The Future of the Beloved Bandcamp Platform
CEO and co-founder of Bandcamp Ethan Diamond envisioned a thriving community where artists and fans interact with each other, inspired by MySpace. Since its launch in 2007, Bandcamp has been successful in attracting over five million independent artists and record labels as well as fans who want to support them directly.
However, since 2022 Bandcamp has had three ownership changes and both artists and fans are uncertain about its future. In 2022, the founders sold off Bandcamp to Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite, and just recently to Songtradr, a music company focused on licensing.
Bandcamp is a beloved platform that provides artists and labels with a large sum of their sales, enriches the consumer with niche musical knowledge, and cultivates an engaging community of music creators and enthusiasts. With that in mind, this community reflects on what is at stake and the many resources this well-loved platform offers.
Bandcamp is a unique alternative to other streaming platforms that revolve around popular artists. While artists receive $0.003-$0.005 per stream on average on Spotify, artists receive 80–85 percent of their sales from fans buying merch, vinyl, and digital goods. Artists get paid via PayPal and Bandcamp receives 10–15 percent of the sale. According to Bandcamp’s website, “In the past year alone, they’ve spent $193 million on 14.2 million digital albums, 9.95 million tracks, 1.75 million vinyl records, 800,000 CDs, 350,000 cassettes, and 50,000 t-shirts.”
When the pandemic started, Bandcamp wanted to support artists more than ever since tours were canceled and many were nervous about how they could still earn money. As a result, they started Bandcamp Fridays which are days where it waives its revenue share to fully support the artists. During Bandcamp Fridays, an average of 93 percent reach artists compared to the average of 82 percent that reach artists on any other day. The nine Bandcamp Fridays in 2020 generated $40 million for artists and since then, over a million fans have brought in over $100 million.
Apart from the generous financial support, Bandcamp also spotlights rising artists, provides spaces for international and underground musicians, and presents rich descriptions for artists, songs, and albums. With specific filters, niche genres, and countless tags, Bandcamp is the perfect tool for music discovery. It is a breath of fresh air that sets itself apart from music streaming giants that focus more on promoting music and artists that are played every 10 minutes on the radio. On Bandcamp, you can discover music for every mood and vibe, even making it possible to expose people to unknown sounds that are practically unheard of such as dungeon synth, acid techno, and powerviolence.
Shortly after the music licensing platform Songtradr purchased Bandcamp, half of the staff that made up Bandcamp were laid off. Songtradr explains, “Over the past few years the operating costs of Bandcamp have significantly increased … After a comprehensive evaluation, including the importance of roles for smooth business operations and pre-existing functions at Songtradr, 50 percent of Bandcamp employees have accepted offers to join Songtradr.” While Bandcamp’s worker union tried getting signatures for a petition in hopes of negotiating with Songtradr for them to offer jobs to all employees, Songtradr stated that they would not be offering all of them jobs. The employees work to improve and preserve the Bandcamp community by illuminating rising artists on Bandcamp Daily, promoting music discovery and bridging the gap between artists and fans.
Bandcamp is like the cool middle child that is often overlooked by others when it is actually a treasure. It is precisely its communal landscape that makes artists and fans devoted to protecting it and maintaining its essence for the future. For now, we can only wait for what its new owner, Songtradr, has in store for Bandcamp and whether they are driven by profit or Bandcamp’s values.
Photo Courtesy of Bandcamp
