Mirlo.space is working on federation too. I think they're not as far along in that regard, but further along in terms of being a bandcamp replacement? Last I heard, anyway. I buy stuff from there, payment works.
A lot of public libraries offer access to ReferenceUSA through your library card. I vaguely remember that queries are pretty customizable on there, and exportable to various formats. Despite the generic name, it's specifically for businesses. Would that work?
Oh geez that's tricky... My first instinct is to say Towa Tei's Sunny, the entire album. But the thing is, half of what I love about it is the nostalgia about how much I loved it the first time, and where I was when I listened to it. So maybe it'd be better to pick something you might've liked better under other circumstances? In that case... Hmmm... I'd say the audio drama Spines.
I can't say that the ability to follow individual people is really something I care about, but coming from Piefed, it does seem to work just fine. So does Peertube and any of the other ones I've bothered to try.
My prior Lemmy instance (lemmy.one) is abandoned and slowly losing functionality, and I had to find somewhere new to move, so I figured... why not PieFed? I like if so far! Seems to be playing well with the other thread platforms, hopefully I'm doing it right.
Feel free to post your work if you get back into textiles again!
Mirlo.space is working on federation too. I think they're not as far along in that regard, but further along in terms of being a bandcamp replacement? Last I heard, anyway. I buy stuff from there, payment works.