Bandcamp/downloading?

[mjbphotos]

So, call me "old-fashioned', say "I'm over the hill" ... I still buy ALL my music on CDs.
Anyway, I put my 1st CD on bandcamp yesterday (2nd one was laready there) and offered it up for $2 (or whatever extra someone wants to pay) and a guy I know who's a local songwriter said he couldn't get it to work on his phone (he does everything on his phone).

So do BC downloads not work on smartphones, a special app is needed, or are there some settings I need to do on BC?

My first CD for $2

 

[fat_fleet]

I ain't clickin' no link of no band I never heard of. What do I look like, a sucka?

 

[mjbphotos]

I ain't clickin' no link of no band I never heard of. What do I look like, a sucka?

I don't know what you look like, you don't have any links to click on!

You don't have to click on the bandcamp link to answer the question (if you know the answer)!

 

[fat_fleet]

You don't have to click on the bandcamp link to answer the question (if you know the answer)!

I'm not sure...I only use my phone for the most basic internet stuff. I'll bet d/l'ing music with it would be pretty clunky, take a long time, and not really be worth the effort. Tell your friend to get a laptop! Or email it to him..

 

[Greg_L]

a guy I know who's a local songwriter

I'm sorry I don't have an answer to your question and I don't mean to go off topic, but this line jumped out at me.

Would you have said his profession if he were a barber or a plumber or anything but a "local songwriter"?

 

[ashcat_lt]

It never occurred to me to try to download directly from bandcamp to my phone. I've always downloaded it to my computer (where I keep all of my music, because it's 2014 ), and then transferred to my phone. Course, my phone starts with "i " and AFAIK iTunes is the only way to add playable music to it. I do know that their streaming app works fine on iPhone and this Android device in my hand.

According to this you can do it on and android phone, but you end up with a zip file, which Android can't unzip natively, so you need an unzipper (you know, like Winzip, but for Android) and then I guess it just works. I'm not going to try that with the Kindle because I don't really care that much.

 

[Pinky]

Did he download the music in FLAC or MP3? FLAC sometimes needs a third party app depending on what smartphone is being used. Best bet is to encounrage people to just download MP3s.

 

[Pinky]

BTW, you can also still offer physical CDs for sale through bandcamp. I even sold one recently!

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Mike, is the guy's phone an iPhone? What format was he downloading?

As far as I know iTunes have made themselves incompatible with FLAC, probably because it's free. Apple have come up with ALAC that iTunes can use. And iTunes seems to object to mp3 files if they don't come from some known/approved source, like ripping a CD directly into iTunes.

 

[mjbphotos]

I'm sorry I don't have an answer to your question and I don't mean to go off topic, but this line jumped out at me.

Would you have said his profession if he were a barber or a plumber or anything but a "local songwriter"?

Basically so it would be understood he knew what bandcamp was and how it worked.

I also suggested he download to his computer first. This guy also complained to someone else about using reverbnation and soundcloud because he couldn't listen on his phone from those sites easily. He's under the impression that 'everyone' gets their music on their phones these days, which may be mostly true (I don't know, I'm not in the demographic) for people under the age of 40.

 

[Armistice]

Basically so it would be understood he knew what bandcamp was and how it worked.

I also suggested he download to his computer first. This guy also complained to someone else about using reverbnation and soundcloud because he couldn't listen on his phone from those sites easily. He's under the impression that 'everyone' gets their music on their phones these days, which may be mostly true (I don't know, I'm not in the demographic) for people under the age of 40.

I'm getting looks of horror from the youngsters when I try to flog them CDs at the moment...

I guess the problem with people having a problem with tech is that they're usually pretty useless at describing it in sufficient detail to allow someone to make a diagnosis of the problem and suggest a solution. "It doesn't work.... waaaaaah!" Pretty common around here even, let alone in people who just consume with tech and don't create with tech like we do. I'm sure whatever it is, bandcamp have come across it before - perhaps they have the answer on their FAQs or elsewhere... good luck.

 

[mjbphotos]

Maybe it's my old eyes, but I can't imagine perusing web pages on a little iphone screen. Sure you can zoom in on pieces of it, but, give me a big ol' screen to see the whole page any day.

 

[chuckduffy]

If it's an iPhone the only way in is via a synced library, or iTunes on phone purchases, but if he owned an iPhone he would know that so I guess not. Other phones let you download to the local filesystem on the phone and add to a library. Most people I know manage their files on a computer then drag them to the phone, but I am old. From what I see lately with my kids - it's streaming. Rdio, Spotify and Pandora.