Today is not Bandcamp Friday. According to that link, “Bandcamp Friday is over.”
However, Bandcamp sent the following e-mail to its users:
On Friday, June 17th, from midnight to midnight Pacific Time, we’ll hold our third annual Juneteenth fundraiser, where we donate 100% of our share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a racial justice organization with a long history of effectively enacting change through litigation, advocacy, and public education. Read our statement here.
Bandcamp Fridays will resume on September 2nd, and continue on October 7th, November 4th, and December 2nd.
Please help us spread the word!
Yeesh! As such, I would encourage my readers not to purchase my music and merch on Friday, 17 June 2022. I’m not surprised Bandcamp—a company dedicated to helping indie musicians sell their music—is embracing the woke agenda; personally, I don’t care. I don’t even mind if Bandcamp makes money from sales on the platform; they’re a private business, and while they’re a pretty big player, there’s nothing totalitarian in their practices (yet), and there are multiple alternatives for musicians to sell music online. It’s not like Google or Facebook, two virtual monopolies in the tech sector that dominate access to free speech and information.
I’d just rather sales of my music and merch not go to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the kind of organization I could imagine finding myself at odds with in court someday (“there aren’t enough Black and Brown voices of color represented at The Portly Politico; please pay us reparations”).
That said, today is not 17 June 2022, and while it’s not Bandcamp Friday—and won’t be again until 2 September 2022—you can still buy my stuff.
A portion of the proceeds from my goodies will go to support The Portly Politico and its ever-expanding stable of top-notch talent (most of whom contribute for free, but, hey, maybe one day I can pay them).
So, pick up some summertime jams!
Happy Friday!
—TPP
The Portly Politico 
From recollection, I bought all your music when I donated to this site and as for Friday June 17th, I’ll probably be drunk or happily tipsy; it’s my birthday!
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You did! And Happy Early Birthday, Ponty!
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Port; explain something to me … why do you not have a YouTube channel? You’re attractive, you must speak well because you write well, you can do your music, you can show your art, you can sell merchandise. The list of reasons in support of this goes on and on. It costs nothing, if you belong to YT, you already have a channel that’s just sitting there idle. You are very balanced in your conservatism so I can’t imagine you in YT jail. You’d get such a wider base of followers and it could be an additional income stream for you.
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I mentioned that to I’m Old Fashioned when he came to our last CW shindig. He’s made a film about his travels through America and I reckon he’d get a decent audience if he put it up on Youtube. That said, like all online dalliances, you still need to direct people there. I’d certainly help share it but I don’t have a great amount of followers, either here, on TCW or on Twitter.
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Yes but he’s got us and all the students he’s ever been in contact with! That channel could build quite quickly.
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A good point. Former students are a rich vein to mine.
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It does take a great deal of time to grow an audience, but if this blog proves anything, persistence starts to pay off. I think IOF should upload his video. I’d post it here.
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That is a great question, Audre! I have thought about it before; the main obstacle is the video editing learning curve. I also need to invest in a good camera. I am going to get a decent USB microphone and begin experimenting with audio recordings, something I’ve been meaning to do for some time. I’m not the best at speaking extemporaneously, but I think you’re right—I could do something with it.
Here is the totality of my YouTube presence:
– Brass to the Future: https://www.youtube.com/user/Brass2theFuture
– My personal YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7aTblulTGPMBdBSOUl7Kg
– The “Tyler James Cook” YouTube topic page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf5wnqr52I6FzBDXYFwN62Q
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All you need is the prop that holds a cell phone – I watch tons of channels from just plain folks (mostly women ‘of a certain’ age) and that’s all they use, aside from a big light (generally a ‘circle’ light). If the oldsters can work it out, you most certainly can! It’s got to be easier than those big puzzles you put together! (senior moment – can’t think of the name of the blocks you use).
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Sounds like it’s pretty cut and dry. I’ll definitely research it, Audre. I have a lot more time to do that now!
They’re Balody/Larcelle blocks, I believe. I’ve just done the one bull terrier set, but I definitely want to do some more.
Here’s the Balody build from a early May: https://theportlypolitico.com/2022/05/03/bull-terrier-tuesday-balody-bull-terrier-build/
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The War on Whites is real.
But, on another note ( 😉 ), you might want to check out Tunecorp.com. They make it easier for indies to get their stuff into Amazon and iTunes.
I did some security consulting for them about a decade ago and they were pretty good, pretty ethical, and pretty committed to furthering indie musicians. Don’t know about them now, but I’d say that they were worth checking out.
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I’ll definitely check them out, jonolan! I’ve always liked Bandcamp a great deal, and they’ve done right by me and many other indie musicians. Just a shame to see yet another company embrace wokery and the WoW, as you noted.
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J: is this it? https://www.tunecore.com/
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Yeah! That’s it.
I always try to make it corp. Just makes more sense to me… but it’s not their name.
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Maybe we should start TuneCorp. 😀
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