The clock strikes midnight. #BandcampFriday starts trending on social media. Artists begin to rally the troops and direct their fans to their Bandcamp. But, aside from the hashtags and social media posts, what is it really like for artists, especially independent artists, to leverage initiatives like Bandcamp Friday to pay the next rent, rehearsal or recording session?

This is not a tale about the Taylor Swifts of the music industry. Neither is it a sensational story for clickbait. Far from it. It’s something many artists, including yours truly, experience on a daily basis.

My relationship with Bandcamp started mainly because of my band ĠENN. In 2023, we released our debut album, unum, fully independently. When no one wanted to bet on us or our sound—which fuses psych-rock, post-punk and art-rock, with a hint of Mediterranean folk—we decided to release our album ourselves, on our own terms. 

We’re all working class, so we largely depended on grants, our day jobs, money from touring, and our community to make it happen. In an industry where even bands signed to major labels are struggling to make ends meet, we were still adamant that we were going to release our debut album at all costs. Call it blind faith. Call it stupidity. Call it passion.

Our community and Bandcamp were the key to releasing an album that even managed to enter the UK charts! In the last 48 hours before the charting period closed, we rallied our Bandcamp community to buy our album and share it with other music fans, so that we increased our chances of actually making it to the charts.

Sure, we didn’t land the number one spot by any means. But for us, charting meant that we could prove to ourselves and an industry that’s traditionally not very representative of people who look like us that we can push the envelope and actually be commercially viable.

It’s not only our story, however. For the self-described “four arms, four legs, two heads, wood, metal and plastic” noise rock duo JOHN, Bandcamp has been integral to their staying power and strong community.

“Bandcamp became a real central landing spot for our followers from the beginning – especially as a band who could not afford to set up other online stores or distribution at the time,” said John Newton, JOHN’s drummer, vocalist and manager.

“During the pandemic, in lieu of live dates, we made concerted efforts to create limited products that could help fund writing and recording of our third record Nocturnal Manoeuvres. Bandcamp were probably one of the few companies that consciously stood up for artists (not even the UK’s government did) – something that helped slightly soothe the mental anguish of lost opportunities and income. It helped create a monthly moment, and it was heartening to see an upsurge in Bandcamp support from our fan base off the back of the unplanned circumstances.”

It’s a sentiment that psych-rock outfit Codex Serafini agreed with. “As an independent experimental creative musical entity, it feels like most companies value their profits over the people making the content.

“Bandcamp is the only music platform that allows you to set your worth and charge a fair price for your output. Bandcamp Friday has helped even more with its waiver of fees. When you can release new music or merch to coincide with this, it can make a huge difference.”

Goya, the artist moniker of Abhishek Sekhri, a New Delhi-based record producer and electronic artist, told me that many of his peers use Bandcamp, and particularly, Bandcamp Friday, to promote their wares and support their music careers. “I love Bandcamp for the artist-first space it offers, both in terms of listening experience and their model for payments,” he said.

“I really like how it promotes listening of albums/compilations by artists, rather than playlists, which takes me back to old days when we used to hear music through cassettes/vinyl – which is the best way to get to know about an artist’s sound.”

In an era where metrics reign supreme, and where independent artists need to hustle to the point of burnout, there’s a general consensus among these artists that Bandcamp’s community and artist-first approach serves as a respite in an otherwise challenging and cut-throat industry. 

“Independent musicians like us don’t have huge marketing budgets, so we rely on our community and need to be able to connect directly with our fans – which we love as our music is so personal. It’s also been amazing to meet people who have discovered us on Bandcamp,” said Naz, from the London-based alternative rock band Dogviolet.

“When we started this band, we knew we wanted to share our music on Bandcamp before any other platform. Bandcamp allows us to connect directly with our fans who buy our music and merch in a way that the major stores and streaming platforms don’t.”

Despite being a Bandcamp rookie, lo-fi creep rock artist and songwriter Cordelia Gartside mentioned she “couldn’t exist as an artist without direct to fan marketing.”

“It’s how I sell most of my music, it’s how I raised the money to record my debut album. It’s easy to underestimate how much tricky social media algorithms can prevent people who want to support us from seeing our music. So having direct access to those people, as you do on Bandcamp, is rare and precious.”

Sure, Bandcamp Friday is just one piece of the big puzzle that’s the music industry. However, by leveling the playing field and putting artists’ pockets first, it sets a precedent that can create a more equitable music industry – one that uses technology to push artists forward, rather than hinder them even further. As beacons of innovation, hope and entertainment in the best of times and the worst of times, that’s what artists truly deserve.

