Blorgin'
I feel like I need to come up for air, after some protracted busy-ness (not to be confused with business, which I have none of at the moment).
Bandcrash early alpha/beta/whatever released
So hey, the Bandcrash GUI is finally, finally in a working state! You can now use it to easily encode a bunch of wav files into mp3/ogg/flac and make a web preview, and optionally upload it all to itch.io automagically!
Also, I’ve released prebuilt macOS and Windows binaries over on itch.io. I’ll probably do a Linux version as well at some point, although Linux users are likely much better-equipped to just build-and-install it themselves.
To that end, I used it to upload one of my older albums to itch, and I gotta say, having a GUI to set it up is actually a lot nicer than doing it all from the CLI with hand-written JSON files? Weird.
There’s still a lot left to do on it but what is there right now is Good Enough for now.
That said, I’m hopeful that bandcamp remains viable for the long term, but now it’s a lot less necessary to worry about a single platform like that.
Current goings-on
Do people ever read these things? Or do people just like knowing that I’m still alive? Either way here’s a “I’m still alive” post.
Bandcamp Friday, October 2023
Caught up on my collections of:
Added the discographies of:
Bandcamp United
So, hey, Bandcamp is a great service that a lot of musicians and fans rely upon for fair distribution and sales of music. It is a really great thing.
Unfortunately, Bandcamp’s owners decided that having a sustainably profitable business wasn’t Enough for them and sold it to Epic Games a year ago, with the idea that it’d become a money-printing factory that does All The Licensing.
And that didn’t pan out, so a week ago Epic re-sold Bandcamp to Songtradr, which is basically an A&R pay-for-play scam with the trappings of respectability. Here’s a video Benn Jordan did on the topic (focusing on a site called Taxi but Songtradr is the same basic thing):
Now Songtradr is blocking the Bandcamp union from actually being, y'know, a union. They aren’t honoring the union terms, have locked workers out of critical systems, are completely ignoring the collective bargaining power of Bandcamp as a company and are doing all sorts of heinous shit.
However! This is not a time to boycott Bandcamp! All that does is make Bandcamp less valuable and gives Songtradr more sway over them, while disproportionately impacting the musicians who rely on it. Please look to see what the union is requesting in terms of support and solidarity. There’s a lot you can do to show your support.
Independent musicians thank you.
Upcoming choir shows!
Here are the upcoming shows for the choir I participate in:
- Fall Talent Show: Saturday, October 21 at 6:00 pm at Rainier Beach Presbyterian (tickets)
- One More Light: a Trans Day of Remembrance Concert
I hope to see some of you some of there!
Bandcamp Friday - September 1, 2023
As usual, Bandcamp is waiving their cut of the purchase price on the first Friday of the month. So this is the best time to consider buying my music. Update: Today only, use discount code plaidfriday to get up to 80% off on everything, including my full discography. Because why not.
As a voracious consumer of music, I maintain a running list of things to buy on the next Bandcamp Friday so that I can make the biggest impact on a monthly cadence (and also keep better track of my music spending habits). Here’s what I bought this month:
- Botak — built-in presets, vol. 1, some fun silly music made from the built-in presets of a Yamaha PSR-3
- Last BeNeVoLeNcE — The Other Worlds - 2nd Act, some videogame-inspired nerdcore hip-hop
- wohali — Variety Show, some weird weirdness that I’m not quite sure how to describe, much less explain
- The entire discography of bgm, an amazing Songfighter who’s been really knocking it out of the park lately
- The entire discography of Ghost, who makes nice cozy tunes
- Deacon Bill — Intelligent Toilet
- Hopeless Otis — Dangerfield
For more recommendations, check out my Bandcamp profile, or look at my past Bandcamp Friday posts.
Today’s stuff
Got some things done today, figured I’d talk about them.
Basement 3 + music stuff
Last night I was having a massive pain flareup so I smoked huge amounts of cannabis. That made me feel somewhat better (if a bit silly) but it also meant I was extremely hung-over today and ended up having to cancel meeting up with Spud for a thing.
But, I got some basement reorganization done and hit a major milestone, and also listened to some great music while doing it.
Song Fight! Live-ish 2023
This year’s Song Fight! Live will be premiering August 26 at 6 PM PDT/9 PM EDT. Please join me and my music friends with the mirth and merriment as we all perform songs while pretending it’s a concert! (And join in the live chat.)