Xavier Godart | Musician and Sofware Engineer from FranceZola2024-02-03T00:00:00+00:00https://www.xaviergodart.com/atom.xmlBandcamp alternatives in 20242024-02-03T00:00:00+00:002024-02-03T00:00:00+00:00Unknownhttps://www.xaviergodart.com/blog/2024-02-03-bandcamp-alternatives-in-2024/<img src="/images/20240203/bandcamp.png">
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<em>
<strong>Edit 2024-02-22</strong>: mirlo reached out to communicate their revenue share, and some of their progress. The section has been updated accordingly.
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<p>Since its acquisition by <a href="https://blog.bandcamp.com/2022/03/02/bandcamp-is-joining-epic/"><strong>Epic Games in 2022</strong></a> and <a href="https://blog.bandcamp.com/2023/11/22/songtradr-acquires-bandcamp/"><strong>SongTradr in 2023</strong></a>, followed by the lay off of 50% of its employees, there's been some incertainty about the future of <a href="https://bandcamp.com/"><strong>Bandcamp</strong></a>.</p>
<p>Although nothing has changed on the platform yet, it's fair to say that the trust in its sustainability has declined.</p>
<p>And with that came lots of discussions on the independant artist depedance on <strong>Bandcamp</strong>, and the obvious lack of alternative platforms.</p>
<p>Fast-forward a few months, lets check what came out from these discussions. I'll only talk about drop-in <strong>Bandcamp</strong> replacement in terms of features:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>music player</em></li>
<li><em>free and pay-what-you-want downloads</em></li>
<li><em>subscriptions / patronage</em></li>
<li><em>direct-to-fan communication</em></li>
<li><em>catalog exploration</em></li>
<li><em>physical & merch sales</em></li>
<li><em>label functionality</em></li>
<li><em>fan page & collection</em></li>
</ul>
<p>Please note that these platform are still in heavy development and that their feature set will probably grow in the coming weeks or months.</p>
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<h2 id="mirlo"><a href="https://mirlo.space/">mirlo</a></h2>
<img src="/images/20240203/mirlo.png">
<p><a href="https://mirlo.space/"><strong>mirlo</strong></a> has been released recently and seems like they aim to clone what Bandcamp did, but with an emphasis on sustainability. Behind the platform is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_cooperative"><strong>worker co-op</strong></a>, the project is open-source and available on <a href="https://github.com/funmusicplace/mirlo/"><strong>github</strong></a>, and they follow a thing called <a href="https://blog.fracturedatlas.org/exit-to-community"><strong>Exit to Community</strong></a>.</p>
<p>This is a concept I wasn't familiar with. In a nutshell, it's some kind of a mindset where the intent is to ensure that whatever the exit of the structure behind the service is, the community relying on it won't be impacted.</p>
<p>Artists need to open a Stripe account in order to receive payments, so standard Stripe fees will apply, in addition to a 7% revenue share with mirlo, which seems really fair. They wrote <a href="https://mirlo.space/team/posts/16/">a detailed article</a> on how they decided the amount.</p>
<p><strong>Features</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>music player</em></li>
<li><em>free and pay-what-you-want downloads (+ download codes generation)</em></li>
<li><em>subscriptions / patronage</em></li>
<li><em>direct-to-fan communication (fan email collection + a simple blog on the artist page)</em></li>
<li><em>fan page & collection</em></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Price</strong>: Stripe fees per transaction + 7% revenue share with mirlo</p>
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<h2 id="jam-coop"><a href="https://jam.coop">jam.coop</a></h2>
<img src="/images/20240203/jamcoop.png">
<p>Similar to mirlo, <a href="https://jam.coop"><strong>jam.coop</strong></a> is run by a co-op and is <a href="https://github.com/freerange/jam-coop">open-source</a>, and they seem to have similar <a href="https://jam.coop/about">ethics</a>.</p>
<p>Their roadmap indicates that they aims to match most Bandcamp features.</p>
<p><strong>Features</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>music player</em></li>
<li><em>free and pay-what-you-want downloads</em></li>
<li><em>direct-to-fan communication (email)</em></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Price</strong>: Stripe fees per transaction, unsure about any other fees</p>
</section>
<section>
<h2 id="artcore"><a href="https://artcore.com/">artcore</a></h2>
<img src="/images/20240203/artcore.png">
<p>Online since 2022, <a href="https://artcore.com/"><strong>artcore</strong></a> is the oldest entry on the list, and probably the richer in terms of features. Their catalog is the bigger too, and seems to be slightly oriented towards electronic music.</p>
<p>Contrary to the other platforms, they seem to operate more like a traditional company. It isn't open-source, and the revenue share is 20% (in addition to Paypal fees), which is 5% more than Bandcamp.</p>
