CygnosiC is a Greek project that has been active for over seventeen years, delivering new albums every two to three years for all those whose hearts beat faster when they hear dark electro, EBM or even future or synth pop. In my personal case, the moment when Cygnosic caught my attention was the album “Fire and forget”, released in 2013. In fact, one listen through this album was enough to recognise a very characteristic style of CygnosiC.
Dancable but rather mid-paced tracks with very distinct melodies and harsh but not over-manipulated vocals and great consistency of music – these elements immediately convinced me that Georg Psaroudakis, who is the mastermind behind CygnosiC, is a very conscious artist and skilled musician and producer. Although “Fire and forget” was a great album, I did not follow CygnosiC’s next outputs very closely. Ten years later I launch “Demystify”, released on September 1 of this year (you can listen it here), and I can’t say that CygnosiC’s style has evolved in any way, which is not a bad thing, since this artist’s style has always been very characteristic. The only thing that has changed a little is a slightly better production, but it was great ten years ago anyway.
Once again, the listener is drawn into the dark yet haunting world of CygnosiC, guided from start to finish by sharp yet warm bass, cold, spacey pads, ubiquitous arpeggios and very oldschool leads that immediately recall the greatest synth riffs of the ’80s. This obvious but not sketchy retro vibe is also accentuated by certain production choices, which is especially noticeable in the drum sound (Simmons-like toms or claps – Phil Collins likes it!). As mentioned before, the vocals are very natural and based more on the guttural, almost growly style of singing than on effects, which I really appreciate, because you can actually hear what the singer is singing about.
The overall impression? It’s a great dark electro or occasionally darkwave album, however I recommend readers to check CygnosiC out for themselves, because this music has a very specific mood that you won’t find on any German or Benelux artist’s record. Although the music has that cold, automatic flavor characteristic of the genre, I also hear some elements that I have heard only in Greek music, and not only in electronic. For example, the vocals can evoke some death black metal associations, and following that, I immediately discovered that in CygnosiC’s music I find some elements that it shares with such renowned artists as Nightfall or especially Septicflesh.
This concerns not only the singing, but also the melodies, which sometimes evoke the mood of Septicflesh’s “Sumerian deamons” album. Since I am not a music theorist, I cannot explain the exact reason for these similarities. And of course – if we want to limit ourselves to electronic music – Siva Six comes to my mind. Surely, there are no “occult” elements in CygnosiC’s vision that can be found in the music of Septic Flesh or Sivas Six, but just listen to the last, title track on “Demystyfy”, which uses some Dead Cand Dance-like dulcimer sounds, and you will understand what I am talking about.
Speaking of the individual tracks – there are some standouts, like “The Sea” which really has something aquatic and liquid about it, or “Nothing to regret” which is an instant floor filler, yet I have to stress that the whole album is really strong and meant to be heard in its entirety. Yes, I know that dark electro is supposed to be aggressive and disturbing, but I find CygnosiC’s recipe strangely catchy and somehow relaxing. Overall, “Demistify” not only a must for every dark electro fan, but for all electronic music lovers.
Nad każdym kto pomaga wydawać muzykę ciąży oskarżenie że zarabia na artystach, że ich obdziera ze skóry.
Ludziom czasem wydaje się że na ich muzyce można zarobić jakieś wielkie kwoty. Są tacy którzy poświęcą możliwość dotarcia do fanów jeśli postrzegają daną współpracę jako zagrożenie dla swoich przyszłych zarobków.
Strzelają sobie sami w stopę, bo często poświęcają możliwość zdobycia fanów.
No więc jesli chodzi o nas to możesz nas skreślić z listy potencjalnych krwiopijców:
Jaką lepszą gwarancje naszych intencji możesz dostać?
Jeżeli bierzesz udział w naszych składankach czy wydajesz z nami album to masz pewność, że nie opublikujemy twojej muzyki tam gdzie sam ją “sprzedajesz” (cudzysłów dlatego, że to nie sprzedaż tylko donejt przebrany za transakcję).
A skoro już uparłeś się płacić 15% kasy twoich fanów korposom za obsłużenie tej transakcji (tej kasy jakoś ci nie żal, co?) zamiast wysłać album samemu wetransferem – cóż, twoja sprawa.
Ponieważ my na szczęście nie musimy zarabiać, to mamy pełną wolność robić wszystko tak, jak sami chcemy.
Chcemy pomagać zespołom a nie z nimi konkurować
Będąc na Bandcampie czy Spotify faktycznie moglibyśmy odbierać część zysków i fanów. Publikując tam muzykę konkurowalibyśmy z… zespołami które stworzyły tą muzykę.
To jest absurdalna sytuacja, nie chcemy się w to pakować.
Nie chcemy konfliktu z labelami
Nawet w naszej małej amatorskiej scenie są labele które obsługują Bandcampa i streamingi zespołów.
Mogą one – chcąc chronić zyski – przeszkadzać zespołom w braniu udziału w naszych składankach czy innych formach współpracy.
Wchodzimy tu w cały obszar absurdu gdzie dla jakichś smiesznych groszy wytaczane są prawne armaty. Chcemy mieć swobodę działania.
Nie ma nas tam gdzie wy zarabiacie na muzyce zespołów, więc chyba nie mamy o czym dyskutować w takim razie? Cokolwiek zrobimy pomoże labelom robić ich robotę, czyli promować zespół.
Od tego jakby są, no bo nie od zarządzania Bandcampem? To chyba każdy głupi może zrobić sam, nie?
Uważamy że zespoły powinny same obsługiwać Bandcamp i streamingi
W idealnym świecie zespoły powinny być właścicielami własnej muzy.
Samodzielne obsługiwanie Bandcampa i streamingów jest proste. Zespoły powinny robić to same i zatrzymać całość wpływów z tej działalności.
My nie musimy zarabiać
Halotan Records to hobby a nie biznes. Nie musimy zarabiać. Nie mamy rachunków za prąd, biuro, pensji pracowników itp. Mamy normalne prace i z tego żyjemy.
Dzięki temu możemy sobie pozwolić na luksus nie bycia opłacalnymi.
Nie potrzebujemy funkcji Bandcampa i Spotify
Mamy własny system odtwarzania i shareowania muzyki. Nie mamy więc konieczności by używać serwisów będących własnością korporacji.
Nasz system ma tą zaletę, że realizuje interesy zespołów, a nie korporacji.
Prosty przykład: nasze indywidualne strony utworów (podobne do Bandcampowych) wyświetlają linki do wszystkich profili zespołu. Korposy tego nie zrobią, bo ze sobą konkurują.
Można jeszcze tylko wspomnieć o tym, że sytuacja w której oddajemy prywatne dane zespołów i fanów tylko po to, żeby mieć jakieś podstawowe zdolności odtwarzania muzy to szaleństwo.
My naprawdę nie lubimy korporacji
Niektórzy o tym śpiewają – a potem oddają 23% kasy swoich fanów korposom z sympatycznych krajów typu Chiny. Sami tym korporacjom naganiają kasę.
My uważamy że scena niezależna powinna być niezależna i odpowiedzialna. Nie robimy tego czego robić nie musimy.
To jasne że nie wyplączemy się całkiem z objęć korposów, ale przynajmniej nie kładziemy się na grzbiecie jak grzeczny piesek. A to właśnie robi większość zespołów i labeli. A fani idą za nimi.
Tam gdzie się da – pokazujemy korposom środkowy palec.
