If you saw my previous post about Bandcamp you might know that it’s a good place for people to put their music. Of course Bandcamp has issues, so we still need alternatives, or at least additional outlets/options.
Take a look at Bandwagon.fm now. It’s “Better Social for Musicians” and “Connect to Your Fans on the Fediverse” which might be confusing if you don’t know what the Fediverse is. Read the About page for the full version, but the short version is that it’s a way to be free of the corporate media sites like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. But how can I trust these Bandwagon.fm folks to run a reliable web site? Well, you can run your own site if you want, it’s all open source.
So you can just put your music up on Bandwagon.fm, but what about the Fediverse part and connecting with fans? Okay, my site is at bandwagon.fm/@rasterweb and my account is @rasterweb@bandwagon.fm and you can follow that account with any Fediverse account. Mastodon, Pixelfed, or any site that uses the ActivityPub protocol.
For my masotodon.social account I can follow myself here: https://mastodon.social/@rasterweb@bandwagon.fm
When I (@rasterweb@bandwagon.fm) release new music or post a news update I (@rasterweb@mastodon.social) can see it in my Mastodon feed.
But maybe you’re like “ActivityPub sucks! I just use RSS!” and that’s okay… we got you covered because like other ActivityPub sites they provide an RSS feed. Here’s mine: https://bandwagon.fm/@69847667e6ff0fb4436fb821/feed?format=rss
Pop that URL in your feed reader (I like NetNewsWire paired with FreshRSS) and you can follow along and see all the updates.
And RSS is powerful! You can transform it into an email newsletter or do other weird things.
Basically if you are a musician, a band, or put music online, I think it’s worth looking at what Bandwagon.fm is doing. It’s interesting stuff and could be the way out of corporate social media with all the evil shit their platforms give us. Imagine connecting directly with your fans and cutting out the advertisements, the algorithms, and the bullshit.
This is the IndieWeb we all need to build, together.