• Meownir by Madison Metricula Roberts in G • What Story Will I Tell? by Madison Metricula Roberts in D • All the Pretty Horses (Drowning Song) by Madison Metricula Roberts in Am • The Adult in the Room (Padme’s Song) by The Salacious Crumbles in Em • Butter Battle Book by Madison Metricula Roberts in Em • Till We Have Faces by Madison Metricula Roberts in D • Nines (Frodo’s Song) by Madison Metricula Roberts in E • Ties That Bind by Madison Metricula Roberts in Dm • Peaceful Easy Three Hour Tour by Mashup in G • Catibrations by Madison Metricula Roberts in G • Friendly Robots Updated by Madison Metricula Roberts in G • Set Oven to 425F by The Salacious Crumbles in G • Spicy In, Spicy Out by Madison Metricula Roberts in C • Rage Becomes Her by Madison Metricula Roberts in E • Out of All Them Bright Stars by Madison Metricula Roberts in C • Fake Pocket of Holding by Madison Metricula Roberts in A • Lord of the Memes by Madison Metricula Roberts in C
Less than a year after being purchased by Epic Games (with few changes made to the user/artist experience and the successful unionization of Bandcamp employees), Bandcamp has been purchased by Songtradr.
Songtradr is a music licensing and subscription-based distribution company—think things like DistroKid.
Bandcamp offers extremely favorable artist sales splits, and has been the essential place for indie artists—from full-time professionals to occasional releases from musicians of all experience levels. It offers both streaming of user libraries, outright downloads in multiple lossless, high-quality audio formats, and discovery tools. On the artist end, Bandcamp allows you to place your music for sale for free, and takes cuts when you make a sale. It also offers free statistical tools and tracking. The biggest thing, though, is that artists can list their own music for direct sale to buyers.
When the Songtradr purchased closed, only half of Bandcamp’s current employees were offered contracts with the new company; functionally, half of Bandcamp’s current staff were laid off.
Speculation:
It sucks that so many employees were laid off, and I don’t like that and don’t want to minimize that. That’s a lot of people that lost jobs in a company that’s been driven by empowering artists and listeners.
Songtradr is an existing music-related company. Whereas Epic essentially purchased Bandcamp whole to operate as its own division, Songtradr more likely purchased Bandcamp as a merger/acquisition—meaning there were probably redundancies in positions or divisions as Bandcamp is absorbed. This is probably why so many contracts were not offered to Bandcamp employees by the new owners.
No platform is your friend forever, or even your friend. That said, I’m in wait-and-see mode to see if there will be major changes to what I consider Bandcamp’s essential services and policies.
I suspect that as a licensing and distribution company, Sontradr was interested in adding a marketplace like Bandcamp to both expand the catalog of music available to be licensed as well as integrate distribution to artist users on Bandcamp. For example, right now I sell music on Bandcamp but use CDBaby for distribution and Harry Fox/Songfile for mechanical licensing.
If the artist and user experience of Bandcamp stays largely the same and any possible new integration features with Songtradr’s existing outfit are opt-in and non-exclusive (like being able to list music on Bandcamp but use any distribution service you choose) then I don’t think there will be much change; those are the things I would look out for, though.
Here’s the songbook I’ll be pulling from for my set! Songs are alphabetical; I’m not sure which ones I’ll play, but there are lyrics and chords in case you want to follow along!
• The Adult in the Room (Padme’s Song) by The Salacious Crumbles in Em • All the Pretty Horses (Drowning Song) by Madison Metricula Roberts in Am • All That the Rain Promises by Madison Metricula Roberts in B • Baby Merchant by Cop Rock in Dm • The Ballad of Essie Tregowan by Mikey Mason in Am • Battle Hymn of the Murder Hobos by Madison Metricula Roberts in E • Bread and Salt by Madison Metricula Roberts in G • Buskin Boots (Pumped Up Kicks) by Hildegard von Blingin’ in G • Claire’s by Madison Metricula Roberts in A • Dead Hobbit by Madison Metricula Roberts in G • DnD Cowgirl by Madison Metricula Roberts in G • Fake Pocket of Holding by Madison Metricula Roberts in A • Friendly Robots Updated by Madison Metricula Roberts in G • I Choose You (Pokemon Love Song) by Madison Metricula Roberts in G • I Remember…Nevermind by The Salacious Crumbles in D • If Anyone Eats My Brains (I Want It To Be You) by Bryan Baker in G • Kilgore Trout Ain’t Got Nothin’ On Me (Dean Winchester’s Song) by The Salacious Crumbles in Dm • Life’s a Simulation by Madison Metricula Roberts in G • Meownir by Madison Metricula Roberts in G • Nines (Frodo’s Song) by Madison Metricula Roberts in E • Ode to the Great Negotiator by Leigh Tyberg in G • Out of All Them Bright Stars by Madison Metricula Roberts in C • The Parting Meme by Madison Metricula Roberts in Am • Peaceful Easy Three Hour Tour by Mashup in G • Robin Merchant by The Salacious Crumbles in Dm • Scarborough Fair by Traditional in Am • Set Oven to 425F by The Salacious Crumbles in G • Spicy In, Spicy Out by Madison Metricula Roberts in C • Tatooine Lullaby by Leigh Tyberg & Madison Metricula Roberts in G • Ties That Bind by Madison Metricula Roberts in Dm • Till We Have Faces by Madison Metricula Roberts in D • What Story Will I Tell? by Madison Metricula Roberts in D • Wind and Rain by Traditional in G
