In case your attention’s been elsewhere, Spotify has been at the center of another uproar lately: last week Neil Young pulled his music from the streaming service to protest the COVID misinformation it was spreading via Joe Rogan’s podcast. Young’s attempt to call out Rogan’s bullshit has precipitated other artist withdrawals and a wave of subscriber cancellations, which on balance is probably a good thing, but this brouhaha has ironically diverted attention from vital ongoing campaigns protesting Spotify’s long-term problem with pitifully tiny royalty payouts.
For those of you who need to get caught up on that subject, I recommend Jack Riedy’s 2020 Reader story on the streaming economy, which explains why so many independent musicians feel they have no choice but to leave their music on Spotify. Riedy also pointed out that musicians who can generate sales on Bandcamp get to keep a vastly larger share of that money, which is another reason I bring his story up now. On Friday, February 4, Bandcamp Friday returns, which means that for 24 hours the platform will pass along to artists and labels its usual share of sales revenue.
Bandcamp Fridays, which usually fall on the first Friday of the month, recently took another short break, but this installment will nonetheless be the 19th since the pandemic started. If you’ve somehow managed not to hear about Bandcamp Friday until now, you’ve stumbled across the right post: As usual, I’ve put together a list of music you can buy on Bandcamp that the Reader has covered since the previous Bandcamp Friday in December 2021. And via the roundup I published for that one, you can access every other Bandcamp Friday list of Reader-recommended albums, EPs, and singles—hundreds upon hundreds of releases. Click on the titles below to see what Reader writers had to say about the music in question. Happy hunting!
Anatomy of Habit, Even if It Takes a Lifetime
Atom & His Package, A Society of People Named Elihu
Emily Blue, The Afterlove
Boris, W
Boy Harsher, The Runner
Cloakroom, Dissolution Wave
Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few, Cosmic Transitions
Courtesy, Check the Milk
Reno Cruz, Falling in Love Is Not That Hard
Dead Best, Dead Best
Dogs at Large, My Epiphone
Harm’s Way, Isolation
Hen of the Woods, These Banisters Aren’t Blue
Kahil El’Zabar Quartet, A Time for Healing
Equip, Cursebreaker Z
The Feeders, Kerchoo
Mark Feldman & Tim Daisy, Circle Back
Neal Francis, In Plain Sight
Peter Joly, Easy Has Never Been the Way
The Kreutzer Sonata, Cradle to the Grave
Maggie Kubley, Come Over
Elijah LeFlore, Sunset Radio
Lost Wages Sound, Lost Wages Sound
Lydia Loveless, “You’re Leaving Me” b/w “Let’s Make Out”
Man-Eaters, Twelve More Observations on Healthy Living
Beth McDonald, Densing
Mechina, Venator
Megiapa, Diddies Vol. 1
Metz, Atlas Vending
Modern Nun, Name
Monochromatic Black, Vicissitude
Matt Muse featuring theMIND, “Rapport”
Neph, Hell If I Know
Noir Disco, Now! 2073
Orisun, All Gender Bathroom
Jamie Paige, Bittersweet
Pale Horseman, For Dust Thou Art
Jeff Parker, Forfolks
Jessica Pavone, When No One Around You Is There but Nowhere to Be Found
Plague of Carcosa, Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath
Lyra Pramuk, Delta and Fountain
The Purple Hotel, The Purple Hotel
Recent Ancestors, Recent Ancestors
Dave Rempis & Avreeayl Ra, Bennu
Dan Sartain, Arise, Dan Sartain, Arise
Semiratruth, I Got Bandz for the Moonlandin’, Mira, Wait!, and Oh, the Places We’ll Go!
Si Dios Quiere, Sol y Guerra
Sleepwalk, Underneath the Shade
Wadada Leo Smith, Henry Kaiser, and Alex Varty, Pacifica Koral Reef
Vic Spencer, Spencer for Higher 4
Stöner, Stoners Rule
Toni, Running on All Fours
Touched by Ghoul, Cancel the World
Ustalost, Before the Glinting Spell Unvests
Hana Vu, Public Storage
Wiki & Navy Blue, Half God
Asher White, American Motel History
Boo Williams, The Best of Boo Williams
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