On this thread: https://piefed.social/post/1243539 one of the main points of contention is about the tension between how spotify pays artists very little, but piracy doesn’t, on it’s own, pay them at all.
I’m a heavy user of bandcamp, but i know that it has strengths and weaknesses: it’s great for finding independent artists and small labels, but it doesnt have a big catalog for popular tracks.
Do people have experience with other sources for purchasing? What about https://us.7digital.com/ ?
Specifically for self hosting, is there a way to streamline purchases from sites like these into lidarr? If not, is there an automated solution for (1) uncompressing a downloaded archive file from a purchase, then (2) making it conform to a file/folder organizational structure, and (3) having navidrome, jellyfin, etc import it?
Just trying to find workable ideas for owning music and getting artists most of the money.
You could also buy CDs and rip them
This is definitely a decent starting point but not a complete solution, unfortunately. It’s not always cost-effective if you only want a few tracks from an album or need to import it to get it at all (or if it was a limited release it can be hard to find at all).
CDs take quite some space once you have more than like 50. Selling them after ripping in large quantities is a lot of work. I wouldn’t buy CDs unless I’m really into the physical medium (nothing wrong with that - sadly, most downloads lack high res artworks, booklets etc).
I just donate them when I’m done. Often you can buy the physical CD cheaper from places like discogs than you can a digital version. So I don’t feel bad giving them away afterwards. Someone might even discover the bands I love.
the hero we deserve.
my physical collection is mostly thrift store finds
Unrelated but did you know that Libraries oftentimes have cd’s, dvd’s, and even audiobooks available to borrow?
Yes, and while borrowing contributes to their “we’re needed, please fund us” justification, it doesn’t directly support the artists.
Legal, yes. Supports the artist? No.
The artists don’t make money on CD sales?
Not if you’re buying them 2nd hand on eBay, which would represent the bulk of building a collection.
To be clear, im not trying to detract from the effort, it’s just op mentioned artists not getting paid what they deserve.
Bit of a stretch, but second-hand sales do influence the value of the CD and therefore increase its initial sale price (ie. CDs have extra value because they can be resold).
So buying used does indirectly increase profits, though of course the lion’s share of that is likely not going to the artist anyway.
Sure, I can accept that.
I don’t particularly have an opinion on artist compensation vs listener freedom when it comes to this. Obviously, I would prefer artists were paid what they deserve, but I don’t like participating in the fallacy that the end user is ethically responsible for the bullshit music industry infrastructure not paying artists properly.
I give where I can, but I’m just some person.
It highly depends on their contract and if they are a big name or not. There is a reason a lot of bands tour though as they make a lot of more money from it than CD sales.