Nie ma sensu robić tego co może zrobić każdy
Każdy może wrzucić muzę na Bandcampa i streamingi. Żeby to zrobić nie potrzeba wiedzy, umiejętności, myślenia. Dlatego też te serwisy są tak popularne.
Tylko że rzeczy które może zrobić każdy bardzo rzadko bywają faktycznie wartościowe. Czemu miałyby, skoro każdy może to zrobić?
Może więc przeceniamy faktyczne znaczenie Bandcampa czy Spotify, ich faktyczny wkład w promocję zespołu?
Może więcej da się osiągnąć próbując działać przestrzeni poza tymi platformami, choćby dlatego że wszyscy tą przestrzeń odpuścili?
Sprawdzimy to dla ciebie ;)
Cenimy prywatność
Korporacje i prywatność wzajemnie się wykluczają. Używając ich usług sam stajesz się towarem.
Śledzienie ludzi przez firmy odbywa się dziś na skalę niewyobrażalną nawet dla najgorszych totalitarnych reżimów.
Pamiętasz jak zgodziłeś się żeby jakaś firma słuchała każdego twojego słowa, śledziła każdy twój krok w czasie rzeczywistym? Nie, ty kliknąłeś “zgadzam się” bo inaczej nie miałbyś dostępu do przyjaciół, znajomych, rodziny.
Prywatność ma znaczenie. Ci którzy nie chronią jej dziś, niedługo zapłaczą gorzkimi łzami.
Jesteśmy niezależni, czyli wolni
Bycie zależnym od kaprysów tych wszystkich googli, fejsbuków, bandcampów i innych firm jest strasznie męczące.
Inwestowanie w strony i profile których się nie jest właścicielem to głupota. Prędzej czy później każą ci płacić za dostęp do własnych fanów, jak fejsbuk. Albo znajdą inny sposób żeby zarabiać na twoich fanach.
Zasięgi na Fejsie spadły czterokrotnie w ostatnich ośmiu latach. Na Twitterze są tak słabe, że w ogóle można o nim zapomnieć.
A był czas kiedy Fejs wydawał się być wybawieniem z objęć Googla. Nie na długo…
Dążymy do tego, żeby móc w ogóle z nich wszystkich zrezygnować – wtedy można dopiero mówić o jakieś niezależności.
Dzisiejsi niezależni artyści są dla korporacji jak trzoda i jeszcze pchają swoich fanów w korporacyjną niewolę. Z korporacyjnym kolczykiem w uchu śpiewają o wolności, którą sami oddali na talerzu.
Kto jak nie my – scena dark independent – ma się postawić, buntować? Czy to nie jest niejako wpisane w to kim jesteśmy?
By using platforms like Bandcamp or Spotify we are bound to step on bands’ and labels’ toes. There will always be somebody thinking we are trying to make quick bucks off their work.
What better guarantee can you get?
If you take part in our compilation – you can rest assured we won’t release your music where you sell it yourself. Same goes for other release types.
As we are not pressed to be profitable, we have luxury of doing things our way. And this is our way:
We want to help bands, not to compete with them
Being on these platforms means monetizing music. By selling or monetizing music we would be competing with… bands who created this music.
They have their own profiles where they sell or stream. If we go in with our releases, even for free, we potentially compete and cannibalise their own monetizations.
This is absurd situation, we don’t want this.
We don’t want to get labels in the way
We want to be able to work with any band, signed to a label or independent. There are some labels that manage bands’ Bandcamps and streaming. If we use Bandcamp etc., we would create conflict of interest, some licensing issues and all this legal cocojambo we don’t need.
So if some concerned label representative reads this – there is nothing to worry about. We won’t be competing with you on Bandcamp and other corporate-owned outlets, because we have our own niche.
We can’t take away your revenues, because we are not on the platforms that generate them.
So effectively we are helping you – the label – to do your job. Meaning we help to promote the band. Do you see any downsides?
We believe bands should own and manage Bandcamp and streaming themselves
In the ideal world, bands should own their music, always. This means they should own and manage their Bandcamp and streaming by themselves. And of course they should keep all the money it makes.
If they are too big and busy, they can hire somebody (a label for example) to manage that for them. But the band should be in charge.
Thus, there is no need for us to be on these platforms, as we would have to partially dispossess bands off their music and create conflicts of interest mentioned above. No thanks.
We do not need to make money
You have probably heard of Open Source Community – programmers who give their work free to the world. Well there would be no Bandcamp or Spotify without Open Source.
Similar principle here – we give our work to the community.
Our running costs are low and we have day jobs. We do not need to make money to exist, we are a hobby, not a business. We have no employees, energy and phone bills, no office.
What we make on our CD-R sales is enough to keep us going, buy some ads sometime. We have businesses that help us out printing for us and whatnot.
We can sell literally nothing, survive and keep doing what we do. Free time is the only limiting factor for us.
We do not need Bandcamp and Spotify’s functionalities
We have our own homebrew music sharing system. It is no match for Bandcamp or Spotify (how could it be), but it has advantages.
It can focus on what is good for the bands, not on what corporations want. They won’t link to certain things, wont display certain things as they compete with one another. We can do whatever we think is good for bands.
Moreover, we think that paying through the nose to the corpos and giving away your fans’ private data just to have some basic music streaming and sharing capabilities is insane.
We don’t have to use them, so we wont.
We dislike corporations, for real
Many musicians in our scene sing about disliking corporations. We do something about it: we simply do not use their stuff where we can. Because when something is “free” you and your privacy are the product being sold.
We understand most musicians do not have such luxury.
A precentage of both Bandcamp and Spotify is owned by Chinese company Tencent. Do you think that the largest Chinese media corporation does anything that the human rights and democracy loving people of Communist Party of China do not like? Get real.
No point doing what anyone can do
Anyone can open accounts and start using Bandcamp or streaming. Doing so requires no skill, no knowledge, no thinking. This is why these things are so popular.
But things that are easy to do hardly ever have value. And why should they, if anyone can do it? So maybe there is no such tremendous value in these corporate services as people think?
Maybe it is not the only way to promote music these days?
We are going to find out and will be perfectly happy to fail.
We value privacy
Again if you like privacy, then stay away from corporations wherever you can. Especially those located in countries that do not safeguard privacy, leave alone basic human rights.
It is a balancing act, sometimes you can just inconvenience yourself completely in vain.
This is not an ideal world, we use privacy-paid services where we have to.
We are independent, so we want to do things our way
Is not being on Bandcamp & Spotify a crazy thing nowadays? It probably is.
But is not the music we like somewhat crazy? A noisy pounding techno with some psychopathic dwarf on the vocals?
When hobby becomes a job, the joy is usually over. We want to keep enjoying being in the scene. And we want to do things the way we do, whether it makes sense or not.
Why don’t you make some nice rap or pop tunes? Maybe you could earn some real bucks? Instead, you do this crazy techno of yours.
Well we like it too, hopefully we can work together to promote it some time – even if all this makes no sense at all.
It has to mean something when a seasoned hard bit and harsh electro fan like myself sits down to write a review of a synthpop single.
A single with just two songs.
Well it has to be good then, don’t you think? Follow me while you listen on Bandcamp:
https://uncarnate.bandcamp.com/album/dead-dancers
Or just hit play below:
There is no coincidence in me encountering this release, as I am a fan of Uncarnate’s producer’s other project, Orbicide (sadly now in hiatus).
Halotan Records released two of their albums, namely “Not a Single Letter Added” and “Ex Falso Quodlibet“.
