Indie Music Bus Artist Support for Bandcamp

Description

Indie Music Bus Artist Support for Bandcamp provides a native WordPress editor for curated collections of direct Bandcamp track and album links.

This is independent software. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Bandcamp. Bandcamp names and services remain the property of their respective owners.

Collections are server rendered and theme aware. A native block lets editors place one published collection inside a normal post or page. Editors add normal Bandcamp track or album URLs. On an authorized editor save, the plugin can resolve the official player from the public Bandcamp release page. Official Share/Embed code remains a manual fallback. Direct release links remain available without JavaScript. The plugin does not add analytics or autoplay media.

Optional personal item ratings use a whole-number 1 to 10 scale and default to private. Private ratings remain protected local metadata. Only ratings explicitly made public are shown or included in portable version 1 JSON, which supports review and sharing between compatible installations. New exports include an unsigned export marker. Imported identity, attribution, license, and permission claims remain unverified.

External services

This plugin can request a public Bandcamp release page when an authorized editor saves a direct track or album URL that has no validated local player configuration.

The request is used only to find the official Bandcamp embedded-player URL for that release. It sends the public release URL and ordinary HTTP request metadata to Bandcamp. It does not send collection notes, curator details, private submissions, WordPress account data, or visitor data. Successful results are cached locally for up to 30 days. Public collection views never request the release page. A shared player loads only after a visitor chooses to load it. When an editor enables per-release players, the visitor’s browser loads those Bandcamp iframes as they approach the viewport. Bandcamp then receives ordinary request metadata from the visitor’s browser. Players never request autoplay.

Bandcamp provides this service. Review Bandcamp’s terms at https://bandcamp.com/terms_of_use and privacy policy at https://bandcamp.com/privacy. If Bandcamp is unavailable or the response is not safe and unambiguous, the plugin stores no player configuration, preserves the direct release link, and shows the editor a warning. An editor may then paste official Share/Embed code as a fallback.

Privacy and data

The plugin adds no analytics, tracking, affiliate links, required backlinks, remote updates, or remote executable code. Collection posts, normalized collection data, private ratings, permissions, import-operation hashes, and editor recovery data stay in the site’s WordPress database.

Only an authorized editor save can request the exact public Bandcamp release URL for player resolution. Public views do not fetch release pages. A visitor contacts Bandcamp only by choosing a direct link, choosing to load the shared player, or reaching an enabled lazy per-release player. The plugin sends no collection notes, private ratings, account data, or visitor identity to Bandcamp.

Deactivation retains all collection data. Ordinary uninstall removes only plugin-owned role capabilities and the operational storage-version option. It retains collection posts and protected metadata so uninstall cannot silently destroy editorial work. Delete collections through normal WordPress editorial controls before uninstall if permanent removal is required.

Compatibility and maintenance

Storage migrations are additive, idempotent, and run during activation or version changes. Existing collections retain their public meaning. Portable collection JSON remains version 1, and other plugins must feature-detect the version 1 service before using it.

Each release is retested against the declared WordPress and PHP versions, the standalone theme boundary, and the documented neighboring-plugin matrix. A future deprecation or closure will be announced in this readme before support ends and will not silently delete retained collections.

Support and security

Use the WordPress.org support forum for ordinary help after directory publication. Send security reports privately to indiemusicbus@gmail.com and do not publish exploit details in a support topic. Include the plugin version, WordPress version, PHP version, and the minimum steps needed to reproduce the issue. Do not include private collection data or credentials.