Jesus Christ there’s a lot of misinformation about Bandcamp going around right now
Paypal is just as evil as Stripe and Epic sold bandcamp in 2023, can you please stop it
Here's a primer on what’s true:
Bandcamp is switching their payment processing to Stripe (a company notorious for hostile policing of LGBT / sex positive content) from PayPal (a company notorious for hostile policing of LGBT / sex positive content)
This has been in the works (and available on their site) since at least the beginning of July and is not a 'new' thing
Bandcamp is not independent anymore - they were acquired by Epic in 2022, but then sold to Songtradr in 2023.
(this means this payment change might not be their decision but this point is speculation)
I won’t ever cape for a big company and not to devolve too far into “there is no ethical consumption under capitalism” (evergreen) if you sell things online you are forced into either one of the few payment processor platforms or credit card companies, of which most are heading toward ass-backward puritan policies that discriminate against queer or sex positive content if they weren't already there!!
To recap:
Bandcamp (not an independent platform, beholden to parent company and shareholders) is switching from one bad payment platform option to another.
Boycotting Bandcamp is bullshit unless you have another way to accept payments online that does not use stripe, PayPal, Visa or Mastercard and you can build a platform that allows musicians to host their audio there and sell on their behalf.
Would I love more options in this space? Sure!! Do I have the ability to build them? Fuck no! My main three points of selling music online are Bandcamp, Mirlo co-op (uses Stripe) and fucking Itch.io which everyone is also currently mad at because they were chokeslammed (not in a sex way, no kink allowed here) by [checks notes] the very same payment processors!
I don’t have answers but I know that boycotting bandcamp isn’t a solution and I keep seeing people waxing poetic about PayPal or saying Epic forced this and it’s maddening how quickly bad info spreads.
Selmers is judging y'all