Here are the songs I’m pulling from to make my setlist for my FotLR set and open filks! I’m not sure which ones I’ll play but here are the lyrics and chords for:
All That the Rain Promises by Madison Metricula Roberts in B
Baby Merchant by Cop Rock in Dm
Baker’s Oven by traditional in G
Bread and Salt by Madison Metricula Roberts in G
Buskin Boots (Pumped Up Kicks) by Hildegard von Blingin’ in G
Butter Battle Book by Madison Metricula Roberts in Em
Fake Pocket of Holding by Madison Metricula Roberts in A
The Game of Cards by Traditional in G
I Remember…Nevermind by The Salacious Crumbles in D
Intergalactic Horticulture by Madison Metricula Roberts in D
Leia Song by Leigh Tyberg in C
Life’s a Simulation by Madison Metricula Roberts in G
Long Black Veil by Traditional in D
Meownir by Madison Metricula Roberts in G
Nines (Frodo’s Song) by Madison Metricula Roberts in E
Out of All Them Bright Stars by Madison Metricula Roberts in C
Peaceful Easy Three Hour Tour by Mashup in G
The Question by Madison Metricula Roberts in A
Rage Becomes Her by Madison Metricula Roberts in E
The Rock Biter’s Lament by Madison Metricula Roberts in Am
Surviving by Madison Metricula Roberts in A
Till We Have Faces by Madison Metricula Roberts in D
What a Piece of Work Is Man by Hair in C
What Story Will I Tell? by Madison Metricula Roberts in D
It’s another Bandcamp Friday! What a great day to pick-up The Salacious Crumbles‘ pay-what-you-want EP, “Carbonite,” music by a bunch of our Social Justice Bards, AND my solo stuff!
My newest track is a collaboration with electronic artist DANI ORTHANC called “MISHBY”, available for pay-what-you -want now!
Recent releases:
DANI ORTHANC: Lofi beats and experimental electronica
I just found out Jordan Hester will avoid his already light active sentence (four weekends in county jail, non-concurrent and around his schedule) based on a legal technicality. The judge had no choice but to strike it, even though he didn’t want to.
I don’t care so much about the incarceration—the jail and prison systems are fucked and abusive themselves—but there’s an unexpected emptiness in seeing him luck out of part of the sentence.
I don’t care about him being “punished” so much as I want him seen for what he is and the harm he has caused.
I don’t expect remorse from him. I don’t even expect him to change his behavior, which is why I worry and care about what happens instead of “moving on”.
And it’s never really “over”, is it? It’s being haunted by his cold, ghoulish, lopsided smirk and the knowledge that there is no “fixing” this for me, or “justice”. “Moving on” just means living with this and coping, not letting it dissolve.
He tried to convince me to have a baby with him and I’m grateful I got out; the next girl didn’t until too late.
There’s always a next girl.
The reality is that no matter what we do, we can’t stop him throughout his life. We’ve just done our damndest to slow down his rate of “next girls” When you Google his name, mine will be there.
That’s a weight I don’t regret and don’t need a cookie for.
But I don’t feel brave; I feel sick. This sucks. And I live with anger and am not ashamed.
A plucky young ballerina befriends a hometown hero home from New York and they both get boyfriends and prove themselves to the ballet elite of Richmond. The ugly sweater party features a “All the Jingle Ladies” sweater and I saw god.
Dramatis Personae (that matter)
Big Dancer – fancy ballet dancer moves back to Richmond from New York to choreograph the local ballet’s Nutcracker
Mr. Rogers – runs lights for the theatre and runs every arts program for kids in Richmond
Tiny Dancer – teaches Latin dance and doesn’t get the part in the ballet, but Big Dancer works on a special project for her
DJ Cool Bro – Tiny Dancer’s plot boyfriend so someone can do a salsa remix of Tchaikovsky
“Sounds like the devil traded her Prada for ballet shoes” – the ballet director with a heart ready to melt for Latin fusion beats
Rating: 7 Sugar Plums out of 10
Sugar Plum Twist was fun with sparkly sets and bland acting that occasionally borders on playfully goofy (think My Big Fat Greek Wedding but less overtly self-aware). Many of the characters were Puerto Rican, and they slipped between Spanish and English (full exchanges, not the functional equivalent of italicized words). I also learned what a parranda is (a Puerto Rican musical tradition around Christmas) and the score and soundtrack for this one was pretty great EXCEPT for the final solo performance remix which was trash. Overall, though, Sugar Plum Twist is trying very hard but in a way that feels cheery.