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Too bad all these solutions have at least 3 middlemen before the artist... Credit card, processor, bandcamp... and then the whole label, distribution, and manag

Too bad all these solutions have at least 3 middlemen before the artist... Credit card, processor, bandcamp... and then the whole label, distribution, and management fees... its a great start, but as an artist, its only that. One person buying a tshirt, or coming to a concert makes me more than 100 internet store sales. Support your artist by seeing them live. And dance.

tomduncalf 8y ago
Yeah, I certainly don’t think this is the solution to the situation for artists these days. Just something to scratch a personal itch more than anything but I think it is interesting to think about ways it could expand into other ways of supporting artists (for example, live shows as you mention - I know Spotify does show these itself, but I like the idea of looking at your favourite artists from the last few months all in one place). But yeah, for those of us who live in areas where artists regularly play, there’s no substitute for going out and having a dance :)
deleted 8y ago
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KozmoNau7 8y ago
>"Support your artist by seeing them live" Yes, absolutely the best way to support artists. Provided they actually tour in your area, obviously. I see a couple hundred artists every year, most of my free time is organized around concerts and festivals. I do try to buy some merch at most concerts to support the artists, but I have way too many band shirts at this point, and no more room for posters/flags, so I wish artists would branch out more when it comes to merch options. I love making battle vests (working on my fifth vest at the moment), so I nearly always make sure to pick up a patch or two. But I absolutely wouldn't mind keychains or lanyards or pins/badges or something else. Short of that, I do buy a lot more music on bandcamp now than I used to. Bandcamp's cut is a flat 15% (or 10% if you surpass $5000 in sales), and I know Paypal takes a cut as well. But it's still vastly superior to the old record label ripoff scheme.
- rchaud 8y ago
  Album artwork can be really artistic and look great hung up in the home. Back in college, I would scour Ebay for "album release posters", which would be 36" x 24" in size and designed to be hung inside music stores. Seeing as how such stores are all but gone today, I'd like to see Bandcamp helping bands produce merch like that. Let the artists provide the artwork, while BC handles the printing and shipping to customers.
einr 8y ago
Very many artists don't play live, and of those that do, even fewer make any reasonable money from it... so failing that, Bandcamp is where it's at. As (also) an artist who sells on Bandcamp, I think their model is unquestionably the best and most fair yet seen in digital music sales. Yes, Bandcamp takes a cut, but they swallow the other fees you're talking about. Bandcamp takes their 15% (10% for physical releases/merch) and that's it. If you sell a digital album for $10, you get $8.50 in your PayPal account. It's really quite good.
baldfat 8y ago
Owned a small record label with two bands made it "huge." They made $7,000 a year on average while touring the world and selling a ton of merch and records. Not sustainable for two reasons 1) Sadly this is only available to a small percentage of your fans. I still think it would be best to have a Donation/Patreon 2) Touring is EXPENSIVE! It is grueling and is the second biggest reason why bands break up. First reason for breakups is recording sessions and man some people are pig headed and others are lazy and it just goes boom. Just get a donation system going. Think online busker. One of my favorite bands "Waterdeep" is a husband/wife band they basically travel around to do in people's living rooms concerts and they rest is paid for by donations. They both do a bunch of different things to get paid including recording engineer. https://www.waterdeep.com/about/ https://www.waterdeep.com/about/
- slothtrop 8y ago
  Yes as I understood it that's what Patreon is, longterm subscription for extra goodies. In my view however we're at this stage in part because the high saturation level of music artists in the market is unsustainable. Consumers can't and won't support that many artists such that they will all or mostly enjoy longterm success.
maldusiecle 8y ago
> Support your artist by seeing them live. And dance. Not actually a solution if you're not living in a location where lots of artists tour regularly. You don't need a label, distribution, or management fees to upload releases on Bandcamp. Lots of artists upload their own music directly, often including stuff that isn't available on platforms with higher barriers to entry.
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nicky0 8y ago
> buying a t-shirt, coming to a concert Aren't there also middlemen, credit cards etc, involved in those too? I'm sure a big part of ticket sales goes to the venue, and of t-shirt sales goes to the manufacturer.
dyeje 8y ago
There’s really only 1 middleman and it’s Bandcamp. Their pricing model is extremely fair considering all the value they deliver to the artist (website, SEO, discoverability, merchandise selling platform, payments, subscription packages, integration with record label, merchandise fulfillment tracking, discount code, private streams, etc, etc, etc). You’re always going to be dealing with processors with online, that’s just part of business.
jlarcombe 8y ago
For small bands, buying an album on Bandcamp is more lucrative than buying a concert ticket. Gigs sometimes break even but more often lose money at the lower end; venue hire, rehearsal rooms and transport add up and there are usually more people to share the meagre proceeds. 100 sales on Bandcamp is quite a lot of money, they only take 15% (a bit to PayPal too). It's a great platform.

