But in the face of an increasingly dominant streaming industry, is it enough? Rich Band, Poor Band Thankfully, in 2020 Bandcamp was there to funnel some money back into musicians’ pockets. For musicians, it offers something else entirely: a gamed system that favors that already successful. In just nine days, the company paid their musician users a reported $40 million.įor listeners and investors, Spotify offers that eternal promise of capitalism: infinite growth for one low, low price. Throughout 2020, Bandcamp held nine of these Bandcamp Days, in which for 24 hours they waived their standard cut of 15% on all music sales, and 10% on all merch. “On May 1, 2020, we did it again,” he continued, “and fans paid artists $7.1 million-amazing!” The amount paid out to musicians on that day alone: $4.3 million. “On March 20, 2020, we waived our revenue share in order to help artists and labels impacted by the pandemic,” Diamond wrote. In an article titled, “Support Musicians Impacted by the Covid-19 Pandemic,” Bandcamp co-founder Ethan Diamond touted some of his company’s recent accomplishments. The same month, a company right here in the Bay Area issued a very different message to its users.

Bandcamp artist sign up