So Uncarnate has always been in my orbit of interests, without getting overly excited of course.
I remember being on one of their gigs some years ago. I appreciated really catchy melodies and I noticed how good the vocalist was, singing live really complicated parts.
Well now they guy has improved – and he improved over something that has already been well above your average synthpop singer.
The singing is fluid and effortless. The guy is having fun while singing, and he does it the way he wants. This sort of self confidence and lack of fear to cross genre’s borders is on a pro level to me.
“Dead Dancers” consists of just two songs – “Dead Dancers” and “Oceans”. Not too many, but one of them – “Dead Dancers” has a potential to become a real dancefloor hit.
I can imagine it being played at the end of the party when just the toughest ones remain on the dancefloor, when the atmosphere is heavy and everyone is wasted.
This magical hour when the music is deep and ready to reveal it’s hidden meaning – the hour of dead dancers – now can have it’s anthem. Try to imagine this while listening, it does fit, doesn’t it?
Having a 50% of hits on a release is not a bad result I guess. I do like “Oceans” too, but like it happens it gets a bit overshadowed. Maybe it requires a bit of time to sink in.
One of the most reliable qualities that let you distinguish a good artist is constant development. If you listen to Uncarnate’s previous release, “Loss” (2021), you’ll hear them searching and zeroing in on the style (both musical and production-wise) that fully matured on “Dead Dancers”.
Adam – the producer has gone a really long way since I met him years ago. He became a real producer of real recordings.
I definitely recommend you to listen to the release and if you really fall in love with it – to get yourself one of the vinyls the guys prepared for those into physical media.
All we have to do now is to wait for a full length album. After such a fantastic opening, more simply has to follow.
Chciałbym podziękować Adrianowi – sympatycznemu ziomkowi którego poznałem dzięki Halotan Records – za otwarcie mi oczu.
Dzięki temu pytaniu zacząłem widzieć tego słonia w pokoju: kombo Facebook + Bandcamp to normalny sposób promowania i monetyzowania twórczości zespołu.
Kto robi to inaczej, jest dziwakiem.
Schemat jest prosty – reklamujesz muzykę na Fejsiku, sprzedajesz ją na Bandcampie. To działa i jest tak proste że może to robić nawet średnio rozgarnięty dziesięciolatek.
Dlaczego ktokolwiek miałby wynajdować od nowa koło?
Może dlatego że to nie twoje koło, a wypożyczone.
Z korporacjami jest taki mały problem…
Korporacje – jak te które są właścicielami Fejsika czy Bandcampa (40% Bandcampa posiadają Chińczycy, sprawdź kto jest właścicielem Epic Games) istnieją dla pieniędzy.
I nigdy tych pieniędzy nie mają dość, choćby mieli na własność pół świata. Im zawsze jest i będzie mało.
Zmniejszanie produktu to standardowy chwyt który stosują firmy produkujące rzeczy. Zwróć uwagę co takiego nazywa się “duże frytki” w McDonaldzie – a zrozumiesz ten koncept.
Produkt musi być możliwe mały i możliwie niskiej jakości – ale dość dobry żebyś go jednak kupił.
Ewentualnie jakość obniża się stopniowo, powoli, tak żebyś nie zauważył różnicy.
Co to ma wspólnego np. z Fejsikiem? Ano to, że w ciągu ostatnich 8-miu lat ilość fanów do których dociera twój post zmnieszyła się czterokrotnie.
Moje dane pochodzą od marketerów którzy zawsze mają pod górkę, ale proporcje myślę że się zdgadzają.
Osiem lat temu średnio 16% (160 osób na każde 1000 fanów strony) widziała twoje posty. Dziś jest to 4% (40 osób na 1000 fanów).
Witaj w krainie downsizingu w stylu mediów społecznościowych.
Czemu tak robią? Po pierwsze bo mogą, a po drugie żeby sprzedać dostęp do ludzi pod postacią sponsorowanych postów.
Tak więc ludzie którzy kliknęli “lubię” zamiast twoich postów o nowej płycie oglądają jakieś reklamy i inne idiotyzmy.
Resztki z pańskiego stołu które dostajesz
Fejsik daje ci dostęp do niewielkiej garstki twoich fanów, żebyś sobie nie poszedł z tej platformy. Żebyś nie uznał że to kompletnie bez sensu.
Jesteś mu potrzebny bo będąc na platformie dostarczasz innym powodu by na niej być. W mniejszym stopniu służysz do wytwarzania treści które ludzie chcą oglądać.
Oni doskonale wiedzą jak mały dostęp do fanów mogą ci dać, żebyś nadal na tym fejsie tkwił. Testowali to dosłownie na miliardach ludzi.
Wiedzą też doskonale ile szajsu mogą wtłoczyć ludziom w newsfeedy, żeby ci nie przestali scrollować.
A żeby ludzie nie przestali scrollować, od czasu do czasu muszą między tymi reklamami znaleźć coś co ich faktycznie interesuje.
Jest to ten sam koncept co w maszynach o niskich wygranych, tzw. “jednorękich bandytach”.
I tu jest kolejny problem. Twój news o nowej płycie jest niespecjalnie interesujący. No niestety, przykro mi to mówić, ale trochę takich newsów się napuszczałem.
Strasznie ciężko jest wywołać jakiś entuzjazm jeśli twój zespół nie jest prawdziwą gwiazdą.
Więc twój post jest kiepską nagrodą za scrollowanie “reklamowego syfilisu” że tak zapożyczę od Kazika.
Zasięg tego posta będzie bardzo ograniczony, bo fejs ma dość własnych nudnych rzeczy do pokazania – rzeczy za które ktoś zapłacił.
A dokładnie ma 1500 postów gotowych do wyświetlenia na twoim wallu za każdym razem gdy się logujesz.
Sami o tym piszą starając się usprawiedliwić to, że fani nie widzą postów stron.
Żeby więcej zarobić, fejs musi pokazywać ludziom więcej treści płatnych, a mniej twoich. Albo zmusić cię żebyś płacił za dostęp do własnych fanów.
Bandcamp – restauracja gdzie przynosisz własne żarcie
Nie jestem fanem Bandcampa (Halotan Records nie ma tam konta i nie planuje go mieć), ale doceniam że jest to dobre narzędzie. A raczej będzie nim do czasu gdy jego właściciele uznają że już skutecznie zmonopolizowali rynek.
Na pewno jest on o niebo lepszy od Fejsa w sensie tego co dostajesz.
Rzecz w tym że żeby tam sprzedawać musisz się reklamować poza Bandcampem. Czyli musisz mieć własną publiczność i sposób dotarcia do tej publiczności.
Bandcamp trochę pomaga pozwalając ci łatwo utrzymywać listę mailingową. Trzymaj się tego, to twoja jedyna broń przeciw tnącemu twoje zasięgi Fejsowi.
Tak czy inaczej żeby dostać od swoich fanów donejty (te płatności za download to donejty przebrane za transakcję) musisz tych fanów najpierw mieć.
Bandcamp mówi ci, że 30% sprzedaży wygeneruje on sam, poprzez rekomendacje, tagi itp. Gdyby to była prawda, to po zabraniu ci 15% prowizji Bandcamp generowałby 15% zysku więcej niż gdyby ci sami ludzie wysłali ci kasę poza Bandcampem.
Czyli byłbyś trochę do przodu, oczywiście jeżeli to prawda z tymi 30%.
