Pages

Sunday, December 5, 2021

Bandcamp: My Practices by Me

From the outset, posting my music by me on Bandcamp presented me with a way of going about it by necessity. In case anyone might have wondered wherefore I do things in certain ways, here goes:

The default download price for albums has always been $7, but I've kept mine at $5 except in cases such as compilations, which have considerably more tracks than do my regular albums, at $7, and double or otherwise-loaded albums for $10 or more, because there's more meat on those bones. Bandcamp suggests setting a package-deal discount for a "full discography" purchase, but since my repertoire is so broadly-varied as to appeal to hardly anyone en bloc, and because $5 is the price of a discretionary purchase that's forgotten the next day, and the amount to which a full discog at $7 apiece would be discounted, $5 it is. Additionally, it's $5 for a five-song EP or a 12-track album, since price shouldn't be an influencing factor in making a selection, nor in presenting my work. If it were, I'd be putting out four-track demi-albums at $3 apiece.

Apart from for the compilations, albums do not have individually-playable tracks, but instead sampler medleys, to listen to. I figure that people would click on the song at the top of a playlist and take it or leave it from there, ignoring the experiences potentially forthcoming, as there is usually quite a variety among the selections. Giving people a montaged sampling crams it all in, with about a minute represented from each piece. That's enough to let people know if the whole album might be something they'd want to listen to, and therefore pay to download.*

The techies have set conventions, standards and practices for musicians to follow, but I try to flout their clueless commercial appropriation and exploitation of our culture. Gone may be the days of selling CDs out of the trunk of one's car, but turning the game into something else is the only way to play it with dignity.

(*) There's another reason why I don't post playable individual songs (except for compilation albums), but I don't want to encourage criminality, even though I do it myself.