because i am asking

Someone pointed out that article's from 2023, and that's my mistake! Here is one that describes better where we are today.

So.

Downloads are still available as of time of writing. If you have music you want to keep, maybe go download it.

If your favorites sell music directly, go buy it there.

Do NOT go yell at musicians for being on Bandcamp. Where, one day after this broke, do you expect them to go? Where else can we get DRM-free files?

If the new owners keep Bandcamp Friday and DRM-free downloads, I will keep buying music from them.

Think of it this way: who are we trying to help? Musicians, right?

It won't help musicians to boycott Bandcamp and I have not (as of this writing) seen a call for it that's actually from a musician.

It really won't help musicians to yell at them about being on Bandcamp.

Next Bandcamp Friday I'm going to go buy albums I'd miss if they disappeared.

Google set out about a decade ago to push their (relatively unpopular) chromebooks by supplying them below-cost to schools for students, explicitly marketing them as being easy to restrict to certain activities, and in the offing, kids have now grown up in walled gardens, on glorified tablets that are designed to monetize and restrict every movement to maximize profit for one of the biggest companies in the world.

Like Etsy used to be except artists keep their money and the site is run off of a yearly fee for hosting stuff and some non invasive ads. There's other stuff, but the point is that the artists don't have to share a percentage on what they sell with the site.

Disclaimer: Almost all of my materials are thrifted, donated to me, or sourced from Buy Nothing groups where people are giving away art supplies.

The problem with the Buy Nothing groups is that a lot of the stuff people have to offer is from Shein or AliExpress.

People think a decent workaround to this is, "Oh, you can buy the SAME EXACT MATERIALS from this mom and pop Etsy shop or your local craft store," but the thing is, Etsy shops that supply beads and charms are often just curated Shein/AliExpress products that they dropship, and the stuff that the craft stores sell comes from the same manufacturers and is just more expensive. It's not like there's an Evil Factory where Shein an AliExpress get craft supplies, and then a Nice Factory where Michaels and Etsy resellers get craft supplies.

I'm NOT saying this to pull the, "There's no ethical consumption under capitalism," card in a completely misunderstanding way where I think you might as well just buy from Shein because everything sucks; I'm saying that it's just almost impossible to find anything, even if you can afford to pay more, that doesn't come from exploitation.

I personally feel like getting donations of unused stuff or picking things up from craft trades is an okay compromise. I think it's better for me to USE the things someone who totallyyyy thought they were gonna start a jewelry business in quarantine manic spent $500 on than it is for them to be thrown away. But it's not a perfect solution! There isn't one! When people say there's no ethical consumption under capitalism, they mean that no matter how hard we try, we're backed into corners like this every time we need or decide to make a purchase, and the only way to get around it is to not purchase anything. I think it's still important to do what you can when you can when it comes to making educated choices about the companies you support, but it's just that. You can often only make educated choices, not ethical ones.

A lot of people argue that if there's no way to make art that's 100% free of sin, then you just shouldn't be doing it because it's not necessary, but I don't know that I agree with that. A life without art isn't a life I want to live! But then that makes it seem like I think my right to have fun supercedes other people's right to fair working conditions and basic necessities, which obviously isn't what I believe either.

If you need to have a big scary threat to a whole planet, go ahead. That’s great. However. Please be aware that the planet under threat does not always have to be Earth. If the characters we love have ties to a non-earth planet, threatening that planet is, in fact, sufficient. Viewers are capable of feeling the stakes when the planet is not Earth. It doesn’t have to be All About The Planet The Viewer Lives On. The Planet The Viewer Lives On is not being threatened by a space laser in real life anyway. It’s Ok if your main character from planet zebrathorax wants to pull out all the stops to defend planet zebrathorax. In fact, it’s pretty bad if you have a side character from zebrathorax and they seem weirdly ok with zebrathorax being left undefended to defend Earth. Your characters can even want to pull out all the stops for zebrathorax even if they’re not from there, since presumably they’re good people who can empathize with the zebrathoraxians. The emotional stakes are maintained.

Also. We know you’re not gonna blow up earth in this movie. We are not worried about earth. Zebrathorax is a much more legitimately suspenseful choice.

This means, when I was up there today after looking after their cats, I got a baffled call from my father.

"honey". He said. "Why are you picking up sticks in the yard. Like go ahead but why."

Mom, in the background, as if this should explain everything; I told you sweetie it's the birch trees.

Dad; ......okay???

Mom; she probably wants them for dye.

Me; birch bark and twigs, dad. For dye.

Dad, sounding no less confused; my god you really just are your mother but younger