Example instance: https://open.audio
Now the question: should we start our own instance?

Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz
The things are not mutually exclusive, you could upload your tracks both to Funkwhale and YoutubeGMaq wrote: ↑Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:22 pm 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...?
in mix, nobody can hear your screen
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.
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).
Don't worry, I understood what you were sayingGMaq wrote: ↑Wed Nov 18, 2020 2:09 am 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
I totally like the idea... but.
We're now around 5 years later and it's still unknown, at all.
Even Mastodon... I got to know about it only 2 weeks ago.
And guess what, there's nothing happening there.
I registered on a couple of platforms since short, Pixelfed, BlueSky, Mastodon, FunkWhale,... but none of my friends or family even knóws about these things, let alone that some would have an (active) account there.
I now added a lot of random unknown people there to follow, just to see some activity coming up.
I really like the idea of FunkWhale though, just added a first song on it today.
But it was already pretty difficult to get it there, I had to watch a how-to video... and then I managed to get it online, but not possible to find the song when searching in the database of music. Apparently I uploaded it the wrong way, there it starts already, people will unhook.
@tseaver mentioned to have a pod for us Linux Musicians on FunkWhale, that would be a nice thing too. But it needs to be hosted on a server by someone, or a paid VPS or something like that:
viewtopic.php?p=168216#p168216
Another question that arises is: what's the audience.
Are there statistics about who are the current listeners on FunkWhale? There is no mainstream music, so you won't attract mainstream audience.
It's already difficult to find a listener on BandCamp or SoundCloud, I mean, why would the average Joe go to FunkWhale?
I guess the people who use FunkWhale are just using it as a backup storage or NAS for their (personal) music so they can play it somewhere.
The problem is these federated services don't really address the main problems with social media sites. In that, you don't own the space. Most of them require you to have a hosting that is not inexpensive and you require a decent amount of knowledge of run. So, you have these situations where people are signing up to funkwhale "pods" or mastodon instances like. I have an account with fosstodon but there's nothing to stop the owner of fosstodon terminating my account in the same way as elon musk can just one day decide to mess with a twitter user
Hosting stuff on your own website is far better, as control over your own space goes. Shared hosting is much more affordable and it's far easier to set up things that can work on it. If you want a place to backup, nextcloud can be installed on shared hosting and is really good. Static web site generators like jekyll and hugo for making easy to update websites with RSS Feeds.
I should probably find or sort out some proper info resource about this.
Largos wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2025 3:33 pmHosting stuff on your own website is far better, as control over your own space goes. Shared hosting is much more affordable and it's far easier to set up things that can work on it. If you want a place to backup, nextcloud can be installed on shared hosting and is really good. Static web site generators like jekyll and hugo for making easy to update websites with RSS Feeds.
Yesterday I came around YunoHost, that also offers easy installation of lots of applications like FunkWhale.
There was a free plan, and paid options. But I didn't look at the details. Probably, the free plan is that limited that you soon come to a point where your data or bandwidth exceeds its limits and you need a paid plan.
A shared hosting is also not 100% continuation assured.
My internet provider, where I have been a customer for over 20 years, offered free web space, 50Mb, peanuts, but ideal for a mini website consisting of a few pages html and other stuff.
For years I had this website full of info, where regular visitors came back to.
Until a couple of years ago they just stopped offering that, and all the customers lost their hosting.
Their reasoning was that their customers could just host their data and pictures elsewhere, on free google drives or blogs and so.
I stopped with the site as I didn't want to port it elsewhere again, as I was a bit demotivated and was about to quit my webdesign hobby for other reasons.
Anyway, I'm soon going to leave that provider, I can get the same internetservice a lot cheaper, in a package for my phone and other family members, but that's another story.
Now that I think about it, I feel the fire again... to create another st00pid website again, from scratch in Notepad++.
bulevardi wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2025 2:04 pmI totally like the idea... but.
We're now around 5 years later and it's still unknown, at all.Even Mastodon... I got to know about it only 2 weeks ago.
And guess what, there's nothing happening there.
I registered on a couple of platforms since short, Pixelfed, BlueSky, Mastodon, FunkWhale,... but none of my friends or family even knóws about these things, let alone that some would have an (active) account there.I now added a lot of random unknown people there to follow, just to see some activity coming up.
I really like the idea of FunkWhale though, just added a first song on it today.
But it was already pretty difficult to get it there, I had to watch a how-to video... and then I managed to get it online, but not possible to find the song when searching in the database of music. Apparently I uploaded it the wrong way, there it starts already, people will unhook.@tseaver mentioned to have a pod for us Linux Musicians on FunkWhale, that would be a nice thing too. But it needs to be hosted on a server by someone, or a paid VPS or something like that:
viewtopic.php?p=168216#p168216Another question that arises is: what's the audience.
Are there statistics about who are the current listeners on FunkWhale? There is no mainstream music, so you won't attract mainstream audience.
It's already difficult to find a listener on BandCamp or SoundCloud, I mean, why would the average Joe go to FunkWhale?
I guess the people who use FunkWhale are just using it as a backup storage or NAS for their (personal) music so they can play it somewhere.
You keep saying that nothing is happening in the Fediverse. I explained to you why you are experiencing this. But despite what you say, and what you feel, you are completely incorrect. The Fediverse rewards you for the effort you put into it. Just in the last two days, I've had interesting conversations with both Peter Kirn and Jyoti Mishra. I've got several friends from all around the world that I've known for several years, and we chat all the time. I've got so many posts that I can't read them all. I get most of my computer news from the Fediverse. I've put my time in to find interesting people to follow, and I enjoy their posts. If you Pooh Pooh on it all, after only a couple of days, and with only following a few people, it is no wonder you have a bad experience with it. The Fediverse is like Karma--what you put into it is what you get back. Put some time into finding interesting people to follow. Follow a lot of people. Chat with them. Contribute by post things interesting to you so that people will actually want to follow you. Did you write an interesting profile so that people will have an interest in following you? I can tell you that you haven't yet put in the effort to gain from the Fediverse. There are no algorithms--just the way I like it. The service is not going to figure out what you like and then shove it in your face. You need to get things a fair shake before you can diss it. I will say again it is a busy, active service.