Bandcamp takes a stance against AI, but still use Suno owned service

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This might be of interest to some people here. I wrote an open letter to Bandcamp asking if they are planning to replace Songkick now that Suno bought Songkick.

You can read the full blogpost here: An open letter to Bandcamp - Kristoffer Lislegaard

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Thank you for your letter, full support! I just wanted to let you know that I also deleted my Songkick account once I got the mail. I’m now hoping for a fediversesque alternative.

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@KristofferLislegaard Great job catching that!

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This was a good catch, I missed this in the news.

One thing I’ll flag is that it may not be fair to fault Bandcamp here; they may not have had inside knowledge of the deal and are needing to react to it alongside the public. Ripping out an integration isn’t always super simple, especially if it’s an integration that larger artists/labels on Bandcamp rely on without an alternative ready (as a product guy I can imagine the backlash that labels would give them if they just ripped it out suddenly). Bandsintown might be the obvious choice to replace Songkick with, but integrations take time, and I know Bandcamp is a small team. So we should be fair to Bandcamp that they may intend to drop Songkick and simply don’t have a better option ready yet.

That all said, this Suno/Songkick deal sucks and I’m very frustrated about it and I hope Bandcamp doesn’t simply turn a blind eye.

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I hadn’t heard of SongKick before I saw this thread. Even before it was acquired by Suno it was owned by Warners, so already something in need of an indie replacement IMHO.

According to its Wikipedia article, SongKick …

… enables users to search for upcoming concert events in their area, and also track individual artists to receive notifications of upcoming shows in their area

If I’m understanding correctly, fediverse events apps like Mobilizon or Gancio could be used to create a gig guide network to replace this. Maybe even a gig-orientated soft fork of the interface.

Also, services like Mirlo and BandWagon could study the plumbing Mobilizon and Gancio use to federate events (there may be some FEPs documenting this?), and implement enough of it that their gig calendars could be part of the gig guide network too.

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