Można to łatwo sprawdzić. Załóż profil, wgraj muzę, wypełnij tagi i czekaj. A raczej czekaj zdrów.
Będzie gorzej, bo zawsze jest gorzej
Widziałeś kiedyś żeby np. burger zrobił się większy, batonik urósł, paczka proszku do prania zrobiła się cięższa?
Ja nie widziałem.
Z Fejsem i Bandcampem jest dużo gorzej niż z burgerem czy batonem, bo nie możesz sobie pójść gdzie indziej. Nie ma innego lepszego produktu który mógłbyś kupić.
Ty zwyczajnie nie masz dokąd iść ze swoim zespołem poza Fejsem i Bandcampem.
Jako tzw. “niezależny artysta” jesteś w stu procentach zależny od Fejsa i Bandcampa. Bez tych dwóch cię nie ma.
Przykra prawda jest taka, że niezależni artyści są zakolczykowani przez korporacje niczym trzoda. Stąd mój obrazek na górze posta. Tyle jest warta twoja niezależność, twoja walka z systemem.
Jesteś tego systemu niewolnikiem i jeszcze pchasz swoich fanów do przynoszenia temu systemowi kasy. A mając coraz więcej kasy te korporacje będą mogły cię coraz bardziej dymać.
Ponieważ korporacje doskonale wiedzą jak bardzo jesteś w dupie, to będą stale pogarszać warunki.
Obecnie prowizja na Bandcampie wynosi moim zdaniem średnio 23%. Wyliczyłem to ze średniej ceny płaconej za album (przyjąłem rekomendowane 7 dolarów) i prowizji procesora płatności (2.9% + 0.30c).
Trochę słono, ale nie martw się. Będzie jeszcze weselej.
A ty jak ta owieczka biernie zaakceptujesz te nowe warunki. Dokładnie tak samo jak akceptujesz że prawie co czwarta złotówka wydana przez twoich fanów trafia do kieszeni jakichś korposów.
Bo co zrobisz, gdzie pójdziesz? Obrazisz się i co dalej?
No to co robić?
Przede wszystkim warto sobie uświadomić swoją sytuację.
Z praktycznych rzeczy – może warto mieć własną stronę i listę mailingową? Może warto budować własną i bezpośrednią relację z fanami, zamiast oddawać te relacje w ręce korposów? Bo z korposami wychodzisz na tym tak, że pozwolą ci mówić do 40-stu osób, a pozostałym 960-ciu z każdego tysiąca twoich fanów wyświetlą reklamy.
Kiepski biznes. A potem jeszcze ta garstka co ci została zapłaci 23% działki Bandcampowi i PayPalowi. A wiesz że mógłbyś wysłać swój album sam, każdemu kto wyśle donejta (przepraszam: oczywiście “kupi” album)?
Oszczędzasz 15%. Powiesz że to niedużo? Ja powiem że to pieniądze twoich fanów które zdecydowałeś się wyrzucić w błoto żeby poczuć się gwiazdą zbyt zajętą żeby obsłużyć własne transakcje.
A poza tym – to ty jesteś artysta. Czy to przypadkiem nie ty powinieneś być kreatywny, wymyślać nowe rzeczy?
Czy jako artysta nie powinieneś się choćby odrobinę buntować? Czy może uważasz że odrobina walki z systemem nie jest warta świeczki i że już lepiej być prowadzonym za rączkę przez korposy?
Że to całe śpiewanie o złych korporacjach to jest tylko dla zabawy, na pokaz?
Próbuj, szukaj, eksperymentuj. Nikt tego za ciebie nie zrobi.
Nie masz nic do stracenia, bo kiepski deal jaki dziś dostajesz od Fejsa i Bandcampa będzie się robił coraz gorszy.
Mogę się z tobą o to założyć.
The “Marionette” album was released on May 5th, 2023 and can be listened to on bandcamp here: https://nolongerhuman.bandcamp.com/album/marionette
You see I am in my late forties and a lot of this dark electro stuff sounds extremely naive and childish to me. Sometimes I wonder how adult or even mature guys can keep a straight face singing the nonsense they sing.
This stuff can get cringy very fast.
When I started listening to “Marionette”I found myself slowly releasing my internal filter that makes me not process the content of the lyrics in order to be able to consume the otherwise enjoyable music.
What the guy sang actually made sense, and had a meaning. What a change.
You know, I have no problem with someone singing that he is a psychopathic clown wielding a chainsaw and so on. It has it’s place in the genre.
But I would rather think that dark electro musicians have something important to say. Shallow lyrics take away the force from this music – at least for me.
On the album’s description you can read:
“I set out to make a collection of songs that try to define the things that quietly control us in the background. Songs about our addictions, our compulsions, and the needs and struggles of the human condition.“
“Marionette” hits hard as it meticulously goes through our shortcomings and sins, one by one.
There is a few songs I particularly like, the first that caught my attention was “Shattered”.
It screams “tyrannical parent” all over the place. It is like written by a psychologist. It is not a song, but a diagnosis.
“Tear me open
Break me all apart
Shatter me, Ruin me
Make me feel your insecurity“
What a perfect depiction of an insecure abuser. To me this is way scarier than shallow clown with a chainsaw. Maybe because it is real.
Pain Tolerance takes us for a ride into the world of a manipulative influencer who in fact is hollow and unable to experience real emotions.
There are folks like that, in the real life. We worship them, while they are just a “hollow effigy“.
I am telling you, we will end up burning these influencers at the stake one day (I made such comment on Facebook once and nearly got banned – so much of freedom of speech on this platform). And it will be well deserved for a change, given the carnage they are causing in young people’s psyche.
Threapy deals with society demanding and providing an easy fix to psychological suffering. It questions protecting oneself from emotions and feeling at any cost, because even if unpleasant, they make us human after all.
Suffering makes us change – you can’t deny this.
Every song on the album is worth a bit of analysis, and it is a good thing. It certainly adds value, at least for folks like me who look for deeper thoughts, who expect music to have a message.
I have never been a great fan of nolongerhuman. I saw these covers that suggested great love for large bugs – a somewhat disturbing thing – but I never got interested enough to dig deeper. I judged the book by the cover and thought there can’t be much to it.
But now I will and I really recommend you do too.
There is more behind those bugs, and I am going to find out what it is. I kind of suspect that behind all this there is a person who had his share of shit, weathered it out and came out the other end – not neccessarily stronger, but alive.
Whatever you are going through yourself – try listening as it may let you see the light at the end of your tunnel.
If the guy behind nolongerhuman thinks there is something wrong with the society and times we live in – well there is two of us now.
Zapraszamy polskie zespoły/projekty tworzące w stylu dark electro, electro-industrial, EBM i pokrewnych mroczno-elektronicznych do udziału w składance Halotan Sounds 3.
Składanka ma za zadanie pokazać i promować muzykę projektów w klimacie które aktualnie działają na polskiej scenie.
Jak te składanki wyglądają i kto był na dwóch wcześniejszych edycjach można zobaczyć tutaj: Halotan Sounds 1 oraz Halotan Sounds 2
Składanka zostanie wydana jako darmowy download mp3 i FLAC + fizyczne CD (CD-R) które będzie można kupić.
Mastering składanki wykona Daniel z Zowa Studio (znany w scenie jako Skon). Daniel masterował Halotan Sounds 2 oraz nasze ostatnie kilka Samplerów (przykładowy Sampler) czyli składanek międzynarodowych.
