Music service with a cause

August 3, 2017 4:19 PM

Digital music store / streaming service / discovery platform Bandcamp made waves back in February by donating all of their proceeds for a day to the ACLU in protest of the Trump administration's discriminatory travel ban, which hundreds of labels and artists enthusiastically matched (previously). They ended up raising quite a bit in one day. Now, they've set their sights on the administration's declared ban on transgender people serving in the military. Tomorrow they'll be giving their share of sales to the Transgender Law Center. Over 200 labels and artists have pledged to contribute as well. Obviously, not everyone is thrilled; Breitbart calls it virtue signaling, though technically speaking it's more virtue action than virtue signal.
posted by naju (22 comments total)

Who cares what Breitbart calls it? Or anything?
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 4:27 PM on August 3, 2017 [16 favorites]

I've already added "virtue signalling" to my list of phrases that indicate that the speaker is engaged in "asshole signalling."

Good for Bandcamp.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:50 PM on August 3, 2017 [35 favorites]

Car Seat Headrest will be debuting an edit of their new single for one day only tomorrow if you're looking for something to buy.
posted by cyphill at 5:38 PM on August 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Breitbart calls it virtue signaling, though technically speaking it's more virtue action than virtue signal.

Well, I could see how ones with little experience with the entire concept of 'virtue' could easily confuse the two.
posted by sexyrobot at 5:39 PM on August 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Bandcamp is best of the web.
posted by gwint at 5:48 PM on August 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Bandcamp is hosting a full bootleg of my band's first album and won't take it down. Fuck Bandcamp.
posted by w0mbat at 5:52 PM on August 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

FYI the most upvoted Breitbart comment is: "I already quit listening to music as it seemed like all the FM radio stations spent a lot of time bashing Trump. AM conservative talk show when i am in the car now. It's not going to be my money some leftist site uses to trash America."

I read this George Lakoff article while eating lunch today, which attempts to explain the chasm between a progressive worldview and a conservative worldview, and I'm still baffled and mystified that someone would give up music...
posted by nikoniko at 5:53 PM on August 3, 2017 [5 favorites]

w0mbat, have you sent them a DMCA?
posted by gwint at 6:18 PM on August 3, 2017

Bandcamp is the best online tool for recording musicians I have ever found in every possible way. Easy to use, easy to maintain, easy to integrate into other stuff, pays promptly, provides regular notifications and detailed stats. I've made more money from having music on Bandcamp than every other online music vendor selling my music combined. They generally bend over backwards to help musicians and their whole business model is based on providing the best tool possible to help musicians while taking only a small and fair cut to keep themselves going. Not only that but my experience has been that they are extremely responsive when contacted directly in the event of a problem.

So w0mbat's story seems very strange and somewhat disturbing.

If someone owns the rights to an album on Bandcamp who is not the uploader of that work, I would expect Bandcamp to take it down on receipt of evidence to support the claim of the rightful owner. I'm pretty damn sure that 'Yes I Own The Rights To This' is prominent in the Ts & Cs you need to affirm in order to upload anything. Done it enough times with my own stuff.

So. Do you, w0mbat, own the rights to that album? Are you telling us that you have provided Bandcamp with evidence that you and not the uploader own the rights to that album and they still won't take it down? If so, that is extremely bad news.
posted by motty at 6:52 PM on August 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

*cough*If anyone wants to support a trans artist tomorrow*cough*
posted by Annika Cicada at 6:59 PM on August 3, 2017 [7 favorites]

Well actually I’m looking for a trans trance artist who has done a concept piece on trams...

But seriously, great stuff from my major source of music purchases these days and I will indeed check out Instance :)
posted by fallingbadgers at 7:43 PM on August 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Against Me! is also on Bandcamp!

(And if you'd like something rougher, I'm always happy to tell people about 1990's anarcho-post-industrial act ¡Tchkung! )
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:52 PM on August 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'll be donating 100% of any sales made through my Bandcamp page. And I'll do whatever I like with my fucking virtue, wherever I want to, Breitbats.
posted by prismatic7 at 7:54 PM on August 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

*cough*If anyone wants to support a trans artist tomorrow*cough*

Likewise. I'm in.