– Janelle Borg

Check out the author’s Bandcamp page here: genntheband.bandcamp.com

We’re excited to share that we have made improvements to our private streaming tool:

Bandcamp Pro subscribers can now create and name links for any private album or tracks. These links have no strict playback limits, but we do let you know when there’s a high volume of traffic in a short period of time (just in case).

Sharing your private albums and tracks are great for:

• Reaching out for PR coverage for an upcoming release
• Sharing a track or album early with your super fans
• Getting feedback from a close knit group

Now that you know longer need to rely on email to share a private album or track, there’s a whole new world of distribution open to you. Of course you can still send email, but how about sending a link to your subscribers? Sharing on a hyper specific discord? Shoot a text with a link to your mom?

Once your links and tracks are out in the world, we’ve also introduced more insights, so you can see both the number of visitors and number of visits.

If you’re curious on picking up Bandcamp Pro or learning more, we’ve got a page for that.

We’re excited to share the new and improved way to shop for music and merch in Bandcamp’s marketplace: bandcamp.com/discover.

We’ve just made it easier to shop for everything from CDs and vinyl to t-shirts and cassettes in the same place, whether you’re on your phone or computer. Now you can explore Bandcamp’s vast and diverse musical universe by genre, category, or artist location in a few clicks. Want to buy a t-shirt to support your favorite Florida death metal band, or explore the latest alternative coming out of Singapore? Discover will help you navigate the hundreds of thousands of releases and merch items on Bandcamp to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Coming Soon: Tag Searching and Combinations

We’ve been listening to your feedback! Soon, you’ll be able to create much more specific searches by combining genres. That “ambient bagpipe” Bandcamp crate digging session you’ve dreamt of is just around the corner.

In the meantime, you can point Discover to your favorite genre via the search box at the top of the page.

How to Help Fans Find Your Music via Discover If You’re an Artist or Label

• Choose a featured track that you’d want potential new fans to hear first when your releases appear on the Discover page. 
• Select a genre on your profile, and tag all of your releases. You’re more likely to show up in the search results of your future fans by doing this.
• List all of your merch on Bandcamp, so you can reach our community of millions of music fans who want to support artists and labels directly.
• Add enticing photos of your merch – items with great images tend to sell best.

Songtradr, a music licensing platform and marketplace company supporting artists, labels, and publishers, has acquired Bandcamp from Epic Games. 

Bandcamp will continue to operate as a marketplace and music community with an artist-first revenue share. Songtradr will also offer Bandcamp artists the ability and choice to have their music licensed to all forms of media including content creators, game and app developers, and brands. This will enable artists to continue to own and control their music rights, and increase their earning capacity from Songtradr’s global licensing network.

To read the statement in full, visit songtradr.com.

Today we’re excited to announce Listening Parties –  a new way to celebrate and build support for your album on Bandcamp.

It takes a lot of hard work to finish an album, and even more work to win your fans’ attention during a release campaign. Listening Parties are here to help! They let you and your fans listen to your album together in real time. Fans can ask questions, share reactions, and buy the album directly from the event. Whether you’re premiering a pre-order, celebrating release day, or commemorating a classic, a Listening Party is a fun and organic way to share your album with your most supportive fans.

Listening Parties are the ideal companion to a new release, so we made it easy to schedule an event directly from the album editor. Just set a date and description of the event, and we’ll take care of the rest. We notify all of your followers, and at showtime the album plays from start to finish automatically. All the tracks, artwork, and merch that you’ve already uploaded to the album are featured, and fans can wishlist or buy the album in all available formats without leaving the party. 

To check it out for yourself, log in to your artist account and visit the album editor or +add menu. You can even preview a draft event if you just want to test the waters. Listening Parties are free to host and attend. You’ll find featured events on the homepage, and even more on the Bandcamp Live schedule page. We hope you enjoy!

Today, a majority of eligible Bandcamp workers voted 31-7 in favor of forming Bandcamp United, a union represented by the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU). The vote results now await certification by the National Labor Relations Board, with a collective bargaining process to follow.

Below is a joint statement from Bandcamp co-founder Ethan Diamond and Bandcamp United:

“Bandcamp United and Bandcamp management are committed to working together to continue to advance fair economic conditions for our workers and the artists who rely on us. We look forward to negotiating with an open mind and working in good faith to promote the best interests of all of our staff and the artist and label community we serve.”

Contact: press@bandcampunited.org; press@bandcamp.com