SaaS Co-ops? The future belongs to all of us, but only by choice

I joined Subvert.fm last night. Member #19235. It's a co-op: artists, labels, fans, workers all own a piece of it. The platform is in alpha. There's no guarantee it works. (Really hoping it does!!!)

Subvert founding member #19235 — Member #19235

I've loved Bandcamp for years. It's where I go for game soundtracks, for finding things that don't exist anywhere else. If you care about indie artists actually getting paid, it's still the best option: 82 cents on the dollar, a real catalog, none of the algorithmic noise. But Bandcamp has been sold twice in three years, cut half its staff, and is now owned by a music licensing company most of its own users had never heard of. The people who built it with their trust didn't get a vote. It's still embedded on this site, because it still earns it.

I've been trying to pay more attention to the tech I use. Not just what it does for me, but what's actually going on inside it. Who owns it. Who benefits. What I'm quietly endorsing by showing up every day.

So when I found out about Subvert I joined. Then I went exploring.

First band I found was ZORZ — out of Zaragoza, deep underground electronic, cold and mechanical in exactly the right way. It hit like discovering industrial music on Wax Trax! in the late 80s. That feeling of stumbling onto something before it has a name. Before it's been explained to you. Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher were doing the same thing from a Chicago record shop: putting out Ministry and KMFDM and My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult before any of it was proven, because they heard something and decided that wasn't a reason to wait.

Member #19235. Already found something worth finding, and I'll be switching as soon as Subvert is public and has a great embedded player.

Postscript: I recently opened a box retrieved from my mom's house that I hadn't touched since 1993. This was in it. A friend in Tampa writing to tell me Thrill Kill Kult is playing July 26, $10 cover. Some things don't change.