LinuxBBQ

Another encrypted file sharing service;
https://www.sharrr.com (blog post by creator)

^ Oh. The insurance company of my better half is there.

https://linktr.ee/bandcampunited

I know less than a half of the whole story behind Bandcamp and Epic Games. If anything of this is true then, once again, I ask myself: how can I support the artists I love?

It's already hard for me to keep up with Blu-rays without relying on Amazon all the time, but right when I thought I could use Bandcamp to hopefully give more money to musicians, here we go again. I can go to concerts and buy stuff there, yes, I do that. I can support a local record store struggling to stay alive, but yes, I do that. As it wasn't enough to keep a fake account on Instagram to get proper news from little known musicians, now this. Damn.

^ I found this with a DDG search:

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ ... rb-hearing

^^ Bandcamp have supposedly been petitioning some of the independent labels to withdraw support of this unionization. Naturally, all the labels rejected.

In some ways, I guess unionizing has become common for many in the US tech sector, considering the exploitation (and eventual burnout) going on. Bandcamp fucked up when they sold to Epic. They can try to hold on to their ethos all they want, but ultimately they’re just a revenue stream for Epic/Tencent now.

ivanovnegro wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 09, 2023 9:29 pm

^ I found this with a DDG search:

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ ... rb-hearing

Thanks for the link, bits of it I read somewhere else but it gives me more perspective on this. I am trying to write down my feelings about all of this somehow, and especially wrt my approach to independent music, maybe I'll publish something on my blog.

gutterslob wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 10, 2023 7:19 am

^^ Bandcamp have supposedly been petitioning some of the independent labels to withdraw support of this unionization. Naturally, all the labels rejected.

In some ways, I guess unionizing has become common for many in the US tech sector, considering the exploitation (and eventual burnout) going on. Bandcamp fucked up when they sold to Epic. They can try to hold on to their ethos all they want, but ultimately they’re just a revenue stream for Epic/Tencent now.

This is it. Labels and artists who had found a place to share their output through a supposedly better channel are trapped.

GekkoP wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 10, 2023 8:57 am

I am trying to write down my feelings about all of this somehow, and especially wrt my approach to independent music, maybe I'll publish something on my blog.

I just couldn't resist: https://manueluberti.eu/2023/04/10/bandcamp.html (In fact, I haven't even read it twice to double-check, so expect silly mistakes.)

^ Nice reading. It is a shame that it has come to this.

Regarding English books, we have the same problem here. You have to use Amazon or very little from somewhere else (Book Repository was bought by Amazon and now it is defunct). It is impossible to find books in English that actually would be delivered to your home. The one big store here is a franchise and their English section is laughable.

At least in Brussels we could go to Waterstones. It is the largest UK book store that also bought who knows which independent book store.

In capitalism we seem to have so many options but in the end it is all controlled by one mega corporation. Everything "independent" is swallowed by bigger fish.

GekkoP wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 10, 2023 11:11 am

GekkoP wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 10, 2023 8:57 am

I am trying to write down my feelings about all of this somehow, and especially wrt my approach to independent music, maybe I'll publish something on my blog.

I just couldn't resist: https://manueluberti.eu/2023/04/10/bandcamp.html (In fact, I haven't even read it twice to double-check, so expect silly mistakes.)

Good rant. Sadly, I don’t have answers for you. We can’t simply get everyone on Bandcamp to move en masse to a new platform. Such a platform doesn’t exist anyway. The closest in terms of fairness to artists/producers was Mixcloud Select, where individual artists or labels had their own channel for you to subscribe to for monthly fees, but that didn’t take off. Publications don’t do enough, imho. They claim to champion artist rights but really just end up as self gratifying silos.

ivanovnegro wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 11, 2023 9:43 pm

In capitalism we seem to have so many options but in the end it is all controlled by one mega corporation. Everything "independent" is swallowed by bigger fish.

A good description of the situation.

Thanks for the write up GekkoP, great as always. And wife says hello and thank you for Nina Nastasia. :)

^ Oh nice, glad she likes her.

Thanks everyone for reading, by the way.

https://restofworld.org/
Discovered this site through one of the photography newsletters I subscribe to. Ashamed that I only found out about it now. Really enlightening content.

^ Thanks, it looks promising. And I see newsletters, which I always appreciate when the content is good.

GekkoP wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 23, 2023 7:50 pm

And I see newsletters, which I always appreciate when the content is good.

Dunno if it’s your thing, but https://www.revuecolle.com/ is what I’m vibing right now.

More crap coming from the big G. You probably have heard about it, maybe even mentioned it here somewhere already.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07 ... r-the-web/

^ Sounds like crap and I was expecting crap. The next time you open a website you need to verify your name and age with an electronic ID card and then you will be bombarded with ads and finally you can read the crappy news and they are fake.

^ & ^^: WTF.

The Online Safety bill from the UK.

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3137

The equivalent to the European chat control thingy.

They just continue, never stop until they got it through one way or other.

Oh that shit again. Was just reading about it yesterday and today. I saw a redacted document from the minutes where Europol basically demands access to scan all data in chat applications.

I have found the article again:

https://balkaninsight.com/2023/09/25/wh ... x-content/