I started sharing my music on Bandcamp in 2009 as well and I recognise another person in your staff photo! Ben Walker is a lovely chap.
Thanks for this excellent piece. Huge Bandcamp fan here, I think a lot of people don’t remember or weren’t around when it was impossible to sell your songs directly to fans. I owe a lot to Bandcamp!
As you’re the artist lead are you the person I can contact to ask questions about this new royalty stuff? I emailed help months ago and got nowhere.
Fun read! And love the photo from 2019 with the team. Y’all continue to give me hope. As an indie label every avenue of the music industry is swimming upstream. Bandcamp is pretty much the only one that’s enjoyable to be in.
Great advice and fun backstory. I’ve also created “reasons” for being in town and having coffee. Go where the Universe takes you. Now subscribing. Cheers!
Bandcamp is, to my knowledge, the only place musicians can show and sell their works. Yes, it reminds me of MySpace, but it’s much more than that.
The way musicians are mistreated and exploited by editors (I’ve worked with the 3 big ones!) it’s like we, the creators of what they sell and get filthy rich from, owe them something and not the opposite.
But there’s a much more dangerous thing about editors. The way they shape their catalogues to the fast selling commercial music, the more fast selling the better, leaving out new projects that can bring novelty and impressive stuff, molds music into commercial commodities forgetting music is, first of all, ART!
There’s where Bandcamp makes all the difference, creating space and a showcase to independent artists to present their work.
That’s why I, after 5 albums, decided to launch my latest work exclusively on Bandcamp and through Portuguese FNAC stores, and only now, after 9 months, did I send the album to the digital platforms only for promotional purposes.
Bandcamp is the way to go.
Just hope you can keep up the good work and don’t get bought by some big tech shark, like MySpace was.
Great article - thank you! And REALLY timely, I was just planning to get started on Bandcamp. I look forward to reading more here and thanks for the nudge!
Remember The Peoples Music Store? Early forerunner to Bandcamp. It was fun but didn’t quite take off. I think it was a programmer from Bleep who started it.
I started sharing my music on Bandcamp in 2009 as well and I recognise another person in your staff photo! Ben Walker is a lovely chap.
Thanks for this excellent piece. Huge Bandcamp fan here, I think a lot of people don’t remember or weren’t around when it was impossible to sell your songs directly to fans. I owe a lot to Bandcamp!
As you’re the artist lead are you the person I can contact to ask questions about this new royalty stuff? I emailed help months ago and got nowhere.
Sure! Drop me a DM
Never understood why Bandcamp doesn’t offer something other than PayPal for artist payouts. ACH, someday, please…
It’s being worked on right now! Moving to stripe later this year.
Fun read! And love the photo from 2019 with the team. Y’all continue to give me hope. As an indie label every avenue of the music industry is swimming upstream. Bandcamp is pretty much the only one that’s enjoyable to be in.
❤️
Great advice and fun backstory. I’ve also created “reasons” for being in town and having coffee. Go where the Universe takes you. Now subscribing. Cheers!
Thank you!
Respect to you Aly loved reading about your trip to today
Nice one Lee!
Bandcamp is, to my knowledge, the only place musicians can show and sell their works. Yes, it reminds me of MySpace, but it’s much more than that.
The way musicians are mistreated and exploited by editors (I’ve worked with the 3 big ones!) it’s like we, the creators of what they sell and get filthy rich from, owe them something and not the opposite.
But there’s a much more dangerous thing about editors. The way they shape their catalogues to the fast selling commercial music, the more fast selling the better, leaving out new projects that can bring novelty and impressive stuff, molds music into commercial commodities forgetting music is, first of all, ART!
There’s where Bandcamp makes all the difference, creating space and a showcase to independent artists to present their work.
That’s why I, after 5 albums, decided to launch my latest work exclusively on Bandcamp and through Portuguese FNAC stores, and only now, after 9 months, did I send the album to the digital platforms only for promotional purposes.
Bandcamp is the way to go.
Just hope you can keep up the good work and don’t get bought by some big tech shark, like MySpace was.
Take care
Thanks for sharing!
Great article - thank you! And REALLY timely, I was just planning to get started on Bandcamp. I look forward to reading more here and thanks for the nudge!
Nice insight!
🤘🤘🤘
Remember The Peoples Music Store? Early forerunner to Bandcamp. It was fun but didn’t quite take off. I think it was a programmer from Bleep who started it.
I don’t remember that! I remember Topspin which came just after BC but didn’t last.
Happy ten year anniversary Aly! Love your work.
My label Art As Catharsis will be turning 15 later this year. Bandcamp is the reason I started it. I was really taken with the model.
Congrats on the milestone!
https://substack.com/@biffogram/note/c-283739321?r=517e8&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
This is fantastic