Future Battles: Where to host?

The Lounge Mission Briefs
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In preparation for this week’s DnB Battle (songs due in 6 days! no presh), I’ve been wondering the best way to host the music, in a way that’s convenient to listen to and maintain as more battles happen.

At first I was thinking of starting up a Soundcloud called Elektronauts Battles or Elektronauts Battle Radio.

Then @LyingDalai suggested starting a Bandcamp account, which I like because it would mean we wouldn’t have a 2-hour limit, so we would’t have to take the old songs down after each battle to make room.

So, I’m putting it to a vote!!!

We should host future battles on…

  • Soundcloud
  • Band Camp
  • Third option? (Please make a suggestion in the thread!)
0 voters

In terms of purchases/payment if we choose BC:
The songs would be pay-what-you-will, and if anyone actually pays for any music posted, 100% of it would go to some kind of music charity.

So if you can think of an international music organization that needs help, post it in the comments! The only ones I know are too USA-focused.

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the main downside to Bandcamp is that free users cant batch upload tracks, so whoever is hosting will have to put in a little extra time. but i like the fact that they stay up indefinitely!

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I’ve voted as far as the charity thing goes, maybe an international kids charity? UNICEF maybe?

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This doesn’t involve me so maybe I shouldn’t say anything but isn’t there a requirement of providing some personal and tax information to sign up for an account on some of these? If it’s going to be a shared account, wouldn’t it be best to choose whichever one does not involve money handling or payouts so as to protect kingduppy or whoever it is that creates the master account?

I’m not implying that anyone here can’t be trusted but this is just common sense to me. I don’t have any paid music distribution account so I don’t know implicitly that this is required, but I seem to think that they need things like account info for payouts and tax info for reporting. That’s the specific reason I put creating an artist bandcamp on hold.

Anyways, do what you’re comfortable with, but I would look for the option with the least personal information required and then if the platform is less convenient, just agree to everyone working around the inconvenience.

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Ummm it would involve you if you took part in a battle!
(hint, hint)

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I might could do it once! If I could finish my own tracks and give people something to thumbs down :smiley:

Or maybe I’ll just have to participate to forget about the subject matter mentioned in the prior statement. I don’t know, I’m pretty unpredictable.

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But more to your point, because I have some of the same concerns…

It looks like BC doesn’t make you report taxes until you hit $5k in a year, which seems extremely unlikely.

That said, I am concerned about any connection to money whatsoever could open me up to accusations of ill-dealing or corrupt intent (I am from Jersey, after all).

Also, I’m keenly aware of why Blkrbbt decided to stop hosting these and want to avoid any chance of a repeat of that kind of petty ugliness.

Maybe a better option for BC would be to make everything 100% free rather than pay-what-you-want, so that the issue becomes moot.

I haven’t used the platform before; is this a thing you can do?

Also, I do have to respectfully disagree that this discussion does not involve you. You are a valued member of this community and your opinion on things that could affect the vibe of the community is absolutely welcome.

As is everyone’s.

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Regardless of the income you have to give them your tax information, I believe. You’ll need to confirm that though.

and a meme for color.

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Thanks for saying nice things but my opinion is no more valid than anyone else’s. Just do what you’re comfortable with and what emerges as the safest and most sustainable platform for all involved.

Most of all have fun!

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Thus corrected. No more valid but also no less.

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It looks like BC will let you proceed without providing tax information. However, should you meet the $5000 threshold on sales, BC will freeze any further payments until you send them your info and they verify it. After that, payments will resume in 24-48 hours. Also, the IRS is planning on lowering that threshold to $600, but that’s on pause for the time being.

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This is good information! Do you also know if they allow an option which doesn’t make someone provide their credit card or checking account or paypal or whatever to receive payments? I think the cheapest you can go is pick your price, I don’t think I’ve seen free. Again, I could be wrong and also it may not matter if that person is ok with it!

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It looks like PayPal is used to both pay, and get paid by, BC. I navigated to the BC Pro payment page and my PayPal payment options were displayed. It doesn’t look like there’s any way around it.

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you sir, are both a gentleman and a scholar.

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Ok, looking more and more like SC, or just putting it all in a Google Drive and then posting the link here. But that’s not a very good listening experience.

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I just remembered @orbita was getting something going. It might be worth looking into. The site seems active.

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To add to Juniper_Steels’ answer, some charities have a paypal, and you can just set up their Paypal account on Bandcamp instead of adding your own. And you can still pay for download codes and things with separate credit card info if you want

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Could you have users host the song on their own personal SC and then have a separate account that adds all the songs to a playlist per battle?

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Thanks for the suggestion, but then only people with a soundcloud account could participate. Plus, it wouldn’t be anonymous. But mostly it’s that taking part shouldn’t require everyone to use one particular site (other than this one).

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Vote was unanimous for bandcamp. Watch this space…

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I didn’t read it but there was an email from paypal regarding changes being implemented to information sharing around charities with paypal addresses for donations.

Might have nothing to do with you but if you received the paypal email you might want to find out what they were talking about.