[Music] Albums of the year 2017

[Buzzer]

Haha, I will be!

On a serious note, can I ask what's your opinion of Bandcamp? I've always been a big fan as it appears to be the fairest website out there for musicians, I refuse to use Spotify or other streaming sites and instead buy the new music that I listen to but am interested to hear what the experience is like from an artist's point of view.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Very late to the party but I heard the Snapped Ankles album when I was in Resident a few days ago. I was hooked after two tracks.

 

[Hungry Joe]

On a serious note, can I ask what's your opinion of Bandcamp? I've always been a big fan as it appears to be the fairest website out there for musicians, I refuse to use Spotify or other streaming sites and instead buy the new music that I listen to but am interested to hear what the experience is like from an artist's point of view.

I'm a big fan, both as an artist and fan. It is the fairest site I've come across by a long way and the community is growing and growing because of it. I distribute to iTunes, Spotify, Deezer etc via TuneCore but much prefer the Bandcamp model. In purely monetary terms the returns for small - medium sized artists is much better also. At about 1/3 of a penny per stream from the other sites you need to be pretty huge to make enough money to even start considering giving up all or part of the day job.

 

[Buzzer]

I'm a big fan, both as an artist and fan. It is the fairest site I've come across by a long way and the community is growing and growing because of it. I distribute to iTunes, Spotify, Deezer etc via TuneCore but much prefer the Bandcamp model. In purely monetary terms the returns for small - medium sized artists is much better also. At about 1/3 of a penny per stream from the other sites you need to be pretty huge to make enough money to even start considering giving up all or part of the day job.

I follow Geoff Barrow on Twitter and his experience of the streaming sites is pretty scathing and if he's to be believed, Portishead make sod all from Spotify so what hope is there for the majority of artists?

Great to hear that Bandcamp gets the thumbs up. I've always like their ethos and it's also a great place to get lost in a tunnel of discovering new music.

 

[Hungry Joe]

I follow Geoff Barrow on Twitter and his experience of the streaming sites is pretty scathing and if he's to be believed, Portishead make sod all from Spotify so what hope is there for the majority of artists?

Great to hear that Bandcamp gets the thumbs up. I've always like their ethos and it's also a great place to get lost in a tunnel of discovering new music.

Absolutely. With the big streaming sites, by the time you've paid your annual fees to your distributor to keep the music listed on them you're lucky if you make anything and are far more likely to be running at a net loss. I first got turned on to Bandcamp when I saw I Like Trains were putting stuff out via them and haven't looked back since for all the reasons you have mentioned. More established artists are using it now too, legalities allowing, including the likes of James Yorkston. It's the great double-edged sword of the modern music industry that, whilst the internet and associated streaming sites give artists once-only-dreamed-of access to a global market, you're actually likely to make less money than pre-web days. Most artists now make the majority of their earnings from touring and merchandise as opposed to selling their actual music, which is just crazy. Talking of I Like Trains on that score, if you haven't already seen it watch their excellent docufilm 'A Divorce Before Marriage', very sobering.

 

[Hungry Joe]

Late to the party with this album of last year, but it's gone straight into my top 10.....Richard Dawson 'Peasant'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfaW-yD7DoA

 

[Machiavelli]

Late to the party with this album of last year, but it's gone straight into my top 10.....Richard Dawson 'Peasant'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfaW-yD7DoA

It's my number one. Laura Marling number two.