At #FediForum, @n00q discussed a Federated music service for #BandCamp refugees. After a few days of drawing up requirements and specs, and a couple days of code, something interesting is taking shape.Here's a too-fast-tour of a hypothetical album pag...

julian

@[email protected] that's amazing work! Love seeing things come to life after FediForum.

Chris Wood

@benpate @n00q this is a wonderful idea and looks beautiful already! Excited to see where this goes, as I currently use Bandcamp to buy albums

Ben Pate 🤘🏻

@chriswood @n00q

Thank you very much We're just getting some ideas together, so it's the perfect time for me to ask questions about what's best for both artists and fans.

The original plan is to just make all downloads free -- I'm told that digital sales don't really add up to enough to be worth it, especially after BandCamp takes its cut.

So, I'm thinking artists could probably pay for (super cheap) hosting, then post songs to stream/download for free. Do you think that makes sense?

? Offline

@benpate @n00q Intriguing…

Caught your demo video as well -

I need to read/see more, so I may be making one assumption too many here…

But would I be right in thinking that - potentially - you could use Emissary to ‘build' an environment for a musician to run/host a bunch of apps dedicated to managing/promoting their music. Even potentially collaborating with other artists?

Have other users comment on tracks like soundcloud?

If that's a vague possibility/direction of travel, then hell yes - that's exciting…

Ben Pate 🤘🏻

@gribbles @n00q Hey, thanks for looking

Yes, it’s possible, within some limits. There’s certainly an upper limit where very specialized apps might be tough to build.

And yes, I want to add other social APIs to Emissary. If a commercial service supports it, we could make connectors to anywhere that’s reasonable.

I’ll post an early preview just as soon as I can, to get your feedback on what works for musicians like you. Stay tuned!

? Offline

@benpate @n00q OK - that's really interesting.

I was chatting to some folk a while back about federated services between digital stores. This feels like it's relevant of course…

Oh, and - synchronicity! I’ve learnt never to ignore it when things appear to line up…

My coding days are long over - but I’ve done some product management in my time and like to think I have an eye for opportunity!

Will give them a nudge...

And I’d be really interested to have a play & give some feedback...

Alex Rodríguez

@gribbles @benpate @n00q thanks for the nudge! I'm also eager to help this conversation move forward.

Ben Pate 🤘🏻

@gribbles @n00q Sounds awesome. Yes, please stay in the loop on this. There are lots of things we can do with #ActivityPub that are more than "yet another micro-blog."

BTW, here's the Git repo from the video:

GitHub - EmissarySocial/bandwagon: An open community for bands and musicians

An open community for bands and musicians. Contribute to EmissarySocial/bandwagon development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub (github.com)

Not that you want to jump in and start coding, but to give you a ballpark estimate on the work required to make a custom app. Right now, its exactly 8 files - including the show calendar I'm working on.

Let's talk more once I have something ready to beta-test?

Ben Pate 🤘🏻

@arod @gribbles @n00q

Howdy, Alex.. Good to meet you. I checked out your project: https://mirlo.space - it looks pretty impressive.

Where are you in your development cycle with it? Do you have live users? And, does it plug into the Fediverse, or other social APIs?

I'm super-interested to talk and hear your perspective

your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦

@benpate @n00q getting sued by Metallica will be awesome publicity for your Bandcamp killer. awesome marketing move.*

(* snark brought to you by a GenXer who still remembers and resents their Napster fuckery.)

Ben Pate 🤘🏻

@blogdiva @n00q Napster Bad! (I still love Metallica, tho)

Alison Wilder

@benpate @n00q this is so exciting! Have you taken a look at #Faircamp? It's a static site generator designed to provide artists a self hosted easy way to share their own music. Since it's building static sites, I'm not sure if there's any real opportunity for collaboration, but it seems to have come from the Fediverse, so just wanted to be sure you were aware of it!

faircamp

faircamp - A static site generator for audio producers

Codeberg.org (codeberg.org)

Ben Pate 🤘🏻

@alisynthesis @n00q Thanks, Allison. Until a few weeks ago I hadn’t looked into any of this But now I am familiar with #Faircamp

I love static site generators, but I don’t think they work for regular people - too much command line for grandma to use.

There is a place for an easy-to-sign-up website, though. So my current thought is to open source this #Emissary app for musicians, then also host it as a paid but really cheap service for musicians to use.

Chris Wood

@benpate @n00q

Do you know why artists post their music on Bandcamp then if it’s not for the money? I buy albums from there, just on Bandcamp Fridays, because I thought it would help support them.

I stream songs I can’t find on Bandcamp on SoundCloud, for free with an adblocker on my iPhone. Also, almost everyone I know has a Spotify subscription, so as a listener it seems like there’s already lots of places for artists to post music to stream (but I don’t know if they have to pay for them).

Chris Wood

@benpate @n00q what I love about Bandcamp is how easy it is to listen to something completely new. Spotify is great at generating audio background, playing song after song that I’ve either heard before or that sounds the same. But I want to explore different artists and genres that I don’t know about yet and discover new things that I enjoy. Their radio show, recommendation algorithm, weekly personalised email newsletter, and how easy it is to see new music from artists all contribute to that.

Chris Wood

@benpate @n00q I also love seeing updates from artists in my Bandcamp inbox, especially when they’ve released new music or they’re going on tour. The one thing I miss from Spotify (I stopped paying a couple of years ago) is being able to see when artists are going on tour easily so I can go to their gigs.

So I guess my needs are:
- to financially support artists I listen to
- to enjoy their music at my desk, on the go, and at live gigs
- to find out about their new music and upcmng gigs

Chris Wood

@benpate @n00q
- to discover new music I might like in a similar vein to artists I already listen to, in other genres that I know I like, and in different genres that I’m not very familiar with
- to see what artists are up to and follow them on their musical journey

smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊)

@benpate @gribbles @n00q

I think that is a private repo you linked?

Jens Finkhäuser

@benpate @n00q Honestly, it seems good. But what I need is bookwyrm for music.

I'm kind of disappointed that the world seems to think music services need to be creator centric, and book services need to be consumer centric.

The best is when both are served IMHO.

Ben Pate 🤘🏻

@smallcircles @gribbles @n00q Oh man, that’s the second time I’ve done that! So Sorry. Repo is public now.