is a co-operative run by and for the benefit of musicians and the people who build the platform. We’re not for sale and never will be.”
- “When we ‘exit to community’ we will open-source the code. And if we ever have to shut down jam.coop, we’ll open-source it too.”
Those are pretty different quotes wouldn’t you say?
Gumroad - Pay what you want for my music software
The last tool I want to tell you about is Gumroad. Gumroad is a webshop where you can buy music software that I create. It is a pay-what-you-want model so either you download it for free or you can pay a fair price for it. If you use it to download something I put you on my email list (which you of course super easily can unsubscribe from at any point) and if you buy it I sent you a personal thank you :)
Currently the Music software section houses my Snowgrains patch for the Organelle M & S, and there will soon be a Max for Live audio recorder there as well as some Max patches for the Monome Grid etc.
How do I hear about new stuff “on your platform?”
The easiest is to subscribe to either the RSS.
Want to comment on this blogpost? Send me an e-mail.
That’s it for now.
See you around!
Kristoffer