After reading and thinking more… I got to a different conclusion than yesterday. Creating a Funkwhale instance (or any free alternative) as a reaction to the Bandcamp situation is likely to solve no problems and cause frustration to the artists joining and the project promoters. Why?
Decentralization? The Fediverse offers true decentralization, very good to federate specialized communities (i.e. free music produced with Elektron devices) but (imho) not to build alternatives to big centralized platforms like Bandcamp or Soundcloud. Most people wanting a “decentralized” platform today, what really want is decentralized governance of a centralized platform.
A new project? Artists willing to try Mastodon, Funkwhale, Peertube, etc, can do so today, and there are plenty of welcoming instances to choose from. There are also many other projects (open source and not, community driven and not) that these days want to establish Bandcamp / Soundcloud / etc alternatives. Some of them have several people volunteering work for years, some of them have semi-professional or professional structures and funding behind. Some might have connections in the music industry and knowledge about the specific law, payment platforms, etc.
Selling? Most artists concerned about the Bandcamp situation are concerned about “the last record shop”. The word “shop” is very important here. They are interested in selling their music, no matter to how niche audiences and for how small quantities. The Fediverse won’t solve the selling part today, especially not the traditional “selling by item” paradigm. Other paradigms like memberships, patrons, donations… are closer to the ethos and current tech trends of the Fediverse. Here too, if there are artists willing to try these models, they can do so already trying existing platforms, no need to wait for a new project coming from this discussion.
For all these reasons… I’ll continue contributing my bit to the Fediverse instances I’m a member of. I keep being interested in promoting Funkwhale / Peertube specialized instances bringing more artists to the Fediverse, but with the understanding that they have their reasons to exist unrelated to current events on commercial platforms.