The owners of Subvert, an upcoming music service, say they are offering something Bandcamp ultimately failed to do: a “community-owned” platform free of corporate interests.
Bandcamp was sold to Fortnite creators Epic Games in 2022. Amid layoffs at the gaming giant, music licensing company Songtradr acquired Bandcamp 18 months later in a move that resulted in layoffs of its own, amounting to about half of the platform’s staff.
Enter Subvert, whose founder, Austin Robey, saw these events as a sign of the downfall of the platform and, more broadly, the music industry given its emphasis on monetary value rather than the intrinsic personal value of music for artists and fans.
In an open letter posted on Subvert's website, Robey highlights the need to address the “inevitable consequence of platform capitalism” – the result of giving more value to stakeholders than to independent users. He says he envisions a music marketplace “where the community owns the code, controls the decisions, and shares in its success.”
“Subvert is a successor to Bandcamp that is collectively owned, managed, 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 are building a platform that has artist interests, collective ownership, and democratic governance built into its DNA.
“Subvert's main goal is to create a collectively owned alternative to Bandcamp: a marketplace that makes it easier for artists to directly sell physical and digital works, while giving them greater control over their own destiny,” Robey adds.
Elsewhere in the letter, Robey promises platform updates and information in the coming weeks regarding 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 here.
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