Bandcamp as Sam Goody

Just had a random thought:

If streaming is the hyper-capitalist next stage of radio (payola scams & all), then Bandcamp (and its alternatives) in 2026 is the at-scale equivalent of a Sam Goody or Tower Records in the early 2000s.

Every artist has their music in the listening station & you can listen to almost as much as you want, but there is a clear/obvious way to directly patronize the artist, rather than a conglomerate-owned system where you barely influence what you hear, rules are opaque, & the artist always loses.