Funkwhale - A federated, decentralized (ActivityPub) libre alternative to Soundcloud

[Basslint]

Officiale site: https://funkwhale.audio/
Example instance: https://open.audio

Now the question: should we start our own instance?

[JimiPb]

Thanks a lot for sharing this! I think this is the route to go for me. Setting up a instance with all of your music available and a paypal link for donations.

A LinuxMusicians radio is also a cool concept!

[GMaq]

Hi,

I'm not sure exactly what context you intend to use this in but I find that 'audience fragmentation' is never helpful.. Many of us post on Youtube the most ubiquitous platform available on every available device and it is a real accomplishment to get 100 plays wordwide...

I put stuff on Spotify/Apple/Google/etc/etc. because even many family members already find it too cumbersome to find and install Soundcloud and if it takes more than one click it just ain't going to happen... "people don't know what they like, they like what they know" so in my opinion if Soundcloud is too weird and obscure for most people outside of geekdom, than how much less probable to get exposure and plays is putting stuff on something like FunkWhale...?

[Basslint]

Hi,

I'm not sure exactly what context you intend to use this in but I find that 'audience fragmentation' is never helpful.. Many of us post on Youtube the most ubiquitous platform available on every available device and it is a real accomplishment to get 100 plays wordwide...

I put stuff on Spotify/Apple/Google/etc/etc. because even many family members already find it too cumbersome to find and install Soundcloud and if it takes more than one click it just ain't going to happen... "people don't know what they like, they like what they know" so in my opinion if Soundcloud is too weird and obscure for most people outside of geekdom, than how much less probable to get exposure and plays is putting stuff on something like FunkWhale...?

The things are not mutually exclusive, you could upload your tracks both to Funkwhale and Youtube

One problem that Youtube has is centralization and it's becoming more and more problematic. Just to name some issues related to it:
1. If your Google accounts get permabanned, your possibilities to appeal it are limited (https://www.androidauthority.com/google ... d-1054640/)
2. If your songs get tagged 18+, people will need to have a Youtube account to listen to them. In Europe, this requires uploading your ID, which is as privacy-invasive as it gets (https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/22/2144 ... n-creators)
3. Youtube already supports DRM, and it's only up to them to enable it via default (https://old.reddit.com/r/opensource/com ... videos_in/)
4. Youtube has automatic machine-learning-based content identification, which can mistake your music for copyrighted music. If you play some Bach, your music might get flagged for copyright infringement (https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwkbad/ ... ilters-are)
5. Now that youtube-dl is being actively taken down, it will become harder and harder to use Youtube without proprietary software, which might be legal in some countries or even required to comply with the Creative Commons licenses (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/g ... erican-law)

Soundcloud is better but I don't like the way it compresses audio and I think it has the problem of centralization. It also performs poorly on my GNU/Linux+Firefox combo. I think Funkwhale (or in general, federated services) is the only sustainable way to share music in a social network.

Funkwhale works via HTTP so sharing a song is as easy as sending a link, like this (random song I found on a Funkwhale pod) -> https://open.audio/library/tracks/99451/

[LAM]

@Basslint
Interesting, this could be a good candidate for publishing some works. I agree 100% on what you wrote on Youtube (and similar platforms).

[jonetsu]

As far as popular platforms are concerned I only post to soundcloud at the moment, although I'd like to eventually 'open up' to be able to receive money from people who appreciate what I create. Not looking at much but if in a year it allows me to buy some firewood for winter, I'll be very happy. As such I'm looking for other popular platforms, with perhaps a dedicated web site. Although I have no precise plan at the moment nor do I know much about how to go at it. Although it seems that I'll be offering better arrangements and mixes for paid material.So my question is:

If a version of my creations are up for money/donations somewhere, is it still possible to post it on funkwhale, or is the concept of getting anything in return for the hours one is spending on creating totally frown upon ?

[jonetsu]

5. Now that youtube-dl is being actively taken down, it will become harder and harder to use Youtube without proprietary software, which might be legal in some countries or even required to comply with the Creative Commons licenses

Regarding youtube, adverts are now the norm. They sneaked them in and now they're there to stay. Which often means using youtube-dl to first download the video. Since they haven't figured how to embed adverts into download material. The very, very worse is adding full audio/video adverts when music is playing. This is so disgusting. It happen now and then.

Yesterday I updated youtube-dl w/o any problem. I use the -U switch. I always update youtube-dl when there's a problem downloading. Looks like youtube is playing a cat and mouse game

[GMaq]

To clarify..

I am no fan or defender of Youtube (or Soundcloud or any of them really). I don't prefer these platforms because they are popular I was merely acknowledging that due to their ease of use and popularity they are (unfortunately) a somewhat necessary vehicle if your interest is to get your content out to the largest number of consumers at no cost.. If that's not your aim or goal then indeed go with whatever you like!

That said Youtube is certainly doing daily damage to itself and it's original mandate of giving everyday ordinary folks a platform to do their thing is fast becoming a dim memory... but there still isn't anything coming close to providing that kind of platform-agnostic opportunity for exposure...yet

[Basslint]

If a version of my creations are up for money/donations somewhere, is it still possible to post it on funkwhale, or is the concept of getting anything in return for the hours one is spending on creating totally frown upon ?

Sure, you own the copyright for your music so you can post it anywhere you like. You can sell it on Bandcamp and then share it on Funkwhale, or maybe have a "donate" button in your Funkwhale page (of course, the instance owners should allow this, it doesn't really depend on Funkwhale but on who manages the server).

To clarify..

I am no fan or defender of Youtube (or Soundcloud or any of them really). I don't prefer these platforms because they are popular I was merely acknowledging that due to their ease of use and popularity they are (unfortunately) a somewhat necessary vehicle if your interest is to get your content out to the largest number of consumers at no cost.. If that's not your aim or goal then indeed go with whatever you like!

That said Youtube is certainly doing daily damage to itself and it's original mandate of giving everyday ordinary folks a platform to do their thing is fast becoming a dim memory... but there still isn't anything coming close to providing that kind of platform-agnostic opportunity for exposure...yet

Don't worry, I understood what you were saying I largely agree with you, even. But I think the stake is too big and if we play our cards well today, maybe in 5-6 years things like Funkwhale will be more mainstream.

Mastodon for example became more popular after the mainstream social networks started banning people. I think decentralized, standardized technology is the most sustainable and rational and in the long run it's going to win, even if I suspect it might be made illegal in the future in some countries because of lobbyism and power.

[Basslint]

Just wanted to share a thing about Youtube. Today I tried to listen to a song posted on here and Youtube showed me the usual "Sign in" and "I agree" prompts. On Firefox, it just wouldn't let me click "I agree". I opened the same song from Falkon (Chromium-based) and the video started, then I went back to Firefox and "I agree" worked.

I don't know if that was a temporary bug or not, probably so, but Chrome's near-monopoly on the web is also a good reason to avoid Google services entirely. These micro-bugs on Google sites effectively can make a person use Chrome instead of Firefox, strengthening its dominance.

[christobal]

I'm a big fan of the whole decentralized nature of activitypub tbh. All of Mastodon, Peertube and Funkwhale are really cool projects.

A LinuxMusicians instance would be pretty cool. How does Funkwhale handle file storage? Peertube uses torrents afaik.