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This is what I do. Use Spotify and YouTube Music (but mostly Spotify) for discovery, keeping up with releases and previewing music, while actual listening happe

This is what I do. Use Spotify and YouTube Music (but mostly Spotify) for discovery, keeping up with releases and previewing music, while actual listening happens locally with files purchased from Bandcamp et al. Artists that don't sell their music in this way tends to get a skip.

throwaway290 3y ago
I am friends with a music band and they told me that Bandcamp is scammy and takes insane fees on digital music sold. I was surprised because I like Bandcamp as listener and thought I support musicians directly They insisted that "80% to the artist" is a lie and those special Friday promos are somehow even worse. However they said they get almost all money from physical goods sales on Bandcamp so merch is a good way to support them. Any professional artist (aka music sales is your income) can confirm?
- tourmalinetaco 3y ago
  Interesting to know, thank you! Do your friends use any other service, say iTunes, to sell their music, and can compare between the two? And I’d be interested in a link to their Bandcamp if possible!
  - user_7832 3y ago
    Not the person you replied to, but apparently Deezer is waaay nicer with paying out artists than Spotify/Apple music. It's apparently due to how revenue is distributed (paying per total minutes played vs share of user-minutes or something, I'm not very clear.) Essentially with Spotify the vrey popular Tailor Swifts get a much nicer payment whereas if you listen exclusively to indie artists on Deezer they actually see more of your money. Fun fact, Deezer started off as a piracy website that grew big enough to turn legitimate when sued :)
    - throwaway290 3y ago
      Since you mention "per minutes played", not sure it compares with Bandcamp... If you like to buy HQ files instead paying for streaming. Could be that Bandcamp is ripe to be disrupted by someone more friendly to artists. Edit: good to know, I'll have to take a look at it.
      - tourmalinetaco 3y ago
        Deezer offers both a way to purchase and a way to stream music. They have a monthly subscription plan to stream their catalog alongside the ability to purchase outright and download in standard formats.
    - tourmalinetaco 3y ago
      Deezer has definitely caught my eye in the past! Them paying artists better is an even sweeter deal. And I love piracy-turned-legitimacy stories. For instance, Crunchyroll, originally an anime piracy streaming site, turned legit and eventually overtook a monolith in the US anime industry with Funimation. Funimation and Crunchyroll were both bought by Sony, and Funimation’s brand identity was deemed weaker (something unthinkable back during their 90s/00s peak) and had everything renamed to Crunchyroll. Unfortunately though I can’t recommend Crunchyroll, as last I was aware they heavily underpaid their subtitler staff.
  - throwaway290 3y ago
    They did mention Spotify is pretty bad too (worse?). I want to ask them later about the details and if they make any money from digital music. Sounded like they don't and it's mostly from merch, concerts and regular jobs.
- the_other 3y ago
  Hardly a pro, but I've sold exactly three copies of the one track I put on BC. I got a reasonable payout. BC definitely take a fee, but it's not "insane". I'm fairly confident that selling via BC gives artists a significantly higher % per item than selling through a label or physical media through bricks & mortar. The artist gets to keep 100% of copyright this way, too. The artist probably has less reach and lower volume of sales this way unless they're great with self promo or can get in with DJs/tastemakers in a scene. Happy to be schooled if I'm in error, but "scummy" isn't a word I'd use for BC.
  - throwaway290 3y ago
    > I'm fairly confident that selling via BC gives artists a significantly higher per item than selling through a label or physical media through bricks & mortar. Physical media is probably rounding error these days right? But from what I heard BC is good for selling physical merch including CDs and stuff, apparently it's transparent and most money goes to the artist. But surprisingly not with digital tracks. So I stopped promoting BC as a place to buy music to friends for now. The band I know now use some "distributor". From what I understood, distributor does a bunch of stuff mainly including promotion. What their distributor does, it seemed like a label to me but they say it's not a label... Again I have no idea but perhaps pros will know the difference.
  - throwaway290 3y ago
    By the way what's your BC if you are OK disclosing? I might buy the track if it's good (as I mentioned I use BC and if you say it works for you...)

