I Bought These On Bandcamp — Month #4
I wanted to find a way of balancing out my monthly Spotify subscription (£14.99 Family Plan) with money that went direct (or as direct as possible) to the musicians who make music I like. So I made myself a promise that I would spend at least £15 per month on Bandcamp. I gave these articles the title #15permonth. I think I was hoping the hashtag would take off, with little or no input from me. That hope died.
Then Spotify changed their pricing to £16.99 per month. I was momentarily torn between retaining my pithy hashtag title, or responding to what the Universe was telling me and ditching it. I ditched it. Also, should I up my spend to at least £17? Then I realised that I have spent well in excess of £17 in the previous 2 months. It was all falling into place.
Now, these articles (apart from the first 2) will be titled “I Bought These On Bandcamp”. When the creative muse fails you, call a spade a spade. I hope you enjoy.
— by Ian Dowling.
N.B. for many of these I opted to round up to the nearest £, and sometimes paid a £ over the odds if I particularly enjoyed the music. I found my psychology around this quite interesting. I got pleasure from paying the extra, and enjoyed writing the artist a note thanking them. It felt like a connection. A very small connection but nevertheless…
- Trip Recordings “Hot Steel I”
Trip Recordings is the record label belonging to Russian musician and DJ Nina Kraviz. For those who don’t know, she is a byword for cool, challenging electronic music. In a sea of anodyne US-based EDM and European business techno, she somehow manages to be incredibly popular and cool, yet consistently release quite challenging music.
This album is 21 tracks of boundary-pushing electronic music, submitted to Trip Recordings as part of a live stream event, signed and then released as Hot Steel. All profits for this one go to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
There are some big names here: Vladimir Dubyshkin, PTU, Flug, Roma Zuckerman, and Kraviz herself.
You could leave this on at a party and be the coolest motherfucker since Moscow.
€21.00 + €5.20 tax.
Only one purchase this month, but a relatively large budget-busting one, and for a good cause. Remember, it’s not about the amount you spend. It’s about consistency. You could spend £5 per month on Bandcamp and still be putting FAR more money into musician’s pockets than listening via any streaming platform or other digital download service.
If you love music and want to support those who make and reease it, then use Bandcamp.
(by the way, Bandcamp aren’t paying me to say that or write these articles).
Until next time…
© At Swim Ltd. Creative Arts 2021
At Swim Ltd. is a creative arts company that likes to do things differently.
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