The proprietors of Subvert, an upcoming music service, say they’re delivering one thing Bandcamp in the end could not: a “community-owned” platform unencumbered by company pursuits.
Bandcamp was bought to Fortnite creators Epic Video games again in 2022. Amid layoffs on the gaming big, music licensing agency Songtradr then acquired Bandcamp 18 months later in a transfer that resulted in layoffs of their very own, amounting to roughly half of the platform’s employees.
Enter Subvert, whose founder, Austin Robey, noticed these developments as an indication of the downfall of the platform and, on a bigger scale, the music trade contemplating its emphasis on financial worth reasonably than music’s intrinsic private worth to artists and followers.
In an open letter posted on Subvert’s website, Robey highlights the necessity to tackle the “inevitable consequence of platform capitalism,” the upshot of putting extra worth in stakeholders reasonably than impartial customers. He says he envisions a music market “the place the group owns the code, controls the choices, and shares in its success.”
“Subvert is a Bandcamp successor that’s collectively owned, stewarded, and managed by its group, with 100% of its founding possession reserved for its artists, group, and staff,” Robey wrote in his impassioned letter. “We’re constructing a platform that has artists’ pursuits, collective possession, and democratic governance hardwired in its very DNA.
“Subvert’s main objective is to create a collectively owned various to Bandcamp—a market that makes it simple for artists to immediately promote bodily and digital work, whereas additionally giving them larger management over their very own future,” Robey provides.
Elsewhere within the letter, Robey guarantees platform updates and knowledge within the weeks forward pertaining to the launch. On the time of this text’s publication, the positioning additionally includes a countdown with 36 days remaining.
You may learn extra about Subvert’s mission right here.
