BeYourOwnPlatform (in music) is a strategy for musicians to be radically independent from platforms that are usually funded through venture capital and are going to be very likely either sold without any regard of users or simply enshittify to a degree of complete unusability. It's a move away from being slave to algorhithms that control your timelines and fighting ads. It's an effort to create online publishing space and practice where artist herself can make all decisions. It is definitely a harder path to take, it consumes more energy and time and funds, but it also brings resilience to shifting trends of unstable startup or corporate companies that are themselves slaves to the late capitalist production.
BeYourOwnPlatform is an inclusive strategy, a set of possible actions an artist can choose at their own discretion and pace. There's nothing prescriptive about it and it's not an all-encompassing ideology. It's more of a toolkit coupled with critical reflection on state of music industry.
Today everybody knows that digital technology—cheap, fast computing and digital networks (Internets!)—have disrupted the world of music in one way or another. There's been some tremendous innovation, but after MP3 appeared on the scene Metallica erupted in hysterical fit in early 00s and major labels created a propaganda hoax with so-called PIRACY. All this didn't really change the exploitative nature of system we call music industry.
Between then and now there's been a chaotic and bloody fight as big and powerful players pivoted and invested attention and money on how to extort more money from the market using algorithms and all the usual exploitative practices hidden under fragmented but targeted propaganda about independence of creators. Creator economy.
In 2022 something incredibly sad happened: the founders/owners of probably the best thing that happened to musicians since MP3 & Napster, a 'fair trade music' platform Bandcamp—was unexpectedly sold to EPIC, a big and powerful game company. Everybody was in a bit of a shock. While the world waited if this sale meant changes for the good (as promised by then-CEO Ethan Diamond) Bandcamp workers also started the process to unionize, a process which was busted several times but was ultimately successful. Just about when after 18 months EPIC sold Bandcamp to Songtradr, small and almost unknown licencing company of dubious reputation (from a “fair trade music” point of view).
50% of the Bandcamp staff was laid off in the process.
At that point somebody (Anil Prasad) wrote: “[artists,] focus on YOUR OWN PLATFORM. In other words, your website, which so many of you have forsaken. No-one can take your website away from you. They can't pull that rug from under your feet. So, go back and rebuild your own web presence. Add e-commerce and multimedia stuff back into it.” and ended with #BeYourOwnPlatform hashtag.
On Fediverse (Mastodon instances and other federated nodes) this hashtag resonated with already present criticisms of VC-funded platforms that almost surely get sold and extinguished, but as things are developing, some of us are calling for a strategy with attention to sustainable independence and resilience through putting you in control of your website, your mailing list and making them the center of your online presence. This is actually far from new: PR specialists like Arial Hyatt from Cyber PR have been pointing for years at the email, a mailing list and artist's own website as still the most important cyberspace-ownership and only real capital for communication with your friends (regardless if they are fan-atic-s or not) about your music.
Previous events
- , Figure It Out Symposium, Valletta, MT
- , AMRO24 nightline, Linz, AT
- , Netzpolitischer abend #71 / AMRO24 edition, Linz, AT
- , DIWO Week, Dresden, DE
- , Synth Library, Praga, CZ
- , DINN SESSIONS, Brno, CZ
PHOTO