Wasza muzyka jest więc w dobrych rękach a składanka będzie miała spójne brzmienie i wysoki poziom techniczny.
Gdzie i jak wysłać utwór?
Można wysłać propozycję w mp3 na maila halotan.records@gmail.com (lub przez fejsa) albo link do jakiegoś miejsca gdzie można posłuchać online.
Chcemy utrzymać poziom, stąd nie bierzemy kawałków w ciemno, chyba że sami zapraszamy dany zespół.
Po zaaprobowaniu kawałek należy wysłać używając wetransfer lub czegoś podobnego na halotan.records@gmail.com
Utwór nie może być coverem (chyba że autor się zgadza) bo nie chcemy potem jakichś jazd z miłośnikami restrykcyjnych praw autorskich, procesów sądowych z jakimiś wdowami po Cześku Niemenie itp. ;)
Remiksy, feature’y – bez problemu jeśli autor oryginału i remikser są z polski i się zgadzają na publikację.
Wraz z utworem potrzebne są następujące informacje:
- Nazwa zespołu/projektu i tytuł utworu
- Logo lub zdjęcie zespołu (na wkładkę i możliwe że do wyświetlania na Fejsie przy udostępnianiu)
- Adres Bandcamp (opcjonalnie, jeśli jest – będzie pod ikonką w playerze)
- Adres Facebook (opcjonalnie, jeśli jest – będzie pod ikonką w playerze oraz w social pluginie pod playerem na indywidualnej stronie utworu używanej do shareowania, takiej jak ta)
- Krótka biografia czy informacja o zespole, 2-3 zdania, j. polski lub angielski (teksty na wkładkach będą po angielsku, przetłumaczymy jak będzie trzeba)
Jakie parametry techniczne?
Najlepiej utwór niezmasterowany (robimy sami mastering całej składanki), plik wav, 32bit, częstotliwość próbkowania taka z jaką pracujesz.
Do kiedy?
Im szybciej tym lepiej.
Składanka zostanie zamknięta kiedy uzbiera się dość muzyki. Format CD narzuca ograniczenia czasu trwania składanki, ilość wolnego miejsca liczymy sobie w miarę jak kawałki spływają.
Ciężko nam oszacować czy będzie dość zespołów by w ogóle zamknąć składankę. Potrzeba 14-16 numerów.
Nasza scena jest niewielka i może się okazać że na zamknięcie składanki będzie trzeba poczekać.
Data zamknięcia jest więc płynna.
Kiedy wydanie?
Nie później niż miesiąc od zamknięcia składanki. Konkretna data zostanie podana jak już będziemy mieć całość muzyki – bo wtedy wszystko zależy już tylko od nas i możemy planować.
Potwierdzone zespoły
Do tej pory mamy potwierdzony udział:
- Aries Musimon
- Bodycall
- Desdemona
- Electro Fear
- Energy Level Low
- GEttNER
- H.Exe
- Her Own World
- Hiroszyma
- Ira Noctis
- Miranda Cartel
- Nox Occultae
- NUN Electro & Inga Habiba
- Skon
- Uncarnate
Sprawy organizacyjne
Wysyłając nam utwór zgadzasz się na jego publikację w wyżej wymieniony sposób. Możliwe jest (choć na razie mało prawdopodobne) że składanka wyląduje kiedyś na Bandcampie. Na razie jesteśmy na nie jeśli chodzi o tą platformę. Nie mamy tam konta – ten post wyjaśnia dlaczego (j. angielski).
Nie będziemy też publikować na Spotify i podobnych. Nie mamy tam kont.
Jeżeli zrobimy z utworów videa na Youtube, to nie będziemy ich monetyzować, my w ogóle nie jesteśmy zainteresowani tego typu rzeczami. Te videa sami muzycy mogą dołączyć do swojej monetyzacji jeśli chcą – tak przynajmniej było parę lat temu, ostatnio nie sprawdzaliśmy.
Nie wypłacamy honorariów bo nie ma z czego.
Wersję fizyczną kupi kilku maniaków i tyle – zawsze tak było ze składankami. Teraz tych wariatów jest pewnie jeszcze mniej.
Nie sprzedajemy downloadów bo nie chcemy stawiać absolutnie żadnych barier między muzyką a słuchaczem. Jeżeli ktoś ściąga, to znaczy że chce do tej muzyki wrócić. Utrudnianie mu tego ściągania wzamian za wymiernie niewielkie pieniądze nie jest warte tracenia okazji do zdobycia fanów.
Poza tym do tych downloadów linkują blogi, strony, ludzie na socjalach – głupotą byłoby to blokować.
A kto będzie chciał to i tak zespoły indywidualnie wesprze – linki do Bandcampów są w playerze.
Co z tego będziesz mieć?
Wisząc w naszym sklepie składanka jest ściągana przez wiele lat, dając możliwość dotarcia do fanów poprzez linki do BC, FB i spotify w playerze i social pluginy na indywidualnych stronach utworów.
Jest to mały ale stały strumyczek ludzi którzy dowiadują się od nas o twojej muzyce. Każde nasze nowe wydawnictwo to szansa dla wcześniejszych wydawnictw. Właśnie po to nasz sklep tak jest zrobiony żeby łatwo można było przeglądać wszystko co mamy po kolei.
A że robimy także wydawnictwa z zespołami spoza polski – np. Składanki “Sampler” – to trafiają do nas fani spoza polskiej sceny. I o to właśnie chodzi.
Każdy kawałek jest udostępnialny na fejsie, twitterze itp, podobnie jak kawałki z Bandcampa. Wygląda to tak:
Udział w składance ma więc sens który wykracza daleko poza jednorazowe zaprezentowanie swojej twórczości – i o to na miarę naszych podziemniackich możliwości walczymy.
Wyślemy/przekażemy każdemu zespołowi/projektowi po jednej kopii płyty (adres w PL) i to by było na tyle jeśli chodzi o benefity.
Zrozummy się dobrze: Halotan Records to hobby i podziemie – a nie biznes.
Zapraszamy do kontaktu i wysyłania propozycji utworów.
Independent scenes – like ours – usually has certain set of values it carries with it, along with some musical and fashion related ones.
Goths, dark electronic or industrial fans are certainly against mainstream. We are in the scene because we cannot stomach the pulp they force-feed us in the mainstream.
We are contesting mainstream ways and mainstream aesthetics, we condemn greed and shalowness of it all.
Read some lyrics of your favourite band, you’ll know what I mean.
They don’t sing that Facebook and Google are your best friends. They don’t sing that you should sheepishly consent to everything that corporations who own your private life want you to consent to.
They do not sing that you should give your money and sell your soul to some firm with servers conveniently located in China or some similar freedom-loving country.
We hear the lyrics, but this is it.
We say we dislike the world as it is, but do we act? Do we just pretend to value freedom and independence – both artistic and personal?
Our bands are effectively owned by corpos who control their access to fans and their sales.
The fans pay a hefty fee when they buy music to support our artists. Well they end up supporting the corporate scene too, apart from the independent one.
We sing about corporations being evil, yet we are extremely comfortable letting them into our lives.
Something is clearly wrong, as what we say and what we do does not match.
Is this being against mainstream and corpos just an empty declaration without actual actions to follow? Is this just a cool thing to sing about, but uncool thing to do something about?
Are we not being a bit dishonest or at least a bit lazy?
Have we earned the right to call ourselves independent or underground?
In this post I am trying to explain to you how important ad blocking is. Because it is not just something you do for your own convenience.