<p><strong>Features</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>music player</em></li>
<li><em>free and pay-what-you-want downloads</em></li>
<li><em>direct-to-fan communication</em></li>
<li><em>catalog exploration</em></li>
<li><em>label functionality</em></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Price</strong>: 20% revenue share + PayPal fees</p>
</section>
<section>
<h2 id="ampwall"><a href="https://ampwall.com/">Ampwall</a></h2>
<img src="/images/20240203/ampwall.png">
<p><a href="https://ampwall.com/"><strong>Ampwall</strong></a> is not open to everyone yet, but it seems active and about to be released (they say early 2024). They seem to share <a href="https://ampwall.com/#faq">similar ethics</a> with mirlo and jam.coop. They also seem to be the only one in the list to support physical and merchandising sells.</p>
<p><strong>Features</strong> (from what the demo page shows for now):</p>
<ul>
<li><em>music player</em></li>
<li><em>free and pay-what-you-want downloads</em></li>
<li><em>physical & merch sales</em></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Price</strong>: Unknown yet</p>
</section>
<section>
<h2 id="self-hosted-alternatives">Self-hosted alternatives</h2>
<p>If you want to go the self-hosted way and get your hands dirty, here's a couple of solutions.</p>
<h3 id="faircamp"><a href="https://simonrepp.com/faircamp/">faircamp</a></h3>
<p><a href="https://simonrepp.com/faircamp/"><strong>faircamp</strong></a> is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_site_generator">static site generator</a>, which means that you organise your music and content in a hierarchy of files, run the program, and you get a fully featured website, ready to upload on a web hosting provider.</p>
<p>It seems fairly easy to operate and is very well documented. You'll need an account on a payment platform in order to receive payment, but Faircamp doesn't force you to use of any specific one. The payment tunnel is actually pretty simple, as they don't enforce the payment from the user (<a href="https://simonrepp.com/faircamp/manual/downloads.html">Soft Paycurtain</a>). You just trust them to make the payment.</p>
<p><strong>Features</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>music player</em></li>
<li><em>free and pay-what-you-want downloads</em></li>
<li><em>label functionality</em></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Price</strong>: Payment platform fees + hosting provider fees (but there's plenty of cheap options out there)</p>
<h3 id="rauversion"><a href="https://rauversion.com/">Rauversion</a></h3>
<p><a href="https://rauversion.com/"><strong>Rauversion</strong></a> is a full-featured self-hosted Bandcamp alternative. It requires more technical skills to operate. But the platform offers lots of features that other don't, with social features and editorial contents to highlight the catalog or events/ticketing features.</p>
<p>The project doesn't look very active, but there's still some activity on the <a href="https://github.com/rauversion/rauversion-ror">github</a> repository.</p>
<p><strong>Features</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>music player</em></li>
<li><em>free and pay-what-you-want downloads</em></li>
<li><em>direct-to-fan communication (social features)</em></li>
<li><em>catalog exploration</em></li>
<li><em>label functionality</em></li>
<li><em>fan page & collection</em></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Price</strong>: Payment platform fees + hosting provider fees</p>
</section>
<section>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>It's pretty awesome to see a few promising alternatives now, and more will probably come up this year. Right now, they seem to cover the basic features that made <strong>Bandcamp</strong> great.</p>
<p>But there's still a lot of work, and one problem that still needs to be solved is <strong>discoverability</strong>. One advantage of having a centralized platform that a lot of people use, is that it makes catalog exploration and search easy to do. In a post-Bandcamp era where there might be multiple platforms, they will need to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_(information_technology)"><strong>federate</strong></a> in order to solve this problem.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActivityPub"><strong>ActivityPub protocol</strong></a> integration could be one way. It's what <a href="https://joinmastodon.org"><strong>Mastodon</strong></a> uses for example.</p>
<p>Hopefully, we will see work in that direction in the near future.</p>
New LAVA EP: Phase IV2023-11-27T00:00:00+00:002023-11-27T00:00:00+00:00Unknownhttps://www.xaviergodart.com/blog/2023-11-27-new-lava-ep-phase-iv/<p>We're proud to release a new LAVA EP, Phase IV, today on <a href="https://lavabdx.bandcamp.com/album/phase-iv">Bandcamp</a>.</p>
<p>LAVA is a collaboration between my good friend <a href="https://yesdivulgation.bandcamp.com/">Remi</a> (synth guru) and myself (electric guitar).</p>
<p>We wrote and recorded it throughout 2022 and 2023. Once again, we evolved, this time to a more written format, mixing our usual style with elements of electronics, doom metal and krautrock.
