Bandcamp
Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker,[1][2][3][4] with headquarters in Oakland, California.[5] Acquired by Epic Games in March 2022, the company was sold to Songtradr in 2023.[6]
Not to be confused with Bandicam.
Type of site
2007
Oakland, California, U.S.
- Ethan Diamond
- Shawn Grunberger
- Joe Holt
- Neal Tucker
Shawn Grunberger (CTO)
Music streaming, music purchasing
- Epic Games (2022–2023)
- Songtradr (2023–present)
Business model[edit]
Artists and labels upload music to Bandcamp and control how they sell it, setting their own prices, offering users the option to pay more,[22] and selling merchandise.
Users can download their purchases or stream their music on the Bandcamp application or website only once or, by preserving the purchase voucher, unlimited times. They can also send purchased music as a gift,[23] view lyrics, and save individual songs or albums to a wish list. Uploading music to Bandcamp is free. The company takes a 15% commission on sales made from their website, which drops to 10% after an artist's sales surpass US$5,000, plus payment processing fees.[24]
Downloads are offered in lossy formats MP3 (LAME, 320k or V0), AAC and Ogg Vorbis, and in lossless formats FLAC, ALAC, WAV and AIFF.[25] In addition to digital downloads artists may offer to sell their music on physical media such as CD or vinyl.
Bandcamp's website offers users access to an artist's page, with information on the artist, social media links, merchandising links and listing their available music. Artists can change the look of their page and customize its features.[26]
Charity[edit]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 Bandcamp announced that they would be waiving their share of revenue and donating all sales to artists for 24 hours on March 20.[27] They repeated the initiative in the following months[28] and began calling these days "Bandcamp Fridays";[29] they are scheduled once every month and the website Is It Bandcamp Friday?[30] was established to provide timing clarity to those outside the Pacific Time Zone. After raising more than $40 million for its musicians in 2020 through Bandcamp Fridays, the platform extended the program to four additional dates in 2021.[31]
In response to the protests that took place following the murder of George Floyd and other African Americans who had died from police violence, Bandcamp announced that for 24 hours on June 19, 2020 they would donate 100% of profits to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.[32]
Notable artists and labels[edit]
Bandcamp gained much attention in July 2010 when Amanda Palmer, Low Places and Bedhed gave up their record labels and started selling albums on Bandcamp, using Twitter for promotion.[33][34] Will Toledo initially released his 2011 studio album Twin Fantasy on Bandcamp.
Several indie game developers published their game soundtracks on Bandcamp, including the creators of Aquaria, Bastion, Cuphead, Sanctum, Machinarium, Terraria, Plants vs. Zombies, Limbo, Super Meat Boy, To the Moon, YIIK: A Postmodern RPG, Fez, Minecraft, Undertale, Deltarune, and Stardew Valley.
In December 2014, Bandcamp for Labels was launched. Popular independent labels such as Sub Pop, Fat Wreck Chords, Relapse Records and Epitaph Records launched their own Bandcamp pages.[35] In November 2019, Peter Gabriel added his complete solo catalog to Bandcamp.[36] On June 18, 2020, Björk published her discography on the platform.[37] In December, UK label Warp joined Bandcamp; this made records by Hudson Mohawke, Aphex Twin, Kelela and other artists available on the platform.[38] On October 21, 2021, Radiohead published their discography on the platform.[39]
Bandcamp Daily[edit]
In the summer of 2016, their editorial content was expanded by launching Bandcamp Daily, an online music publication about artists on the platform.[40][41] The publication is based in New York.[5] Its managing editor is jj skolnik, a writer for Pitchfork, BuzzFeed and The New York Times, as well as former author of punk zines.[42] Among Bandcamp Daily's columnists have been writers of Wired,[43] Vice,[44] NPR Music,[45] Pitchfork[46] and Paste.[47]
On August 4, 2017, the staff of Bandcamp Daily donated all of the day's sales proceeds to the Transgender Law Center, a civil rights organization for transgender people.[48]
In February 2018, the audience of Bandcamp Daily had increased by 84% since the previous year.[41][49]