Now, I'm a big fan of physical media. In most cases, I will lean towards getting a CD copy of whatever music I'm into, rather than solely a digital copy. However, there's a huge number of tracks out there that have not and will not get any form of physical copy, or perhaps the physical copies that are made are very few or in a novelty format like tape or vinyl. Either way, in many cases I am forced to go digital only. Now, that's fine as long as you take some precautions, and some precautions you're steered away from even though they're vital.
Today, I want to talk about three digital music stores: Loudr, CD Baby and Bandcamp. Of the three, only Bandcamp are still selling music today.
Loudr
First, let's talk about Loudr. I was introduced to Loudr in 2013 when "Indie Game Music Bundle" (later just "Game Music Bundle") stopped hosting their own downloads of the music they sold and instead sold through Loudr. Loudr was interesting as a service as they offered pay-what-you-want pricing (like Humble Bundle and Bandcamp) for selling music, but also offered rights acquisition for remixes and samples from games, so royalties would be collected automatically and distributed to the relevant rights holders. Eventually, in 2016, CD Baby (more on them later) took over distribution of Loudr's music and in 2017 the Loudr store closed. Loudr kept the music licensing arm going however, and in 2018 that arm was acquired by Spotify and eventually merged into Soundrop. Yeah, it's a bit of a mess. The important bit is that Loudr's music store closed in 2017.
On 22nd Dec 2016, I received an email from Loudr detailing the store closure and, most notably, "We'll continue to support previously-purchased downloads as well as Loudr Store forwarding links until June 30, 2017". So, as of 30th June 2017, I was unable to access my purchases from Loudr. Looking back, I am not sure if I actually made sure to download all my purchases, so I decided to reach out to Spotify, Soundrop and CD Baby to see if any of them could help me at least get a list of purchases if not the music itself. Sadly, they all seem confused by the request and I've not got anywhere. The sticking point seems to be around Loudr having a store when all three know it as a license acquisition and royalty collection service. I have spent several hundred dollars on music through Loudr, and I have the PayPal receipts to prove it!
Anyway, I should have made sure to download the music when the notice came through, and it's quite possible I did do, but I'm not 100%, and that's the trouble. The fact that I have no access to my purchase history means I'm not sure if I'm missing anything. Sadly, it seems like it will forever be a mystery. Either way, Loudr's combined music store and license acquisition approach introduced me to some amazing remix artists, who then went on to create their own music labels, and in some cases creating equivalent services to Loudr's license acquisition side.
CD Baby
Next, I want to talk briefly about CD Baby. For a long time, CD Baby had a music store that sold both CDs and digital music. In fact, there's a very real chance you might not know that said store is now closed, as it only happened in January 2020. Now, I'm not sure how long this will be true for, but CD Baby have set up a purchase history and download portal where you can log in with your old store credentials and redownload your past purchases even though the store itself is now closed. Otherwise, CD Baby have done the same thing Loudr did when they moved their distribution arm to CD Baby, except CD Baby are still doing distribution work, just on other platforms.
I'm glad I could get all my downloads from CD Baby now that I knew their store closed. They didn't email anyone about the store closing, so presumably they intend to keep the downloads portal going for the foreseeable future, but you never know.
Bandcamp
So, then we turn to Bandcamp. Bandcamp are still going strong, and I bought new music from Bandcamp literally last night. However, some recent changes to how they present themselves is leaving a sour taste.
So, I was recently going through my Bandcamp purchase history to get a particular album that I hadn't downloaded and discovered that I was unable to. The album had been deleted off Bandcamp by the artist/label and, when that happens, people who have purchased it are unable to redownload it ever again. This is different to when an album is marked as private, as that remains available to download for anyone who bought it or who has a download code for it. So, instead of "download album" there is "more info" which requests that you contact the artist/label for more information and to ask for a copy of the music. If the artist/label is still on Bandcamp, it has a link to contact through Bandcamp. Otherwise, it just has the text and no suggestion on how to actually get hold of them.
Now, I know what you're thinking. "This is just another 'well make sure you download all your purchases when you buy them' situation". Well, there's a few things Bandcamp does/doesn't do that makes this situation more interesting:
1) Once you have bought music on Bandcamp, the confirmation screen is almost completely dedicated to an advertisement for their app, promising "unlimited listening". That's not true. In many cases, when the album or artist is gone from Bandcamp, it'll be gone from the app too.
2) By relegating the download link to a small bit of grey text in the corner, with an artificial wait on the download being available, they're doing all they can to encourage you not to download. Having the "preparing your download" message be in grey, it's quite easy to see the advert for the app and miss the download link entirely.
3) On Android, you can buy music from the app directly, which doesn't download the files. If you buy a lot of music on an Android device, you won't have the opportunity to download the music you've bought until you get to a computer, or until you go through several "are you sure" messages to try and download the files directly. On iOS, of course, this isn't an option unless you go through the web browser, and even then it encourages you to open the app rather than download the files.
4) When an artist/label removes an album from Bandcamp, the warning doesn't explain that those who bought the music won't be able to listen any more, the change is immediate, and there is no notification of any kind to those who have purchased it saying "you can't download this anymore".
In short, Bandcamp actively encourages you to use the app instead of downloading the files, which then means you're screwed if the artist/label ever removes that album from Bandcamp. I have contacted Bandcamp and suggested they make improvements around this, but I was shot down. My suggestions weren't unreasonable. One was just "explain better that deleting an album will remove it for all who purchased it when an artist/label tries to remove it". Another was more detailed, where they introduce different options for "remove immediately" and "remove in X days and send a notification out to allow fans to download the files first" and perhaps also a "don't delete, just make private" option. These don't seem unreasonable to me, and would make me more trusting of Bandcamp as a consumer, but would also be good for creators too.
Conclusion
So, why am I writing all this? Well, mostly to ramble, but I hope it will encourage people to not trust that purchased digital media will be available forever. Please download all purchases and make backups regularly. Maybe people can point Bandcamp to this post to fix their otherwise great site...
But also, physical media is not dead.