We hope you'll enjoy it. Please share if you like it!</p>
<img src="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3432592856_10.jpg"/>
Talk: Generative music with Faust @ playground #1 meetup2023-08-23T00:00:00+00:002023-08-23T00:00:00+00:00Unknownhttps://www.xaviergodart.com/blog/2023-08-23-generative-music-with-faust-playground-1-meetup/<p>I'll be giving a talk (in french) on my small experiments with making generative music with <a href="https://faust.grame.fr/">Faust</a> for the <a href="https://plgrnd.cc/">playground #1 meetup</a>.</p>
<p>Slides and code examples are available on <a href="https://github.com/xaviergodart/talks/tree/main/faust-generative-music">github</a>.</p>
<p>The meetup will also fetaure talks and performances from <a href="https://v3ga.net/">Julien Gachadoat (v3ga)</a> and <a href="https://voidwork.space/">Tuxic</a>.</p>
<p>It will happen in Bordeaux, at the Deezer's offices, on September 14th.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.meetup.com/fr-FR/creative-coding-bordeaux/events/295328666/">Registration mandatory</a>.</p>
<p><img src="/images/playground_1_meetup.png" alt="playground 1 meetup" /></p>
Mortuaire debut available in LP2023-04-07T00:00:00+00:002023-04-07T00:00:00+00:00Unknownhttps://www.xaviergodart.com/blog/2023-04-07-mortuaire-debut-available-in-lp/<p><a href="https://mortuairebdx.bandcamp.com/album/ep-i">MORTUAIRE</a> debut is now available in 12-inch LP via <a href="https://worldeaterrecords.bandcamp.com">World Eater Records</a>.</p>
<p>Pre-orders <a href="https://worldeaterrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mortuaire-st">here</a>.</p>
<img src="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/0031970345_10.jpg" />
<img src="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/0031970348_10.jpg" />Nexus hybrid concert featuring Spectrale2023-03-18T00:00:00+00:002023-03-18T00:00:00+00:00Unknownhttps://www.xaviergodart.com/blog/2023-03-18-nexus-hybrid-concert/<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-1K2eHEdf4">Nexus</a> is a 50-minute hybrid concert that mixes music, visual arts, scenography and body expression, directed by <a href="https://www.studiomatierenoire.com/">Studio Matière Noire</a>.</p>
<p>It was filmed in 2021 and has just been released.</p>
<p><a href="/music/#spectrale">Spectrale</a> is featured on the first 15 minutes of the video. We performed 3-tracks from our album <a href="https://spectrale.bandcamp.com/album/arcanes">Arcanes</a>.</p>
<p>Enjoy!</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B-1K2eHEdf4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>New Birtawil live video and album2022-11-13T00:00:00+00:002022-11-13T00:00:00+00:00Unknownhttps://www.xaviergodart.com/blog/2022-11-13-new-birtawil-live-video-and-album/<p>My last gig at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/5447004892051422/">Les Sens de Nyx</a> event in Bordeaux was captured by <a href="https://www.studiomatierenoire.com/">Studio Matière Noire</a>, huge thanks to them ♥</p>
<p>You can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27fHYWE--7k">watch the whole performance on Youtube</a> or <a href="https://birtawil.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-les-sens-de-nyx">listen/download/buy it on Bandcamp</a>.</p>
<p>It features only new music. Material I write for my albums were never made with live performance in mind, so I tend to completely separate live music from album music.
Hope you'll enjoy! And please share if you like it!</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="415" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/27fHYWE--7k" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://birtawil.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-les-sens-de-nyx"><img src="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2741120360_10.jpg"/></a></p>
Birtawil music on streaming platforms2022-09-18T00:00:00+00:002022-09-18T00:00:00+00:00Unknownhttps://www.xaviergodart.com/blog/2022-09-18-birtawil-music-on-streaming-platforms/<p>You can now <a href="/birtawil">listen to Birtawil music on all major streaming platforms</a>.
