Category: News

Site and company news,

  • The Importance of Bandcamp Friday

    What if buying music could really help your favorite artists?

    Bandcamp Friday is the day when Bandcamp gives all sales money straight to the artists, without taking any fees.

    Your support can help musicians pay bills, buy gear, and keep making music.

    It goes directly from you to them.

    Since it started, people all over the world have taken part. They buy music and merchandise, knowing that every dollar goes to the creators. It has become a special event each month.

    Your help truly matters.

    You can help artists do better in a world where every sale is important.

    Think of an artist seeing support from their real fans online. Your purchase gives them hope, tools for their craft, and encouragement to keep making music.

    Bandcamp Friday has already helped artists by sending millions straight to them. Musicians everywhere say it really helps.

    Most artists do not earn enough from their music. Streaming gives them only a small amount of money, and selling music directly is tough.

    Every time you listen to a song online, almost all the money goes to big companies, not to the musicians who make you feel something special. This is not fair to the people who create your favorite music.

    Bandcamp Friday is different. On this one day each month, all the money you spend goes directly to the artist. You can make a real difference by supporting the music you love.

    Artists work hard on their music.

    On Bandcamp Friday, all the money you spend goes to help them create, live, and keep going strong.

    Let’s join together to support music makers. On the first Friday of each month, your support means everything.

    Bandcamp Friday is the day music fans come together to support the artists they care about.

    We try to release something for everyone, and all of our digital music is Pay What You Want. This record label is run by the artists and the support goes directly to them. This label technically makes no money; hosting etc comes out of our pockets.

    Here is a simple list of all of our releases with short descriptions and links:

    megabyteGhost – instrumental industrial

    End of An Error is megabyteGhost’s (first) “greatest hits” style release: https://megabyteghost.bandcamp.com/album/end-of-an-err

    Dead Man’s Switch is mG’s only full length album (“LP”): https://megabyteghost.bandcamp.com/album/dead-mans-switch

    Bio_Hax is an experiment in sound design. Fun but not really “music”.: https://megabyteghost.bandcamp.com/album/bio-hax

    Read Us The Names Of The Book Of The Dead is mG’s first ever single, and is very different. It’s minimal and sets the stage for what would eventually become his side project The One And The Zero: https://megabyteghost.bandcamp.com/album/read-us-the-names-of-the-book-of-the-dead-single

    The One And The Zero – leftfield dance music

    Freezer Meat is the first and so far only release from The One And The Zero, but there are more in the works. This EP comes with 2 remixes and an extended version: https://megabyteghost.bandcamp.com/album/freezer-meat-ep

    beatMage – instrumental hip hop, plunderphonics, sampledelica

    my little brother turned 30 and graduated this year is the latest single from beatMage and has remixes in the works: https://beatmage.bandcamp.com/track/my-little-brother-turned-30-and-graduated-this-year

    A Day At The Carnival With The Beat Mage is the first full album from beatMage and is pretty fun. It is our most popular release on streaming platforms: https://megabyteghost.bandcamp.com/album/a-day-at-the-carnival-with-the-beat-mage

    A Night At The Carnival With The Beat Mage is the follow up to A Day At The… with 1:1 remixes of each track, by various artists both on and off of Approaching Utopia: https://beatmage.bandcamp.com/album/a-night-at-the-carnival-with-the-beat-mage

    Prefecture Audio – dark ambient music

    I: Beach is the first release from Prefecture Audio. It’s mostly dark ambient and drones but there’s some lighter stuff in there, too: https://prefectureaudio.bandcamp.com/album/prefecture-audio-i-beach

    II: Swamp is the second release from Prefecture Audio and is darker and at times, harsher than Beach was: https://megabyteghost.bandcamp.com/album/prefecture-audio-ii-swamp

    We hope you find something you like.

    Our artists have the goal of making a living from their music. Every dollar counts!

  • Getting tired of your data being used? Me too.

    Approaching Utopia Newsletter 1.8

    It’s really frustrating to me that we keep hearing stories about our data being used without our permission. Here’s he latest one: IBM didn’t inform people when it used their Flickr photos for facial recognition training.

    I’m afraid to look and see if I even still have a Flickr account…I should just go look.

    Personally, I’m not even really comfortable with the thought of facial recognition in the first place. That’s why I removed all images of myself from Facebook as soon as they started that up. I replaced all my photos with glitched photos of me that were semi-recognizable to people, but didn’t trigger the “would you like to tag this person?” box.

    That said, my iPhone is still using facial recognition to organize my photos, so, /shrug-guy.

    Let’s get to some happier stuff!

    In GOOD news, we’ve got New Mexico becoming the third state to legally require 100% renewable energy. This is definitely kind of tough because on one hand, I don’t particularly care for the government forcing citizens to do something. On the other hand, I also believe this is ultimately good for everyone on Earth.

    I previously reported that sustainable energy is cheaper now. Ideally, government regulation wouldn’t be necessary because businesses and municipalities would both see that sustainable energy is better for everyone not just in the long run, but immediately now.

    Unfortunately, it seems that many are still invested in unsustainable resources and want to continue to milk it out as long as they can.

    Ever think you’re too old to start something new, like a new skill?

    This dude is 72 years old, now, but he started learning to make beats at 66. Now he’s producing well known music. Only 6 years of learning and practice. And past retirement age!

    Don’t ever tell me you’re too old for a new skill or hobby or endeavor.

    That’s all I got for you this week. See you next week!

    -Garrett
    ApproachingUtopia.com

  • Living your best life.

    Approaching Utopia Newsletter 1.7
    The newsletter is back this week with a focus on living a better life and contributing to the world!
    [Living] The Good-Enough Life
    The desire for greatness can be an obstacle to our own potential.

    Read More
    Education For Creators – Tiny Little Businesses
    If you create, you can change the world. Here’s how.
    Read More
    The A11Y Project
    A community-driven effort to make web accessibility easier.

    Read More
    Thanks for reading! – The Approaching Utopia Team
    Approaching Utopia, LLC ·
  • An Alternative Web Awaits Us

    Approaching Utopia Newsletter 1.6
    In this newsletter, we’re going to introduce you to the Fediverse, the concept of the IndieWeb (maybe not what you think), and some great advice based on how Leonardo Da Vinci lived his life.
    20 Life Lessons from Leonardo da Vinci
    We may never be able to match the talents of one of history’s greatest geniuses, but his life offers a wealth of lessons.

    We found this to be a very inspiring post to read.

    How great would it be if everyone in the world applied these principals to our lives?

    The IndieWeb is the idea and movement that we don’t have to leave all of our online data to corporate control.

    This site will give you the down-low on it, as well as how you can get started. Or, if you’re like us, get involved.

    A Fediverse Guide for those who have no idea what the Fediverse even is.

    It’s really cool. We love it, and we believe it is the future of the internet.

    Web 3.0?
    Thanks for reading! – The Approaching Utopia Team
    Approaching Utopia, LLC ·
  • Create without spending huge amounts of money

    Approaching Utopia Newsletter 1.5

    Really excited about this list we found today. 

    We’re looking into getting back into game design and development, and these tools could get us there.

    If links are what makes the web special, it’s up to us to make sure they work for everyone! 

    Gian delivers the last word in accessible links .

    Today we were reading an article about a hacker kid who made fake bomb threats and ran a DDoS-for-hire group that attacked protonmail servers at least once. 

    They were also ProtonMail users. 

    It turns out ProtonMail, our encrypted mail service of choice (and vpn) colluded w/ government(s) to catch him. 

    Is that okay? We did some digging.

    Thanks for reading! – The Approaching Utopia Team