We were sad to see the organizer for Chiptunes=WIN call for the silencing of three women in Chiptune. All three have contributed immensely to the medium.

The first two are people who have consistently pushed for inclusion in Chiptune.

They have advocated daily that organizers and leaders should be considerate of women, people of color, and LGBTQIAP2+ groups when putting together Chiptune events.

These sentiments are incredibly valuable to the chiptune scene, which has historically been dominated by cis white men.

These groups are addressing very real struggles. Silencing those voices is irresponsible of anyone who wants chiptune to be accessible and enjoyable. It’s irresponsible of anyone who intends to listen, respect, and support those historically marginalized.

Chiptune leaders, and leaders in general should be valuing the input of women and marginalized groups who vocalize issues that are unique to them and others like them.

The third person, @chipzel, is mentioned because of her criticism of the 6 month exclusivity contract related to ChipWIN’s yearly compilation albums

& highlighting that a hierarchical structure, with no income to the artists or contributors is an exploitative system and that vague community guidelines allow for easy silencing of genuine concerns

It’s well known that artists can’t release their accepted tracks elsewhere for 6 months after release. We agree that it is a weird policy, and exploitative for the period to last that long because the artists aren’t paid anything for their music.

Even artists who consistently provide tracks to ChipWIN don’t see a cent for their work. This would make sense if ChipWIN was small or new, but it’s not.

Chiptunes=WIN has been around for over a decade and earns plenty each year through Patreon, compilation albums, and whatever else. With all this cash coming in, where does that money go?

We’ve yet to see a complete answer to that question and I genuinely hope ChipWIN money is going to a good, appropriate place.

Unfortunately we only know where that money doesn’t go: the composers and writers that keep ChipWIN running.

Unpaid writers of ChipWIN are required to procure high-quality articles every month, which are often an extensive investment, among other requirements and restrictions. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QcA-OU6nz0WOowTV4c0L5YJANWfHTbZLwOamSs967d0/edit?usp=sharing

We also know that there is a list of people who writers aren’t allowed to talk about - many of the people are on the list because they said something mean about ChipWIN.

After Volume 6, someone who wanted to highlight songs that didn’t make it into that year’s volume was pressured into not doing so because it could be used to make ChipWIN look bad.

While we respect the motivation to have a positive vibe around your name and to write amazing articles about chiptune, this is way too much.

“WHOLE ASS OR NO ASS AT ALL” is an incomplete policy for unpaid scheduled work, and these filters leave room for only certain kinds of writers and only certain kinds of stories.

The articles that writers for the ChipWIN blog create are amazing. These people should be supported and loved for their underrated contributions to the chiptune medium.

One retired writer has struggled to write ever since, hurt that they worked so much for a blog that has blocked them without a word. They feel they largely served ChipWIN more than themself or the artists they promoted. Other writers have at times expressed feeling sucked dry.

ChipWIN’s poor response to criticism, be it from Chipzel or others, is worrying because a lot of critics just want ChipWIN and/or chiptune as a whole to be the best it can be.

But even people who are a part of their community are being pushed out for advocating for change. Just recently, their moderator @Auracle was removed from the community.

In his words: “Joined the mod team to advocate for inclusion and diversity. Called out a lack of support for inclusion and diversity. Got removed”

Auracle was and is a ray of hope for many. As a ChipWIN mod, he prevented many marginalized or hurting people from giving up on chiptune because of his outspoken support.

This is not an isolated example of pushing out critics either. Earlier this year people were banned/blocked from the community for similar reasons. (twitter saying this is too long, will continue in a rt)

One writer pointed out that the Volume 8 judge panel was all white cis men, and that there were people being uplifted in the community who made the environment more hostile to women.

Auracle and others who shed light on these issues should be celebrated, not removed. These observations started important conversations that, if considered respectfully, could have led to a big change in how the chiptune scene treats its creatives.

What’s more worrying is - and we’re speaking for a lot of others we’ve talked to - many people are seeing these practices as a pattern.

When people who advocate for better conditions for minorities are repeatedly pushed out, that looks like a pattern.

When both musicians and artists are repeatedly pressured to supply quality, exclusive content for free, that looks like a pattern.

When organizers and promoted artists repeatedly appear overwhelmingly white and male, that looks like a pattern.

Organizations are defined by their patterns. ChipWIN isn’t an exception. Listening to people who struggle under these systems will do better than pushing them out.

While A Bit of Chiptune was promoting grassroots organizations in Minneapolis in support of BLM protestors, Chiptunes=WIN was kicking the staff member who most vocally fought for minorities.

A Bit of Chiptune has been working to be the best we can be to our artists, musicians, creatives, etc. But we are tiny relative to ChipWIN and don’t serve as the dominating model.

We want Chiptunes=WIN and all other netlabels to be self critical of their systems and to provide a platform to groups who feel underprivileged rather than pushing those groups out.

Chiptunes=WIN has an atmosphere around itself that makes it seem untouchable. The phrases Chiptune scene and Chiptunes=WIN are often used interchangeably. This community mentality, which is self created and self affirming, leads to a variety of issues.

Some musicians who submit to the yearly comps say that they are exhausted or drained (echoing the writers) by the ChipWIN submission process, but have no other good option for promoting themselves.

They furthermore mention issues with the system, but only in DMs or private chats. They’re afraid to bring this up with the organizers for fear of removal or having their music rejected.

A big part of that fear is the monolithic nature of ChipWIN’s image. If you see ChipWIN as the heart of the chip scene, then you start to see removal as a banishment from chiptune altogether.

People in our community have been exchanging messages of all kinds saying that they’re afraid of speaking up but consider it the right thing to do, which is why we choose to use this platform to speak for those collective voices.

There’s a great deal of uncertainty around what will happen after this statement. We hope that anyone reading, regardless of position, will consider these thoughts. They are, in many ways, a compilation of different voices organized into one thread.

We would like to thank those of you who are fighting for a better Chiptune, as well as those of you who aren’t, but wish for it. I encourage discussion if you choose to partake in it. DMs are always open as well to those who need to talk.

As an additional note, these statements were written yesterday and are not intended to address the events of this morning. Nonetheless these points are INCREDIBLY RELEVANT to what's going on this morning.

For context, some events this morning before the post, after the writing.