Yes, it’s Bandcamp Friday again – the day where the folks at Bandcamp allow musical artists to keep 100% of all income generated from sales of their music.
Supporting independent musical artists is so important, especially now that Spotify has decided to stop paying any artists who have tracks that receive 1,000 or fewer plays. That’s estimated to be around two-thirds of the acts on the Spotify platform. So, if you’re an established artist with millions of plays, you’ll get paid. If you’re a small independent musician (like me), you’d almost certainly earn precisely nothing by being on the Spotify platform.
I think you’ll agree this decision not only sucks, but also shows just how much large streaming platforms hold the power in the music industry in 2024.
Getting people to listen to your music
There may be revival in some physical formats, such as vinyl records, CDs and cassette tapes, but the majority of us still listen to our music through a streaming platform, whether that’s Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music or YouTube Music etc.
But streaming platforms pay an incredibly small amount of money to their artists. Spotify, for example, pays between $0.003-$0.005 USD per stream.
So, if you were suddenly an overnight success and got 500,000 streams of your new tune, you still only make as little as $1,500 for all of those streams! When you consider that the average monthly rental price in the USA is currently $1,713, you can see just how impractical it is to be a professional recording artist in the 2020s.
Put simply, the vast majority of musicians just cannot afford to make music their primary job. It’s a hobby or a side hustle for most – but that means people having to work to pay their bills, and having less and less time available to write, be creative and record the next number one tune.
Nearly 80% of artists on Spotify have fewer than 50 monthly listeners. That means that, statistically speaking, hardly ANYONE is going to get enough followers and streams to meet the 1,000 plays threshold. So, the likelihood is that none of these artists will be paid AT ALL!
It’s what you might call an unsustainable model for supporting musicians, recording artists and the continuation of the music industry. Or to put it another way, streaming (and the greedy CEOs running the streaming platforms) are steadily killing the music they rely on to turn a profit.
Seems a little crazy, doesn’t it?
So, what can you do to help and support your local independent musicians?
Why buy your music through Bandcamp?
One major thing you can do to break this streaming monopoly is to support days like Bandcamp Friday. As a plaform. Bandcamp has a slightly more enlightened view on paying its artists.
There’s no sign-up fee for the free artists subscription to the platform. Instead Bandcamp takes 15% of all sales income you make from your music as an artist.
Once a month, on Bandcamp Friday, Bandcamp waives this 15% fee, meaning that independent artists, like me, get to keep all revenue that we generate. A major bonus, when you’re really only making peanuts from your music.
Although not strictly speaking a pure streaming platform, you can stream music from your favourite artists on Bandcamp. You get 3 x streams of a tune and then you’ll be asked to buy the artist’s track. You can buy the music as a digital download AND get unlimited streams of the tune through the Bandcamp app or website.
Some artists also offer physical formats like vinyl records and CDs, and merchandise like band t-shirts, giving you an even more tangible reason to go the Bandcamp route.
Support Bandcamp Friday today!
So, if you’ve enjoyed my music on Bandcamp, I’d love it if you could buy an EP or an album today – Friday 3 May 2024. Not only do I get to see which tracks and which albums are people’s favourites, I also get to generate some income to help me fund making more tunes!
Visit my Bandcamp page today and buy your favourite album
My new EP, Four To The Floor, is released today and features four tracks of trance, psytrance, house and techno music to delight your eardrums and get you dancing.
Listen to the tracks through the embedded links below and see which track takes your fancy.
Whether you’re into techno, ambient, drum & bass, tech house or downtempo grooves, there’s something there for everyone.
Support your local independent musicians today and support the future of new music!
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