tomduncalf 8y ago

Yeah, I certainly don’t think this is the solution to the situation for artists these days. Just something to scratch a personal itch more than anything but I think it is interesting to think about ways it could expand into other ways of supporting artists (for example, live shows as you mention - I know Spotify does show these itself, but I like the idea of looking at your favourite artists from the last few months all in one place). But yeah, for those of us who live in areas where artists regularly play, there’s no substitute for going out and having a dance :)

deleted 8y ago

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KozmoNau7 8y ago

>"Support your artist by seeing them live" Yes, absolutely the best way to support artists. Provided they actually tour in your area, obviously. I see a couple hundred artists every year, most of my free time is organized around concerts and festivals. I do try to buy some merch at most concerts to support the artists, but I have way too many band shirts at this point, and no more room for posters/flags, so I wish artists would branch out more when it comes to merch options. I love making battle vests (working on my fifth vest at the moment), so I nearly always make sure to pick up a patch or two. But I absolutely wouldn't mind keychains or lanyards or pins/badges or something else. Short of that, I do buy a lot more music on bandcamp now than I used to. Bandcamp's cut is a flat 15% (or 10% if you surpass $5000 in sales), and I know Paypal takes a cut as well. But it's still vastly superior to the old record label ripoff scheme.

rchaud 8y ago
Album artwork can be really artistic and look great hung up in the home. Back in college, I would scour Ebay for "album release posters", which would be 36" x 24" in size and designed to be hung inside music stores. Seeing as how such stores are all but gone today, I'd like to see Bandcamp helping bands produce merch like that. Let the artists provide the artwork, while BC handles the printing and shipping to customers.

einr 8y ago

Very many artists don't play live, and of those that do, even fewer make any reasonable money from it... so failing that, Bandcamp is where it's at. As (also) an artist who sells on Bandcamp, I think their model is unquestionably the best and most fair yet seen in digital music sales. Yes, Bandcamp takes a cut, but they swallow the other fees you're talking about. Bandcamp takes their 15% (10% for physical releases/merch) and that's it. If you sell a digital album for $10, you get $8.50 in your PayPal account. It's really quite good.

baldfat 8y ago

Owned a small record label with two bands made it "huge." They made $7,000 a year on average while touring the world and selling a ton of merch and records. Not sustainable for two reasons 1) Sadly this is only available to a small percentage of your fans. I still think it would be best to have a Donation/Patreon 2) Touring is EXPENSIVE! It is grueling and is the second biggest reason why bands break up. First reason for breakups is recording sessions and man some people are pig headed and others are lazy and it just goes boom. Just get a donation system going. Think online busker. One of my favorite bands "Waterdeep" is a husband/wife band they basically travel around to do in people's living rooms concerts and they rest is paid for by donations. They both do a bunch of different things to get paid including recording engineer. https://www.waterdeep.com/about/ https://www.waterdeep.com/about/

slothtrop 8y ago
Yes as I understood it that's what Patreon is, longterm subscription for extra goodies. In my view however we're at this stage in part because the high saturation level of music artists in the market is unsustainable. Consumers can't and won't support that many artists such that they will all or mostly enjoy longterm success.

maldusiecle 8y ago

> Support your artist by seeing them live. And dance. Not actually a solution if you're not living in a location where lots of artists tour regularly. You don't need a label, distribution, or management fees to upload releases on Bandcamp. Lots of artists upload their own music directly, often including stuff that isn't available on platforms with higher barriers to entry.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

nicky0 8y ago

> buying a t-shirt, coming to a concert Aren't there also middlemen, credit cards etc, involved in those too? I'm sure a big part of ticket sales goes to the venue, and of t-shirt sales goes to the manufacturer.

dyeje 8y ago

There’s really only 1 middleman and it’s Bandcamp. Their pricing model is extremely fair considering all the value they deliver to the artist (website, SEO, discoverability, merchandise selling platform, payments, subscription packages, integration with record label, merchandise fulfillment tracking, discount code, private streams, etc, etc, etc). You’re always going to be dealing with processors with online, that’s just part of business.

jlarcombe 8y ago

For small bands, buying an album on Bandcamp is more lucrative than buying a concert ticket. Gigs sometimes break even but more often lose money at the lower end; venue hire, rehearsal rooms and transport add up and there are usually more people to share the meagre proceeds. 100 sales on Bandcamp is quite a lot of money, they only take 15% (a bit to PayPal too). It's a great platform.