Local Files Club is now on itch.io

I’m excited to share that our first three Local Files Club releases—plus our special crossover with the Sleep With Me podcast—are now available on itch.io. Itch is primarily a marketplace for independent video games, but it hosts digital creations of all kinds: books, comics, assets, music, and anything else that can be distributed via files.

You can find them all on our Itch storefront. You’ll get all the same bonus materials as you would on Bandcamp and a choice between MP3 or FLAC audio. Prices are in USD, great for Americans who don’t want to deal with credit card conversions.

Our next release, LFC-004, will launch on Bandcamp and Itch simultaneously.

It’s always been my intention to gradually expand beyond Bandcamp. I’m not a Bandcamp doomer by any stretch—the platform has maintained its core promises and features over the years, and there are no indications that this will change in the near future—but it’s never a good idea to keep all of your eggs in one basket. With multiple sales to various companies over the years, all with varying levels of interest in improving the platform, Bandcamp’s future stability is not a given. Platforms can deteriorate rapidly, and no one wants to be stuck looking for a lifeboat while the ship is sinking.

So, why Itch and not one of the many new sites that have cropped up looking to claim Bandcamp’s mantle?

From a technical perspective, it’s an extremely open marketplace. You can sell just about any file type on Itch, and product pages are highly customizable. It was easy to set up pages that showed off our amazing artwork and featured all of our press quotes and credits. And on the money side, they can handle worldwide sales tax, which relieves what can become a big compliance headache.

Culturally, Itch is full of users who appreciate experimental fiction, role-playing games, and independent artists. Granted, there’s not a lot of audiodrama being sold on itch, but the types of people who like audiodrama are there, buying visual novels, zines, and TTRPGs. So it feels like a natural place to try and meet people where they’re at.

I’m continuing to explore new storefronts and platforms for Local Files Club releases. Any place that allows you to sell DRM-free audio files is on the table. Keep an eye out for more announcements on this front soon—and if you have any requests or suggestions for future platforms, let me know!