Notes from the forest #7
On social media and digital ownership, Bandcamp alternative Subvert and music discovery.
Responsible sovereignty
Last week I ended the notes with a question about how we like to communicate with people on the web instead of dealing with algos from centralised surveillance networks. I recommended to look out for platforms in responsible ownership.
The TikTok ban, the Musk Twitter takeover, the Facebook moderation policy changes, the Republicans’ rapidly intensifying crackdowns on speech... let these be the proof you needed to move anything you care about online to a space you control. Digital sovereignty is more important than ever. – Molly White
It is indeed a good time to talk about digital ownership as Molly White does. Here's a good concept on how to achieve digital sovereignty and reclaim social media in a responsible way: POSSE = Post (on) Own Site Syndicate Elsewhere. Please read Molly White's very good explanation of POSSE.
If you want to jump right in, have a look at Micro.blog, run by Manton Reece (author of Indie Microblogging). The service allows you to automatically cross-post to Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, Tumblr, Nostr, LinkedIn, Medium, Pixelfed and Flickr. Most importantly, Micro.blog supports the export of all your posts and data should you consider moving to another platform - no lock-in really.
But the first thing you could do is to get a domain name yourself, like I did with djbooga.com. Do you need any tips on how to do this and what to avoid? Sign up to comment or write to me and I consider coming up with a dedicated article.
Bandcamp vs Subvert
In their Bulletin #001 from November 2023 the new Bandcamp owners and parent company Songtradr promised to work on automated releases and public playlists (private playlists are available since February 2023), both features haven't been shipped yet. They shipped these features in 2024 though:
- a better discovery tool, where you now can search and filter by combining genre tags
- private streaming sharing of albums and tracks with visitor and play count insights
- Bandcamp partners with Linkfire to include the platform on release link pages
In the spirit of looking at platforms in responsible ownership or to be precise in steward-ownership, I registered my label Defrostatica on Subvert, a platform that describes itself as "Own and control the next Bandcamp". The people behind Subvert put in the time, effort and money to build and explain how they strive to achieve this:
Subvert is a cooperative working to build an online marketplace where artists and labels can sell music and merchandise directly to their supporters. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive and transparent look into how we operate as a collectively owned music platform. – Subvert documentation
Until now, the concept of Subvert has been theoretical, but in just three days, Subvert will be giving its members a first glimpse of what's to come: Platform Preview (Artist Page + Audio Player Experience) on the 30th of January. I'm excited about that! The public launch is aimed at summer 2025.
Oh and Bandcamp has not been posted a Bulletin #002 until now.
5 Ways To Beat The Winter Blues
From the place for bass with no boundaries aka 1 More Thing run by Dave Jenkins comes a helpful listicle for those affected by the miserable season we're literally and figuratively all in at the moment. The five tipps to beat the blues put together by Shenice Friday are sound. I'm team vitamin D supplement.
Can music discovery be automated?
Earlier this month DJ mags reported on a new web app called Lazyrecords, because the new platform "wants to cut through the homogeneity of algorithm-driven recommendations" and to help djs find new music. Alright, how does it work? The service uses Discogs' huge record database, which has eight million entries with YouTube videos to preview the actual recorded music. LazyRecords lets users filter music by Discog's genre catalog and then shows a handful YouTube tracks at random. Despite of the platforms claim that the app is algorithm free, random is an algorithm – if it's a helpful one in this regard is up to your taste. If Lazyrecords wants to win the hearts and minds of artists as well as DJs, they should put buy links next to the track names, preferably to Bandcamp and in the future to Subvert.
What I'm working on
I finished a refix of Woanders by Trettmann for a dj gig in two weeks and I'm currently working on an article on the relation of original music and remixes, stay tuned.
🌱 The title of the weekly notes refers to Erik Kissane's dark forest metaphor for a resilient and non-gamified human network on the web.