Ad blocking is something that invalidates a whole business model based on invading your privacy and dispossessing you of your social life. Ad blocking makes all the information the corpos gathered about you almost completely useless.
They can watch, but they cannot talk.
If widespread enough, ad blocking can create a space where change to a more common sense model can occur. It can force the change by making current model unsustainable.
Ad blocking is good for privacy, for independence, freedom, scene and our world. Not doing it is almost criminal. It is like pouring your spent motor oil into the nearby lake.
It is bad only for those who took our privacy and made it into a commodity that is bought and sold without any real consent from us.
Do you remember clicking “I agree” on corporations owning your social life? Did you click “I agree” to not being able to communicate with family and friends without your every word being recorded and used?
No? Me neither.
Why internet ads are such a bad thing
Ads have always been around you may say. True.
But did the advertisers from 20 years ago know you suffer from depression?
Did they know what you are afraid of? Did they know what partners you choose? Where you live? What are your biggest secrets? What age you are, what is your education, what you do for living?
Did they know phone number of every person you have on your phone’s contact list? Did they know the names of your parents, the names of your children? Did they know where these people are right now?
Did they know every word of every conversation you had with those you love?
Did they know exactly where you were, 24 hours, 7 days a week, almost since you were born?
All this knowledge gives them great power. A power you never meant to give them.
They say it is a fair deal, because you clicked this “I agree” button. This button serves only to give you an illusion of choice or control.
Did you have a real choice? Could you click “disagree” and leave?
I checked this for you and lived for 5 years without Facebook account. I lost almost all of my social connections. Quick answer: no, you have no real choice.
These days clicking “disagree” on Facebook and other social media means loneliness and being excluded from social life.
I know – you probably don’t do anything illegal, but does it mean you need no privacy?
Because your privacy – in it’s current model – is guaranteed only by the word of the companies that gather your data. To makes it worse, these companies sometimes have no clue themselves what they do with your data, where it is stored etc.
Yet, this is all you have: a word of a company that listens to your every word all the time. The Big Brother did not need Thought Police, you yourself surrendered your privacy without second thoughts.
You may say we have privacy laws. True, but data harvesting companies have enough money to treat the law just as a nuisance, a minor inconvenience.
They certainly have enough money not to fear you or me.
They promised they won’t tell anyone and in exchange you agreed to them doing with your privacy whatever they like.
So they won’t tell anyone, apart from governments (NSA, anyone?) and highest bidders of course. And a few employees who happen to need your data to do some stuff, like Google guys did with Gmail emails of unsuspecting users.
Well sometimes they get caught, but ask yourself: how many times they got and will get away with things? More often than not.
We will see just the tips of these icebergs of abuse.
The reality is, that if the data is there, there will be people – authorised or not – who will access it for whatever reason.
Trusting the corpos with your privacy is naive beyond belief.
You have no realistic means to question or challenge them if you suspect their wrongdoing. They know it perfectly well when you enter bogus “contracts” with them by clicking “I agree”.
Breaking of this laughable “contract” with you has no consequences for them. When a crisis strikes and their spreadsheets start showing red, they will sell you without second thoughts. Or they will sell you just because the offer is good enough.
A recent example – the sale of Twitter. Did you hear about users being asked if they like being sold to Elon Musk? They got sold like cattle and now the man can do with their data whatever he likes.
Twitter without users has no value. It is the users that were sold, not the website.
Ads are so bad, because they provide money and reason to exist for this whole business based on invading your privacy. They fuel the world where your privacy is bought and sold with you having no say.
This is what makes ads so bad. Well, we can easily make them way worse, here we go:
Now let us give our corporate custodian of our secrets an access to super cheap and unlimited brain power – AI.
AI is the game changer here. This is the bit the likes of Cambridge Analytica did not have a few years back.
Well now they do, the AI is here.
An AI, unleashed on your life’s history will turn you into a puppet. I know, I know, you are too smart for it. I thought so myself too. Then I caught myself repeating some really nasty propaganda bits.
Nobody is immune, take it as a fact – even if it hurts your ego a bit.
You can be manipulated. Te AI will not only find the best way to make you buy, do and think things.
It will also find out how to get the best deal out of you – and avoid costly mistakes, like selling you a health insurance if you are not so healthy.
Remember – they know your health issues better than your doctor. Your doctor does not know if you bought and take the medicine she prescribed you – but “they” do know this and more.
An AI that can rummage freely through your life will make sure you’ll always get the worst deal you are willing to accept.
Letting the advertisers know you inside out is a recipe for disaster. There is no happy end scenario, you will get screwed over, this way or another.
It will cost you money. It is also possible that it will cost you your life.
I personally cannot imagine how corporations having my data coupled with AI could benefit me. And I can easily imagine how badly it can hurt me.
Kick in the balls of the surveillance business
So they have all this sophisticated system of surveillance. They know your position, thoughts, what you buy, what you think, what is the name of the doctor you are visiting and run an AI on this data to figure out how to manipulate you for profit.
But guess what – if you see no ads, you cannot be made buy, do or think things.
They may be the all-seeing eye they are, this totalitarians’ wet dream – but if you block ads they become an eye without a mouth.
They cannot whisper their poison into your ear, like Wormtongue did to king Theoden in the LOTR.
This is by the way why they want you so badly to use their apps – because you cannot block ads there. An app puts them back in full control. An app gives them back their two ways communication – ability to watch you and ability to talk to you.
By blocking ads wherever you can you not only take away a part of their ad revenue. You also make them unable to influence you.
Do you see any disadvantages of ad blocking so far?
Ads not only manipulate, they track too…
Those ads companies do gather private data too. So it should not be a surprise that ads also serve as means of finding out what websites you are visiting.
This information would be worth nothing if those who gather your data could not reliably identify you later on.
So they fingerprint your browser and use many other techniques to make sure they know who you are every time their ad is displayed to you.
Ability to identify also makes your private data more valuable when it is sold.
Ads in fact serve a dual purpose: to influence you, and to gather information about you.
Ads are two bad things in one.
Disable your adblock or we won’t show you our website
This adblock-beggar crowd deserves a separate bit, and a separate kick up the arse.
They are one of the worst, as they try to force you into accepting the rotten deal they offer you.
Sometimes they try to manipulate you by making you feel guilty. They give you a story how they depend on ads revenue to run their whatever noble cause thing is and so on.
No noble cause should be built on dishonest practices, this will never work. Don’t buy this.
My advice: go somewhere else. Nobody has content so precious and unique that it is worth letting in the avalanche of shit, manipulation and privacy abuse the internet ads are.
Remember: it is not on you to protect their legacy methods of funding themselves by accepting intrusion into your privacy.
It is on them to change their way of making themselves profitable. Personally I prefer them to go out of business as I don’t think scumbags doing adblock begging should be around anyway.
If they try adblock-begging, they deserve nothing but contempt.
They are not worthy your interaction with them. They sold their soul and now are trying to sell yours.
To hell with them, go somewhere else and let them rot in their surveillance powered little hellhole.
There are and will be leaks
So far we were focussing on the wrongdoing by the corporations. But from time to time your data will leak due to negligence or criminal activity too. Sooner or later your data will be stolen.
Darknet is already full of offers to sell large datasets.
If no data is perfectly safe, so maybe it makes sense to minimize the amount of it that is in corporate possession?
Blocking ads supports that goal too.
What if all the above is just a pile of BS written by some crazy guy wearing a tinfoil hat?
