Jolley FrankieFor almost 15 years Bandcamp has been one of the most popular resources for independent musicians from all over the world.
WHAT IS BANDCAMP
Bandcamp is a music service through which artists and labels can sell their records and merch themselves (without the help of distributors). Bandcamp ideology and business model is radically different from most other streaming services: in fact, a Spotify subscriber does not own music, but only gets access to a catalog of records, whereas a Bandcamp user buys songs and other content. According to Bandcamp founder Ethan Diamond, buying digital or physical goods builds the strongest possible bond between artist and listener – a true fan is always willing to support their favorite musician financially if given a convenient interface.
In fact, Bandcamp offered every artist in the world a multiplication of Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” case (in 2007, the musicians put the album on their own site, offering fans to buy it under the “pay what you want” scheme). And it worked: the platform quickly became popular among independent musicians and four years after its launch, in 2012, it reached the break-even point (in comparison, Spotify showed its first ever profit only in the third quarter of 2018, and technically this profit was due to an investment in Tencent Music).
Bandcamp provides musicians with a simple but very straightforward service. The artist creates their own page, uploads their own releases, puts merchandise on display and sells it, automatically receiving money into their PayPal account. Bandcamp’s commission is 15% on digital merchandise and 10% on merchandise, and the money arrives in the artist’s PayPal wallet 1-2 days after payment. In March 2020, at the very beginning of the prolonged concert industry crisis caused by COVID-19, Bandcamp announced the Bandcamp Friday initiative: the first Friday of every month, the service would charge no commission for goods sold for 24 hours. This campaign rallied the community of independent musicians around Bandcamp even more.
BANDCAMP KEY MECHANICS AND BENEFITS
Even though Bandcamp became a part of US publisher and developer Epic Games in 2022, the core idea of the service has not changed. In 14 years, no other music startup has offered such a universally accessible and balanced solution for any independent artist to set up a “music store” on their own.
MUSIC WITHOUT LOSS OF QUALITY
Customers on Bandcamp can buy music in any format – not only MP3, but also WAV, FLAC, AIFF, ALAC, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, and more – so they can get music without compression, which is very important to audiophiles and artists alike. Spotify subscribers, for example, do not have this option because the streaming service’s Hi-Fi function has not yet been launched.
FREE PRICING
The artist sets the price of his product independently. Bandcamp marketplace does not affect the price of the product in any way: you can offer users to download your track for a dollar or ten, or you can give it away for free. By shopping on Bandcamp, the customer sees a minimum price, but can pay more – and often puts extra money in the artist’s wallet (on average, Bandcamp customers pay 10% more than the artist asks). An artist can give away a track for free altogether, charging a price of zero dollars, but requiring listeners to leave their email address, for example (which can be used in the marketing campaign for the next release).
COMMUNITY BUILDING
Bandcamp is largely inspired by the concept of classic record stores: it’s not just a business story, but also a community of geek collectors and desperate music lovers. Alternative music fans from all over the world gather here, they take a close look at the liner notes on the records, discuss them among themselves, review them, and are proud of their rare purchase. Bandcamp users are, as a rule, open to everything new, are solvent, and have a habit of buying records.
MORE INFORMATION
Record producers have long said that streaming apps don’t allow artists to tell their listeners the story behind a song. The interface of many apps is limited to the soundtrack and release artwork and does not provide any data about songwriters, lyrics, recording members or other important aspects. With a digital release on Bandcamp, artists mimic the vinyl edition of an album as much as possible. In the description of your recording, you can include full liner notes (a list of the recording participants, what instruments someone played, in what studio and in what years the track was recorded, say thanks to friends and parents), add lyrics for each song, and publish a manifesto or press release. Moreover, you can insert a real multi-page booklet into your release by simply adding a PDF file to the zip-archive with the tracks. The latter option is actively used by modern composers, who distribute sheet music of their compositions through Bandcamp.
MERCH
Half of Bandcamp’s total gross revenue comes from a variety of merch. The service has been lucky enough to catch the wave of vinyl fashion and, observing the rising demand for physical media, Bandcamp has even launched a crowdfunding service: any artist can pre-order a vinyl edition of their work and if they collect at least 250 pre-orders for their LP in 30 days, Bandcamp will print and gently distribute their vinyl to all customers. Besides vinyl, you can sell literally anything – CDs, t-shirts, posters, bracelets, stickers, poetry collections, and so on.
TRENDS
Bandcamp actively follows the trends – during the pandemic, the developers opened up the possibility for artists to hold online concerts directly on the platform and launched the option Artist Subscriptions (analog of Patreon).
At the same time, in some ways, the service remains a “thing in itself” and turns away from the mainstream too radically. Perhaps a deal with Epic Games will solve a number of accumulated problems (e.g., a clearly outdated website) and add new features and capabilities to the Bandcamp toolkit.
TOP TIPS FOR MUSICIANS
Musicians who are going to open their own store on Bandcamp should take a close look at the detailed (and sometimes ironic) instructions for artists – using this guide you will find answers to all your questions and will not experience any problems with the personal account interface. We’ll focus on the most basic recommendations, neglecting which can seriously reduce the potential success of your release.
Think about visual communication
Think well about the entire design. As with any streaming service or regular music store, Bandcamp users look at the cover art of the release first. Also, think about the design of your store, all of which will add to the appeal of your “storefront”. Pay special attention to physical product images.
Subscriptions are really important here.
Clicking the “follow” button on an artist’s page engages the user in a much stronger communication with the artist than on any other social network. The Bandcamp app subscription feed is not algorithmic, but chronological; you can follow not only your favorite artists and labels, but also genres, cities, and any other hashtags. And you can also subscribe to a Bandcamp user and keep track of what music purchases they’ve made this week.
Hashtags are really important, too
Hashtags are a basic principle of music cataloging in this never-ending music store. Musicians assign their own tags and determine the genre of their music, Bandcamp doesn’t adhere to the conventional (and rather rigid) list of genres in streaming. Bandcamp allows you to tag your music as “doomer,” or “drill,” and through such hashtags your album will reach a more niche and targeted audience than if you shelve your music as “alternative rock” or “hip-hop” (as would happen with a streaming service).
Fill out all the data fields
Write a short description of your music project, provide links to your social networks, add your concert schedule (via Songkick integration), add lyrics, mention recording participants, and hashtags. Bandcamp gives artists the freedom of data management that’s worth taking advantage of.
Make a release on Bandcamp part of your campaign.
Bandcamp is often referred to as the “anti-spotify,” but artists can integrate the service into a classic release campaign for their record on more popular streaming platforms. Just like Spotify with Apple Music, Bandcamp allows you to pre-order a record, a link to which you can add to your presave link. When the release comes out, don’t forget to add the Bandcamp link to your smartlink priority list.
Get behind the counter.
Musicians don’t often stand behind merch themselves at concerts, don’t know much about sales, and they rarely even think about retail marketing – Bandcamp provides a great opportunity to practice that art.