THE YEAR IN MUSIC, 2024: Thing of the Year

BANDCAMP

Bandcamp spent its first 15 years gradually becoming the go-to site for indie or indie-adjacent musicians and bands to connect with fans, artists that may or may not have ever gotten the nod from major labels or commercial radio but who now could bypass those gatekeepers altogether and keep a sizable chunk of their revenue to boot. Some did well. Others tanked.

But while the upperground was busy coalescing around Taylor Swift and — well, Taylor Swift — Bandcampers were reveling in variety (you can find music representing 21 genres and 213 sub-genres, as well as comedy, podcasts, audio books, and “spoken word”). And they were doing so from around the world. Social Darwinism had never sounded so good.

Epic Games acquired the site in 2022, and the good times were supposed to end. They didn’t. They were also supposed to end 18 months later when Epic sold Bandcamp to Soundtradr. But the party continued. And it’s still continuing. Listen to one random track apiece from the practically infinite list of “New and Notable” albums and you’ll think you’ve discovered the greatest free-form radio station ever. If you’re not careful, you might never surface again.

Read the rest of the Year in Music!

2024: an overview

Don’t call it a comeback (but it is)

Musicians of the year

Please go home (we’ve had enough of these people)

Albums of the year

Songs of the year

Breakout artists of the year

The year of the CD

The Fyre Award: crappiest festival of the year

10 albums you should have heard but didn’t

The year in EDM

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