Musicians love Bandcamp because it gives them instant access to their fan base and puts the power of selling their music in their hands instead of a record label’s. It’s like an indie artists dream come true.
Music fans love Bandcamp because there’s an incredible array of artists from every genre and from around the world at their fingertips and they can instantly purchase their music, which is usually very reasonably priced.
But musicians now have all the more reason to appreciate Bandcamp. According to a new report from Billboard, as of Wednesday, 6th April, Bandcamp has doled out more than $150 million to its artists since 2008.
Just to be clear, this is not the total revenue that Bandcamp has raked in. This figure represents the actual money going into the pockets of artists – an impressive figure for an independent music platform.
According to Billboard, Bandcamp brought in $4.3 million in the last 30 days, thanks to its one million registered fans, who love the site for its super-transparent and artist-friendly business model.
‘Million’ isn’t a word you’d typically associate with Bandcamp, but the platform is a major resource for countless indie musicians. Bandcamp takes just a 15 percent cut of digital items and 10 percent on physical items.
Of course, that $150 million isn’t a whole lot once you divide it amongst the artists, but there are many true Bandcamp success stories out there, such as Canadian musician Zoe Keating, who claimed she earned $42,527.54 in 2014 from Bandcamp.
Closer to home, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard recently managed to sell more than 1,500 copies of their new album in less than two hours via the platform – it’s a shame those sales don’t get counted by ARIA.