Right now, only the last album, ĦOLL, is available. But I'll add the rest little by little.</p>
<p>I've been using Bandcamp exclusively until now, because it's the fairest model. But a few things made me change my mind:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://blog.bandcamp.com/2022/03/02/bandcamp-is-joining-epic/">Bandcamp has been bought by Epic Games</a>, and I'm not sure where this is heading. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket anymore.</li>
<li>Since 2022, <a href="https://get.bandcamp.help/hc/fr/articles/360007802494-What-about-taxes-">the IRS (US Tax) requires US based marketplaces like Bandcamp to issue tax forms to artists and labels who earn over $600 USD</a> in sales within one year (instead of $10,000 USD before). Again, not really sure where this is heading, but it's annoying at best, specially for very small projects like mines. I have a feeling that's why Bandcamp was sold, because they're not be able to make life easier for independant artists anymore. But I'm just speculating...</li>
<li>It's 2022, and let's be honnest, most people are listening music through major streaming platforms.</li>
</ul>
<p>In the future, I may also experiment with self-hosting my own music as an alternative.</p>
New Birtawil album ĦOLL is out!2022-08-29T00:00:00+00:002022-08-29T00:00:00+00:00Unknownhttps://www.xaviergodart.com/blog/2022-08-29-new-birtawil-album-holl-is-out/<p>ĦOLL is now available on <a href="https://birtawil.bandcamp.com/album/oll">Bandcamp</a>.</p>
<p>It features 6 new tracks, that are all quite different, ranging from darkwave to noir jazz kind of sounds, while keeping the usual ambient feel. One common element to these tracks is the use of electronic beats and sounds.
That's the new thing, alongside the new writting approach, which is less improvisational and more track focused. And of course the addition of vocals.
It's a big departure from the previous albums, and I hope you'll enjoy it.
Please tell me what do you think, and share if you like it!</p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 640px; height: 944px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1519217444/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://birtawil.bandcamp.com/album/oll">ĦOLL by BIRTAWIL</a></iframe>New Birtawil album announcement2022-07-31T00:00:00+00:002022-07-31T00:00:00+00:00Unknownhttps://www.xaviergodart.com/blog/2022-07-31-new-birtawil-album-announcement/<img src="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3110579184_10.jpg"/>
<p>It's called ĦOLL, and it will be released on August 29th on <a href="https://birtawil.bandcamp.com/">Bandcamp</a>.
It's quite a big departure from my previous works. Darker, more structured, less improvisation, more experimentations, more electronic sounds. I actually thought about releasing it under a new name, but in the end, this project is still my personal sandbox, and I don't have any defined vision for it.</p>
<p>The first track, Damokl, is available to stream right now on Bandcamp:
<a href="https://birtawil.bandcamp.com/album/oll">https://birtawil.bandcamp.com/album/oll</a></p>
<p>And it's a pretty special one, because it's the first track featuring my vocals.</p>
<p>I had to put a minimum price of 1€ for the track preview / pre-order but, as usual, it will be released at "pay what you want" price.</p>
<p>Hope you'll enjoy it!</p>
Mortuaire debut EP2022-06-06T00:00:00+00:002022-06-06T00:00:00+00:00Unknownhttps://www.xaviergodart.com/blog/2022-06-06-mortuaire-debug-ep/<img src="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1458752633_10.jpg"/>
<p>Super proud to share the debut EP of our new death metal band Mortuaire.
Listen to it on Bandcamp: <a href="https://mortuairebdx.bandcamp.com">https://mortuairebdx.bandcamp.com</a></p>
New LAVA album annoucement2021-12-12T00:00:00+00:002021-12-12T00:00:00+00:00Unknownhttps://www.xaviergodart.com/blog/2021-12-12-new-lava-album-announcement/<img src="https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4200119371_10.jpg"/>
<p>We're proud to release the new LAVA album, Phase III, today on <a href="https://lavabdx.bandcamp.com/album/phase-iii">Bandcamp</a>.</p>
<p>LAVA is a collaboration between my good friend <a href="https://yesdivulgation.bandcamp.com/">Remi</a> (synth guru) and myself (electric guitar).</p>
<p>We wrote and recorded it throughout 2021, and it's quite different from the previous releases as we wanted to make shorter and more focused tracks.
The overall mood is brighter than before, there's still the ambient and improvised aspects of the music, but also things that are more written than usual.</p>
<p>We hope you'll enjoy it. Please share if you like it!</p>