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On a related topic, Bandcamp does something right. Until I first heard of it, I had very rarely bought music (I was born in the early 90s), and very often just
by jrimbault 9y ago
On a related topic, Bandcamp does something right. Until I first heard of it, I had very rarely bought music (I was born in the early 90s), and very often just downloaded it. Which meant manually (or automating) tagging of tracks.
But Bandcamp feels fair, I pay the artist/band the amount they wish or I wish to, and in return I get flac files I own with correct id3tags.
(Maybe it's just that Bandcamp was made when I started getting revenue, two unrelated events that just happen to coincide.)
- tzahola 9y agoSame here. Bandcamp is the best, but I’m afraid they’ll be ruined by big money at some point.
- xfer 9y agoThis is already happening. I bought an album(Requiem for my friend by Zbigniew Preisner) from bandcamp couple years ago. Now i wanted to buy a new album but the artist is not publishing lossless music on bandcamp anymore. It's all the big streaming providers.
- tzahola 9y agoYuck...
- sguav 9y agoWith my band, we have experienced though that there is (should say was, 2015) not enough visibility, so we opted for big streamers which ripped the money off us, but allowed us to be heard more widely.
- jackgolding 9y agoI do a massive amount of work with indie bands in Melbourne and Bandcamp/Physical Records/Merch is the only way a lot of them make money (other than the rare big show). Most tours lose money.
- chx 9y agoThis is strange, I remember some (ok, many) years ago a truism was predatory contracts stripped musicans of income from their albums but tours made the money. Maybe even then it was merc? I dunno.
- whatusername 9y agoDepends on the size of the band. That might be true for the big bands playing to thousands. Also — touring around Australia is expensive.
- KozmoNau7 9y agoAnd it's prohibitively expensive if they decide to try playing outside of Australia. Just ask Ne Obliviscaris, who can only do it because they started a Patreon and their fans pitch in extra.
- maaark 9y agoTours makes money by selling merch.
- KozmoNau7 9y agoWhich is why my closet is absolutely packed full of (metal) band t-shirts. I want to support the artists, so i usually get one if I liked the show, but sometimes I wish they would get more creative with merch options. I know there's an upfront cost and focusing on t-shirts is a pretty safe option. But I just love it when they get creative with patches, stickers, hip flasks, rings, belt buckles, skulls, necklaces, booty shorts, all kinds of stuff. It may be a little bit odd, since I usually don't like obvious branding and advertising, but doing something different will absolutely make me consider buying more merch.
- chx 9y agoBandcamp is incredible. There are tracks, albums on Bandcamp which are not on YouTube, which, let's face it, is quite rare. And yes, the fact I can support beautiful music makes me happy. I want to support these artists so they make of more of these beautiful tracks.
- jonathanstrange 9y agoAlthough I like Bandcamp, it's in a sense an even bigger rip-off than traditional labels. They get hefty shares for merely offering you a pre-designed web page and hosting. The vast majority of artists on Bandcamp make no money. The problem is like with all alternative distribution channels - if you actually want to sell your music, marketing is more important than the music itself and very few people have the ability and time to do the creative work and the marketing at the same time. If nobody knows about your music, nobody will buy it. It's the same with self-publishing platforms for books. Traditional publishers have all the marketing channels already set up, so marketing is easier and more affordable to them than for startups, let alone individual artists.
- pjc50 9y ago> hefty shares 15%, or 10% if you're really successful. That means 85% of the money goes to the artist. This is better than e.g. Steam and the app stores, and far better than the old physical-media based sales.
- icebraining 9y agoPayment processing fees are not included, so it's more like 80%.
- KozmoNau7 9y agoThat is still significantly better than any record label contract those bands could hope for.
- jrimbault 9y agoI think most (in the 95% sense) artists don't live of their art. Most of them have "real job". I think Bandcamp is fair in that it enables all those people to make their production available and get something, however small, for it; and enables other people to find art which would otherwise not be accessible. All in all I think it's a cultural plus for the world.
- williamdclt 9y agoIf I remember right, Bandcamp keeps 15% of all purchase. That felt like a lot when my old band were trying to sell our music on this platform!
- KozmoNau7 9y agoIt's significantly less than a record label would take. Think of it as a payment you make, instead of a cut taken from your earnings. If you don't sell anything, you don't pay anything.