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 sold to Fortnite creators Epic 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 workers.
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 inserting extra worth in stakeholders reasonably than unbiased customers. He says he envisions a music market “where the community owns the code, controls the decisions, and shares in its success.”
“Subvert is a Bandcamp successor that is collectively owned, stewarded, and controlled by its community, with 100% of its founding ownership reserved for its artists, community, and workers,” Robey wrote in his impassioned letter. “We’re building a platform that has artists’ interests, collective ownership, and democratic governance hardwired in its very DNA.
“Subvert’s major objective is to create a collectively owned various to Bandcamp—a market that makes it straightforward for artists to immediately promote bodily and digital work, whereas additionally giving them higher management over their very own future,” Robey adds.
Elsewhere in the letter, Robey promises platform updates and information in the weeks ahead pertaining to the launch. At the time of this article’s publication, the site also features a countdown with 36 days remaining.
You can read more about Subvert’s mission right here.