It would make sense to see what you can loose by blocking ads. So can you loose something if you block?
Not really. You see good deals are usually an illusion anyway, like these extra deals you get on Black Friday. These deals were so damn good, that EU introduced a law forcing those offering such deals to show price history, hilarious stuff :)
Good deals need no advertisement, believe me.
By blocking ads you can only gain. You not only do the right thing by cutting revenue of questionable and potentially harmful businesses.
You also protect your privacy, close off access to yourself for politicians, scammers, spammers, distractions, time wasters, lobbyists, scaremongers, fanatics and idiots – just to name a few.
You make it harder to offer you a bad deal, as the firm’s wont be able to reliably figure out what your pain point is.
Blocking ads can be beneficial for your mental health, as it cuts off lots of things that try to play on your emotions, get reactions from you, make you feel not good enough, make you worried, angry.
You may also be spending less – and this is almost always beneficial. Spending less usually means you have to work less, an this means you have more life for yourself.
Blocking ads is beneficial on so many levels and there is nothing to loose, nothing to miss out on. Ads have no value for you.
So start blocking ads today and spread the word by sharing this post if you can.
Can we crush the system by blocking ads? I have no clue, but at least we can put up a fight, resist, make things difficult for the bad guys. We can opt out of a thing that is clearly bad and wrong.
It may not be much for ordinary folks, but us, in the independent scene? Is resistance not a part of who we are, a part of what we believe?
Are we not those supposed to rebel?
Well rebellion has never been easier – just block the goddamn ads.
PS
A book recommendation for you, a bit dated now but still very valid: “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism” by Shoshana Zuboff.
We need to quickly understand, that bands competing with one another is the most dumb thing we can do.
Why?
Because in fact we are competing with the whole world of huge corpos spending billions, advertisers, marketers, politicians, spammers, scammers, crappy musicians from other scenes, popstars, influencers, celebrities and other assholes.
This is who we really are up against as a scene. To face this on your own is stupid and bound to fail.
The solution would require you – the musician – to stop being selfish and to realise that cooperation will benefit all of us.
I would go further: in the current state of Facebook algorithm, cooperation between bands is the only possible way forward.
And by saying “way forward” I am really putting a positive spin on it. What I really think is that all we can do is cling to the Facebook-Bandcamp model for a little longer, that’s all.
What we really have to do is to break free from the Facebook/Bandcamp model, but this is beyond what this post is about.
This post is about adapting to Facebook giving you access to less and less of your fans.
Will you be able to afford paying to reach your fans once your organic/unpaid reach becomes almost zero? Maybe you do pay to reach your fans already?
How much of your hard-earned (and taxed on average at 23% by corporations) Bandcamp revenues will you have to give to Facebook just in order to let your fans know you still exist?
Let me elaborate on the problem of declining fan reach that makes your unpaid communication with fans less and less effective.
Downsizing, Facebook style
For many years it has been the most common topic in the social media marketers’ discussions – organic reach going constantly down and what to do about it.
Organic means not paid for. It is how many of your band’s page fans see your post when you post something without paying for promoted post. It was around 16% years ago, now it is below 4%.
It has gotten roughly four times worse in about eight years timespan.
Just like your favourite burger or sweet bar are getting smaller and smaller – same downsizing principle applies to social media.
It is just number of people you reach that gets smaller, not the weight of the product. The burger folks make your burger smaller to make more money. Facebook makes your audience smaller to make more money.
Same concept.
So out of every thousand fans you have, on average less that 40 will see your post. By the way, people used to say it is bad when it was 160 fans out of a thousand.
It is four times less now.
And it is not Facebook’s last word, you can bet on that. In fairness, Facebook is not the worst: Twitter is way, way worse. Twitter is so bad, that everybody just automates posting there and forgets about it.
But don’t get too cheerful: this is precisely the direction Facebook is going too.
Facebook is also trying to zero in on what is the worst possible deal you are willing to accept without leaving their platform.
It is so obvious that even Facebook itself recently felt the need to come up with an explanation, almost quoting my memme from eight years ago, proving how accurate it was:
They also say a very revealing thing: that when you log in to Facebook, you have 1500 posts that could be displayed to you.
Facebook has to choose what you will see. Obviously, it will not be what you would really like to see. They will show you what makes them most money.
Remember: as a user you need to be just happy enough so you stay and keep scrolling, but not a tiny bit more than that. This is when Facebook makes most money.
Anything above this bare minimum that keeps you scrolling is a waste, is something that could be sold but it was not.
Attention of users is the commodity Facebook sells, not gives away free.
So most of what you see will be ads or sponsored posts but some interesting things have to be stuck in between these ads too. Otherwise people will stop looking at their news feed.
These interesting things must be top-notch, so they make up for sponsored crap the user has to scroll through to earn his “reward”.
Facebook knows exactly how much crap they can push on users without them quitting. They have been testing this for years, on literally billions of people. They know the magic crap to non-crap formula inside out.
Now imagine your band posting about your new album being out on Bandcamp is one of those 1500 posts waiting to be shown. What are the chances you will get through to your fans?
What are the odds Facebook will decide that this is what people should see?
The odds are extremely low.
They will give you your handful of people they think are enough for you to stay, and keep displaying ads to all other people who like your band’s page.
And – of course – they will give you an option to reach more of your fans if you pay.
This is precisely why years ago I realised that mailing list and good own website is the only way to go. I knew the reach is going to get worse and worse everywhere, not only on Facebook.
It turns out I was spot on. I just did not realise how bad it is going to get.
I am back on Facebook after 5 years of exile and cannot believe my eyes. The crap they pour at me from my newsfeed is astounding. It feels as if someone was deliberately trying to make me dumb.
I guess it was getting worse gradually over years so people did not notice, but for me it was a shock.
I just don’t watch it, there is no point. This stuff can make you braindead.
Anyway, enough of this. You probably realise how dire things are today. If you promote a band on Facebook things I write here about are nothing new to you.
Let us get to why we – independent musicians – should cooperate in order to make the situation a bit better.
Or at least to make it get worse at a slower rate.
How Facebook decides who sees what?
There is plenty of resources if you want to see all the hypotheses on how Facebook’s algorithm works, but there is only a few factors that interests us.
In a nutshell, Facebook assumes that what some people like or interact with, others will like to. The old good social proof of correctness. Same concept that made Google so much better than their competitors (they used links as such proof – and won).
So if your post displayed to these 4% or less of your fans gets liked, commented and shared, Facebook will display it to more people.
It will become this good stuff that gets stuck between the ads as a reward for viewers.
If your post gathers no interaction, they assume it is some boring stuff and wont display it anymore.
You see, they need interesting things in between the ads so the people keep scrolling. It works like these slot machines, they use so called variable-ratio reinforcement schedule, fascinating stuff if you are into psychology.
People do scroll in hope of encountering something of interest exactly the same way gamblers keep pulling that lever even though they do not win every time they pull.
Gamblers loose money, scrollers loose time – that’s the difference. The principle employed to keep folks pulling or scrolling is the same though.
Facebook cannot afford displaying uninteresting things for free, because they already display tons of sponsored posts that are of low quality by nature. They have enough of paid crap to show.
So they won’t show yours, sorry.
How to help each other
Here is where the cooperation part kicks in. It cost you nothing to like, comment and share other bands’ post. You can do this both as your page and with your personal profile – the latter is believed to be way more effective.
Seriously, nobody (apart from U2 fans) listens to one band only. Relationship with music is – like it or not – a polyamoric one.
