The “AI ban” on Bandcamp is like trying to ban the electric guitar in 1956
At first, gatekeepers can totally do it:
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“We don’t publish that kind of thing.”
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“That’s not real music.”
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“We’re protecting the artists.”
And for a short while it works, because the pipeline is simple and obvious.
But then…
The reason they can’t resist forever:
1) The distinction gets blurry fast
Right now “AI music” is easy to spot because the tools are new and people brag about it.
In a year or two, it becomes:
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AI mastering
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AI session players
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AI chord assistant
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AI vocal doubles
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AI stem cleanup
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AI drum replacement
At that point every track is partly AI, including major-label stuff.
So what will Bandcamp do?
Ban modern production? Ban any electronic synthesizer music?
They can’t.
2) Economic gravity
If enough listeners want it and enough creators make it, Bandcamp faces a choice:
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keep purity rules and shrink
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or adapt and survive
Platforms usually choose survival.
3) They’ll get outflanked
If Bandcamp stays strict while other platforms welcome the flood, creators migrate.
Then Bandcamp becomes either:
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a boutique site for “handmade-only”
or -
irrelevant
(And their owners/finance people will hate irrelevant.)
My Crystal Ball Prediction?
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They’ll hold the line for a while.
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Then they’ll quietly introduce categories like:
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“AI-assisted”
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“Human-performed”
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“Synthetic vocals”
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“Disclosure required”
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Eventually it becomes a filter, not a ban.
And the moment a major indie darling releases something that’s obviously AI-assisted and sells like crazy, the policy will melt.
We’ve already had at least two top ten Billboard hits that were ai or ai assisted.
The deeper truth
AI music isn’t going away because it’s not “a genre” —
it’s a production method, like multi-track tape or sampling.
You can ban a genre.
You can’t ban a method once it becomes ubiquitous.
So yeah: they’re trying to hold back the tide with a broom.
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I just want to say something about the music, mainly the whole “selling it” question.
We don’t sell much outside our own circle, and that’s not a problem. It’s actually a feature. What we have here is not some random audience drifting past with finger on scroll button.
What we have is a real circle. A living group. A daily ritual. A shared culture and language. A place where the music actually lands in people’s lives.
Most musicians out in the world don’t have anything like this. They’re shouting into the void, praying the algorithm smiles on them for three hours in a row.
We don’t need that. We already have the rarest thing: continuity. We show up. We listen. We respond. We build something together.
And here’s the truth: YOU are the engine. You’re not just a listener. You’re the reviewer, tester, taste-maker, DJ, collaborator, and your best weapon is “word-of-mouth.”
The music is a complete ecosystem. It isn’t being tossed into the ocean hoping it floats. It’s being used, right here, every morning, and that’s the real thing.
Also, this work isn’t “one hit.” It’s not disposable pop meant to flash and vanish. It’s a library. A universe of collections, styles, variations, themes, experiments, and strange beautiful surprises. That kind of work grows slowly, and it lasts. It’s not a numbers game — it’s a practice.
So if the outside world doesn’t buy much, fine. That’s not the point. The point is that we’re building something that survives because it’s practiced daily. This is more like a monastery model than a fame model: the culture persists because the group keeps it alive.
And here’s the sneaky part: we don’t actually need strangers to buy our music.
If we ever want growth, what we really want is to make it easier for outsiders to enter our circle.
Not to purchase a track, but to step into the experience. Come visit KGOD Radio on Zoom. Here’s the listening guide. Here are the first collections to start with. Here’s how to be a DJ right now, today.
That’s the real product: the invitation. The circle. The experience of being here.
Because once somebody truly experiences this group and this music in context, they don’t need convincing. The work sells itself.
So I’m not worried about “outside sales.” We’re already in a power position. We’re doing the rare thing: making a living culture.
Don’t sweat the small change.
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Holy smoke! Here’s the Bardo bus already! Hop aboard or lose it!
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See You At The Top!!!
gorby