I think I need to sell two albums to clear my whatever back hosting debt thingy they did. If I make any sales or donations beyond that I will donate it to my local inclusive non profit which is the closest we have to a QUILTBAG community center in my town.

You can also name your price and "buy" both of the albums directly from me with extras and art via a private download and I will also donate 100% of that to this non-profit space. Seriously, if you somehow get me pennies there's a jar for it there. (And I seriously have no problems with co-opting Bandcamp for this even if it was likely I'd "sell" anything at all. Transectional wheelhouses are in full effect.)

You can listen to Glory Fugue off of Edge Detection and see a simple video I put together here.

I'm invested in and promoting this tailcoat ride because they currently have a number of at risk youth that are transitioning and/or otherwise GSM, and it's a really amazing place that I've volunteered for specifically because it was basically anti-depression therapy for me, and many others. (I'm not going to name drop it here for safety and politeness, but it's been around for 20+ years and fairly well known. PM me for name/details.)

Ch-ch-ch-chaaaanges...
posted by loquacious at 8:23 PM on August 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I've already added "virtue signalling" to my list of phrases that indicate that the speaker is engaged in "asshole signalling."

Hey, can you give us that full list? Because that entry you added is spot on.
posted by el io at 8:44 PM on August 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'd also recommend ANOHNI if you're looking to support trans artists - HOPELESSNESS is unbelievably good. If you need a taste, "Drone Bomb Me" is just a hell of a fucking thing (yes, that's Naomi Campbell starring in the video).
posted by naju at 10:07 PM on August 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I now see that Bandcamp have finally taken down the expensive vinyl/digital download bootleg of our album, which is a giant weight off my mind. It was still up there for months after I intially reported it.

We have been bootlegged a bit over the years, but this one was so egregious that it made us start the process to do an official re-release of that material, wheels now turning.
posted by w0mbat at 10:20 PM on August 3, 2017

If you're in the mood for dreampop / goth / something insanely beautiful while supporting trans artists, I'd highly recommend the duo: Them Are Us Too. Though this is a sad recommendation. Cash Askew, one half of the duo, died in the Oakland Ghost Ship fire.

Another recommendation just for the hell of it, for a band which doesn't have any trans members but is incredibly supportive: War on Women. Saw them live recently, met the lead singer Shawna who was insanely nice to my shy teenaged niece, and they were just a huge force of nature.
posted by honestcoyote at 10:33 PM on August 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm excited about Bandcamp doing this, there being a MeFi post about it, and all of your recommendations! Thanks.

Another trans artist recommendation: Tica Douglas' Our Lady Star of the Sea, Help and Protect Us. It's one of my favorites this year.
posted by bigendian at 12:40 AM on August 4, 2017

Breitbart calls it virtue signaling

Sometimes the best way to signal virtue is to be virtuous. Works wonders.
posted by saltbush and olive at 3:19 AM on August 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Another trans artist (who plays with at least one MeFite): The Glacial Speed.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 4:08 AM on August 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Virtue signalling is absolutely a thing, but the term itself has been taken over by alt-right shitheads who apparently can't cope with the idea that anyone would ever have any other motive for good works than self-aggrandisement, nor that signalling is about much more than simply advertising one's virtue to your own in-group. You signal to all sorts of groups for all sorts of reasons. Signalling is *important*: If you don’t signal, how can you co-ordinate group action? You can't. Again, the alt-right want to reduce it all to self-absorbed narcissism, because acknowledging the virtues of signalling would undermine their attempts to dismiss all such public actions as being ultimately trivial and unserious.

I imagine the political theorists who's job it is to research political speech will come up with a new term to replace virtue signalling which at some point will itself be appropriated by the alt-right & the whole cycle will begin again.
posted by pharm at 4:18 AM on August 4, 2017 [2 favorites]