I learned about this platform when researching the latest anti-Spotify protest movement a few months ago. Apparently it’s supposed to be somewhat like Bandcamp but on an invite-only basis, and possibly locked down inside a mobile app à la Nintendo Music. As described, its structure is clearly meant to be a slap in the face to Big Tech but it also feels like a slap in the face to independent platforms like Wikipedia and MusicBrainz that rely on links to public-facing websites for sources of info about music. My reason for posting this here is twofold: thoughts and comments, and strategies for dealing with this platform moving forward if it ever launches and/or catches on. At least one major artist has announced his new music will be exclusive to the platform when and if it launches.
This is the first I’ve heard about it, but from looking around their site, I get the impression that they’re currently trying to grow slowly and figure things out before opening up more in the future. If that’s right, hopefully they’ll at least make the metadata MBz cares about public once they’re out of beta? It looks like it’s meant to have its decisions controlled by listeners and musicians. Dunno about listeners, but my impression is that most musicians want the public to know that their music exists.
If they intend to stay more closed but still get popular, I wonder if MusicBrainz could make something like The Wikipedia Library – Wikimedia Foundation and negotiate access to TheFlow’s catalog?
Through partnerships with more than 100 of the world’s top subscription-only databases, The Wikipedia Library, a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, gives Wikipedia’s most active editors access to knowledge resources in over 30 languages.