Bandcamp.com. Who's using it?
My label is making the leap into physical product/paid downloads, instead of the free mp3/netlabel model of our past (though we'll probably continue to do a mix of both models). We had pretty much settled on using cdbaby.com to get our music onto itunes, amazon, and all those other high-traffic, fancy web stores.
But the more we look at using bandcamp as our storefront, the more sense it's starting to make: no upfront fee, a smaller cut than itunes/etc., more flexibility with pricing, lead time, presentation, and format, we can integrate physical sales on the same page as downloads. The downsides are that we wouldn't be under the "big tent" that a larger store provides - but we're a niche label, and i'm not sure how much we'd benefit from that. We're probably better off relying on our own promotional efforts, than the "stumble-upon" effect of a big store.
What do you guys think? Have you had any experiences with bandcamp, good or bad? I know of few people here have releases there. Is it worth it? Has it been successful for you?
 Seattle, Washington, USA
About me
 I make instrumental pop music, loosley inspired by IDM, new wave, synthpop, and anything else my little head absorbs. Jeskola Buzz is my weapon of choice, warts and all. I just haven\\\'t found a replacement for some of it\\\'s more obscure functions, so I\\\'m sticking with it in all of it\\\'s 10-year-old, obsolete hexadecimal interfaced glory. Sometimes I play live shows in Seattle (and hopefully elsewhere soon). I also occasionally release music for free online. I love each and every one of you like the precious little snowflakes you are. Miniature Airlines (official site) on MySpace | on Virb D.iscontent (a label like thing) Successless.org (personal blog) Tweet! (musical) Tweet! (personal) 2 EPs currently available, Apparel and Pushpin Revolution, at the official site. 1 single+plus remixes and 1 split EP available at the D.iscontent site. MSN: dylansean AT NOSPAM hotmail.com AIM: sHeroDill My Gear
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Electronic Music discussion: Bandcamp
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Written April 06 2011
Comments
bandcamp is great. easy, fast. total control on updating/changes etc. you get paid immediately with every purchase. also, you can do hidden tracks that are part of an album download.. set your own price structure. the thing w/hidden tracks is cool. you can load a bunch of sample clips of songs and then make the full versions hidden so no one can record them off the net using wiretap or whatever.. but when someone buys the album they get the full tracks.
most aggregates for mp3 distributors pay quarterly and only if you meet their minimum. if you don't sell enough in a fiscal quarter then they just roll over your money until next quarter. i signed up w/IODA years ago.. then there were no upfront fees so it made more sense. IODA pays quarterly i have a lot on bandcamp and i have it set to $1 pay what you want and many people pay $1 but some pay $10 or $5. i have everything on itunes and juno download etc as well because some people just like those places for buying music and are their go to places for music so it'd be dumb not to offer releases there as well. oh, the thing with bandcamp is there aren't label sites.. you have to make a site for each artist which is kind of a pain but not that big of a deal. you can use the same paypal addy for each one and same password if you want.
if you check buriedintime.com you'll find links in each release page for the bandcamp pages.. All good points. I like that they allow other files to be added to an album download, but indidn't even think of the hidden track idea. I like that.
I know at least one person who's using their bandcamp page as a label page. I know it's not configured for that, but what are the downsides of using it that way? Do they replace artist tags/metadata or anything? What about creating compilations, or adding remix tracks from another artist to a release? The new "recommend othert artists" feature would be good for a label to cross promote other albums. You can set it up so that when you download an album it gives you up to three other recommendations.
after uploading Hopskotch to Addictech, Juno & Digital Tunes, Bandcamp was a godsend. helpful, intuitive with tons of innovative functionality. everything else was a nightmare to use in comparison.
now the sales are coming in i've been able to see how it handles the ordering process. its brilliant. 15% compared to 40% from all the other retailers. the only benefit you get from other retailers is the promotion, with bandcamp you have to do that yourself - but with genre tags people are now browsing bandcamp, so exposure/promotion is getting better within its network. Bandcamp gets nothing but love here. Been having troubles with the tired traditional distro network, which just underlines Bandcamp's fresh approach, as far as I'm concerned.
I probably don't represent the typical music consumer, but I love checking out releases on Bandcamp. It's super easy to listen to the whole album from the main release page. And when buying, you can get any format you want. It's slick enough to leave me wondering if I should move all of my releases there too. Do they make the artist or label supply all of the formats, or do you just send them WAVs?
You just send the Wav, Aiff, or FLAC, and they do all the transcoding.
Alright, it's settled. Overwhelming positive feedback. Thanks kids! + 1 here. There's one thing I dislike though: download codes... Anyway, here's my link should you want to check it out. Cheers ;)
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