This is a follow up from something I wrote in 2020 titled The End of Ownership in a Digital Age where I discuss (ie complain) about what it means to "own" something in the modern digital age. I've recently experienced a kind of digital revocation of a purchase through Bandcamp - a company I've only had positive things to say about until now.
Some background: I prefer to buy DRM-free music so that I can play it on any device I choose and with any music program I wish to, which is why I absolutely adore Bandcamp. They provide not only legitimate DRM free music, but also make your purchases available in a variety of formats including FLAC, MP3, OGG, etc. From the artist side, Bandcamp only takes a 15% cut of the sale price while the rest goes directly to the artists. From my side, I get high quality DRM-free music without having to feel guilty about pirating. Everyone is a winner. Unfortunately, Bandcamp (and the artist) can renege on the deal whenever they wish.
On October 31st, 2025, my favorite metal band Despised Icon released their latest album Shadow Work. I did a typical search via a search engine and saw that it had been distributed through Bandcamp. I immediately ordered it, downloaded the lossless FLAC version, then converted it to 350Kbps OGG (the equivalent to a high quality MP3). A couple of days later I noticed that my conversion had some stuttering so I went to download a fresh copy only to discover that the album not only disappeared from my Bandcamp collection, but it was also removed from my order history despite having a record of the purchase via email and the funds removed from my bank account.
Now, one of a few things occurred. The record company (Nuclear Blast Records) changed it's mind about distributing on Bandcamp, in which case I believe I should still be able to download my purchase. This is something I believe Steam does with video games.
Another thing I've considered is that someone opened up a fraudulent account and uploaded Despised Icon's music library along with their latest album to make money off of a people (like me) trying to legally purchase music. If this is the case, I should receive a full refund on my purchase since there is no guarantee this is actually a legitimate copy, much less a legitimate LOSSLESS copy.
Unfortunately, this has soured some of the appeal of buying music via Bandcamp. What I find especially sketchy about this situation is that my purchase has been removed from my order history as well, and there's no trace that I had ever ordered this album in my Bandcamp account. The only proof I have is an email confirmation and a transaction in my bank account. The is reminiscent of a couple situations I've experienced in the past. A decade ago when I had bought a game via the Google Play Store, around a year later the developer pulled it and reuploaded it as a separate item. I don't know what their reasoning was, but I was no longer able to download and install it on my device without paying another $6.99. I reached out to the developer and all they did was email me the APK (thanks, I guess?). Also, back in the days of Google Daydream, I purchased the VR game Blade Runner Revelations and within a year I was no longer able to download/install the game, and the transaction disappeared from my purchase history. All links on the internet pointing to the Google Play Store page returned the error "We're sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server."
Regardless as to why this situation occurred with Bandcamp, this is yet another reason why I (and you!) should not only buy DRM-free content, but also store that content on a data storage device that you physically own. And in my case, keep the LOSSLESS version permanently backed up after it's converted to a different audio format. I am not an advocate of piracy, but it's situations like this as to why people do indeed pirate content.
In the last week, I have reached out to Bandcamp support directly via email twice and their support contact form twice, but have yet to receive a response. I'll update this post once I hear back.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to send comments, questions, or recommendations to hey@chuck.is.