Bandcamp Fridays Earned Musicians $40 Million in 2020
Back in March, to help musicians amid the coronavirus pandemic, Bandcamp announced a special promotion. On certain days, the Internet music company would waive its percentage cut in selling artist's songs and albums on the service. Now nearly a year out, that effort has distinctly paid off.
The initiative earned musicians $40 million in 2020. That's money that went right to performers thanks to the nearly 800,000 fans that participated in the sales during the first Friday of each of the last nine months. It did so well that Bandcamp has decided to further extend Bandcamp Fridays.
As noted in a Dec. 15 update from the outlet, Feb. 5, March 5, April 2 and May 7, 2021, will also serve as Bandcamp Fridays. The promotion will resume while musicians continue to attempt to make ends meets before large, in-person concerts come back. (Live shows will hopefully be back by summer.)
$40 million is a fair amount of dough to be shared among music-makers. After the first Bandcamp Friday (on March 20), artists on the site had already earned $4 million of that. It's enough to persuade one to save their Bandcamp purchases for such days, although the service encourages fans not to wait.
"If you've started to feel guilty about buying music on any day other than Bandcamp Friday," the company says, "here's something to keep in mind: on Bandcamp Fridays, an average of 93 percent of your money reaches the artist/label (after payment processor fees). When you make a purchase on any other day of the month … an average of 82 percent reaches the artist/label. Every day is a good day to directly support artists on Bandcamp!"
You can say that again. For metalheads, heavy bands such as Code Orange, the Black Dahlia Murder, Pallbearer, Unleash the Archers and more release their music to Bandcamp. Listeners can also find prominent metal labels such as Metal Blade, Relapse and Southern Lord.
So get ready to again spend on plenty of worthy Bandcamp artists come February, March, April and May. (Keep in mind, though, that one Friday gets skipped: There won't be a Bandcamp Friday on Jan. 1, 2021.)