I’ve tried a couple of other services to create publicly accessible playlists from Bandcamp-hosted music, but now Bandcamp are launching their own public-facing playlist function in beta. You can currently only build playlists in their mobile app, and there are some signficant guardrails and hurdles:
Built on ownership
Fans can only add tracks they own to a playlist. That means every Bandcamp Playlist is a reflection of real support for artists, not passive streaming.
No free-for-all streaming
Fan listeners can sample tracks they don’t own, but after reaching the artist-set limit (3 plays by default), they’re directed to the album page to purchase.
Supporting artists is baked in
Visitors must be logged into a fan account to listen to Bandcamp Playlists, ensuring a connection between discovery and directly supporting artists.
However, I find it hard to raise a full-throated objection to any of them. Yes, discoverability is impacted, but the trade-offs for that are non-trivial.
Buy Music Club and BNDCMPR will still be options for people who want to send playlists beyond the cohort of people with Bandcamp accounts. I particularly like Buy Music Club for the way it flags the buy-button on every track. But. With the social media system fragmenting and falling down, our inboxes choked with newsletters, search mangled by AI and the slopocalypse cresting the battlements, curation matters.
So that’s what I’m thinking about today instead of doing any of the dozen things I’m supposed to be doing.
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