Help other bands out. Like, share, comment. This will increase their reach. It will not decrease yours or hurt you in any way.
You see, there is just a couple of bands’ posts among these 1500 posts waiting for every person logging into Facebook.
It is the rest of the world we are competing with, not other bands.
If dark independent bands help one another, we will get ahead of everybody else. It is unlikely that our competitors – marketers, spammers, influencers and other scumbags start cooperating in any meaningful way.
We can beat them. And it is “them” who we should beat, not one another. It is bands vs everyone else, not band vs band.
It is so hard to get likes for band’s posts, and this is the partially the reason these posts are doing so miserably bad.
You see, bands’ posts are not particularily hot even for fans. They have enough bands screaming for attention. Promoting music is a hard sell even without Facebook making things more and more difficult.
If we support one another, we can change this, make things better.
Some will abuse it – so be it. Just don’t help those who don’t give back, simple.
As a scene we share a common goal – to promote music and specific culture. And together we have the power to influence the Facebook’s algorithm enough so everybody is better off.
You see there are researches showing that fake likes bought on Fiverr don’t help, only real legitimate users’ interactions have influence on what is displayed.
Facebook is not that stupid to let itself being cheated for a fiver. They would be long gone if they did.
We are the legitimate users, we should start using the power it gives us.
Quality, not quantity…
I always fondly remember this small bunch of folks who helped Halotan Records along the way. Seriously, ten active people are worth more than thousands of those who click like and forgets all about you.
Ten real relationships with ten people who share your point of view – and you can start making a difference.
With just a few such folks who engage with your content you can reach many times more people.
It is hard to get them – and this is why personal relationship with supporters is so important. You won’t have personal relationships by delegating your fan relations to Bandcamp, as if you were afraid of people who want to give you money.
If your band is good and you prove yourself to be worthy someones effort, these people will show up and help you.
In the meantime we can simply help one another, and be such hardcore supporters for one another.
Costs nothing and everybody will be better off.
These days everyone wants to take, and attention is like a drug. It is such a desirable commodity.
It is so hard to give others what we crave so much ourselves.
We do not look after each other like we could because of jealousy. Breaking out of this bad spell and giving instead of taking may be the way forward.
You need others, you wont make it on your own. This may be a cliche, but we have to start being the change we want to see in the world.
And we have to start doing it fast.
Thank you Adrian (a very nice guy I met thanks to Halotan Records) for this question. You made me see this elephant in the room: that Facebook & Bandcamp combo is the normal way to manage a band today.
Whoever does it different way is a weirdo.
Today you advertise your music on Facebook and sell it on Bandcamp. It works, so why should I reinvent the wheel?
Yes – it works. But is it effective, is it really the best you can do? Is it the only way?
The problem with corporations – like the ones owning Facebook and Bandcamp – is that they are in it for money.
And they have never enough of it, even if they already own half of the World.
So they make their product as bad, small and crappy as humanly possible without loosing too many of their customers.
They give you a crappy deal not because they have to, but because this is the way they have always been. Because people who own them always demand more.
One of the ways to make more is give others less. And fill the resulting void with words.
Check out what they call large fries at McDonalds, you’ll get the idea.
Slowly and meticulously, over many years of iterations corporations zero in on making your deal as bad as possible. But just good enough so you don’t leave.
They will spend time and resources on knowing what your acceptable bare minimum is.
The problem with popular platforms is that the more popular they are, the worse deal you get. It is a rule.
Facebook and Bandcamp are by far the most popular platforms when it comes to bands.
So, like everyone else you release your music and let your fans know on Facebook. Some fans buy your music on Bandcamp.
It is simple and you are happy enough.
There is a problem though, the same that I mentioned earlier. The nice people in suits do and will come up with things that will improve their excel spreadsheets and buy them grace of their billionaire masters, boards and stockholders.
This is what they do for living. And you – you will sheepishly accept whatever they come up with. Why? Because you have no alternative, you have nowhere to go.
You can’t bargain, you can’t negotiate with a multi billion ogranisation. You just take whatever leftovers they throw at you.
The more you rely on them, the more they own you and the worse deal they can force upon you.
If you have your band’s page on Facebook, you know how many people you can reach with your posts.
You may have thousands of fans, but your posts reach only a handful and these numbers go in one direction only: down.
This is downsizing social media style, Facebook version of “large fries” at McDonalds.
I remember the uproar when some social media folks measured that Facebook posts reach on average only 16% of fans – or 160 out of every thousand.
That was like 8 years ago. Now check your numbers, do a quick search for “facebook fan reach percentage 2023”. Depending on source this is around 4% or 40 out of every thousand fans.
Four times less than 8 years ago, when we thought it was bad.
Facebook effectively sells you access to your own fans. And why shouldn’t they, it is them who owns your fans after all.
Seriously, you got people to click the damn “like” button on your page and now you need to pay to reach them, even though they want to hear from you.
Instead, they hear from advertisers. You provide the content that makes people spend time on the platform, but they get as little of this content as possible, just to keep them there watching the ads.
So the fans are getting a poor deal to.
Bancamp works in a similar way. You need to send them traffic in order to make it sell. As everybody sends their fans in, some cross-sales are generated.
Now guess what. You will get those cross sales even if you don’t send your fans to your Bandcamp page.
I believe that people who want to support you, will do so regardless of platform you use.
Are you too busy to email your album to everyone who sends you money through PayPal or – much better – sends you a bank transfer?
I buy on German ebay sometimes and I noticed that some folks there accept bank transfer only. Smart people don’t like to pay for getting paid I guess.
So are you really such a busy rock star that you have no time to do this? Check if the transfer/PayPal came in and email your music to the fan by Wetransfer or something? With a nice and personal thank you?
Come on buddy, get real.
Teach your fans to support you directly, have a direct and personal relation. It is thousand times better than faceless transaction facilitated by corporations for a substantial fee.
I laugh so hard at these folks who sing about evil corporations while handing nearly a quarter of their money over to them.
Well done, you are a such a rebel, ready to crush the system. No, I am joking. All you do is bending over to get the soap they have thrown on the bathroom’s floor.
Corporations charge you to talk to your fans, they charge you when you sell to your fans. Can’t you see how shitty deal you are getting?
Find a way to let your fans support you directly. Make your Bancamp profile and leave it be. If it makes you a few bob on its own – great.
Let your fans know that you have Bandcamp, but make it clear it is less preferred way to support your band.
Your fans are looking up to you to tell them how they can help – use this power.
I personally find it ridiculous that most of the bands do not have a place on the internet where listening to their music is not facilitated by corporations.
The only things you really own is your own website and your mailing list. Everything else is borrowed and outside of your control. It may an will get worse.
I know settling on Bandcamp + Facebook model is tempting because it requires zero effort.
It can be replicated by a 10 years old on his phone, in less than 15 minutes.
And if it is so easy to do, maybe there is not as much value in it as we think? Maybe doing things that are a bit harder but more creative is the way to go?
You are an artist, are you not supposed to innovate instead of going with the flow?
Today’s independent and underground bands are all going with the flow. Those who are supposed to be the inventors, behave like a herd of sheep with corporate eartags dangling from their ears. Corporations own them and their fans.
Treat this as an opportunity.
Do things differently, like the real artists and creative people do. Search for loopholes, for new ways to use the system to your advantage instead of letting it screw you over.
You have nothing to loose but the short end of the deal Facebook and Bandcamp are handing to you.
