The proprietors of Subvert, an upcoming music service, say they’re delivering something Bandcamp ultimately couldn’t: a “community-owned” platform unencumbered by corporate interests.
Bandcamp was sold to Fortnite creators Epic Games back in 2022. Amid layoffs at the gaming giant, music licensing firm Songtradr then acquired Bandcamp 18 months later in a move that resulted in layoffs of their own, amounting to roughly half of the platform’s staff.
Enter Subvert, whose founder, Austin Robey, saw those developments as a sign of the downfall of the platform and, on a larger scale, the music industry considering its emphasis on monetary value rather than music’s intrinsic personal value to artists and fans.
In an open letter posted on Subvert’s site, Robey highlights the need to address the “inevitable consequence of platform capitalism,” the upshot of placing more value in stakeholders rather than independent users. He says he envisions a music marketplace “where the community owns the code, controls the decisions, and shares in its success.”
“Subvert is a Bandcamp successor that is collectively owned, stewarded, and controlled by its community, with 100% of its founding ownership reserved for its artists, community, and workers,” Robey wrote in his impassioned letter. “We’re building a platform that has artists’ interests, collective ownership, and democratic governance hardwired in its very DNA.
“Subvert’s primary goal is to create a collectively owned alternative to Bandcamp—a marketplace that makes it easy for artists to directly sell physical and digital work, while also giving them greater control over their own destiny,” Robey adds.
Elsewhere in the letter, Robey promises platform updates and information in the weeks ahead pertaining to the launch. At the time of this article’s publication, the site also features a countdown with 36 days remaining.
You can read more about Subvert’s mission here.