throwaway290 3y ago

I am friends with a music band and they told me that Bandcamp is scammy and takes insane fees on digital music sold. I was surprised because I like Bandcamp as listener and thought I support musicians directly They insisted that "80% to the artist" is a lie and those special Friday promos are somehow even worse. However they said they get almost all money from physical goods sales on Bandcamp so merch is a good way to support them. Any professional artist (aka music sales is your income) can confirm?

tourmalinetaco 3y ago
Interesting to know, thank you! Do your friends use any other service, say iTunes, to sell their music, and can compare between the two? And I’d be interested in a link to their Bandcamp if possible!
- user_7832 3y ago
  Not the person you replied to, but apparently Deezer is waaay nicer with paying out artists than Spotify/Apple music. It's apparently due to how revenue is distributed (paying per total minutes played vs share of user-minutes or something, I'm not very clear.) Essentially with Spotify the vrey popular Tailor Swifts get a much nicer payment whereas if you listen exclusively to indie artists on Deezer they actually see more of your money. Fun fact, Deezer started off as a piracy website that grew big enough to turn legitimate when sued :)
  - throwaway290 3y ago
    Since you mention "per minutes played", not sure it compares with Bandcamp... If you like to buy HQ files instead paying for streaming. Could be that Bandcamp is ripe to be disrupted by someone more friendly to artists. Edit: good to know, I'll have to take a look at it.
    - tourmalinetaco 3y ago
      Deezer offers both a way to purchase and a way to stream music. They have a monthly subscription plan to stream their catalog alongside the ability to purchase outright and download in standard formats.
  - tourmalinetaco 3y ago
    Deezer has definitely caught my eye in the past! Them paying artists better is an even sweeter deal. And I love piracy-turned-legitimacy stories. For instance, Crunchyroll, originally an anime piracy streaming site, turned legit and eventually overtook a monolith in the US anime industry with Funimation. Funimation and Crunchyroll were both bought by Sony, and Funimation’s brand identity was deemed weaker (something unthinkable back during their 90s/00s peak) and had everything renamed to Crunchyroll. Unfortunately though I can’t recommend Crunchyroll, as last I was aware they heavily underpaid their subtitler staff.
- throwaway290 3y ago
  They did mention Spotify is pretty bad too (worse?). I want to ask them later about the details and if they make any money from digital music. Sounded like they don't and it's mostly from merch, concerts and regular jobs.
the_other 3y ago
Hardly a pro, but I've sold exactly three copies of the one track I put on BC. I got a reasonable payout. BC definitely take a fee, but it's not "insane". I'm fairly confident that selling via BC gives artists a significantly higher % per item than selling through a label or physical media through bricks & mortar. The artist gets to keep 100% of copyright this way, too. The artist probably has less reach and lower volume of sales this way unless they're great with self promo or can get in with DJs/tastemakers in a scene. Happy to be schooled if I'm in error, but "scummy" isn't a word I'd use for BC.
- throwaway290 3y ago
  > I'm fairly confident that selling via BC gives artists a significantly higher per item than selling through a label or physical media through bricks & mortar. Physical media is probably rounding error these days right? But from what I heard BC is good for selling physical merch including CDs and stuff, apparently it's transparent and most money goes to the artist. But surprisingly not with digital tracks. So I stopped promoting BC as a place to buy music to friends for now. The band I know now use some "distributor". From what I understood, distributor does a bunch of stuff mainly including promotion. What their distributor does, it seemed like a label to me but they say it's not a label... Again I have no idea but perhaps pros will know the difference.
- throwaway290 3y ago
  By the way what's your BC if you are OK disclosing? I might buy the track if it's good (as I mentioned I use BC and if you say it works for you...)