Bandcamp Review: Can You Make Money on This Platform?

Bandcamp is a platform where any musician can upload their music directly for fans to stream and download. 

It’s not a distributor, so it won’t deliver your music to Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Really, it’s more like Soundcloud (although it’s different, which I’ll cover later).

And even though you can stream music on Bandcamp, CEO and co-founder Ethan Diamond says he doesn’t think of it as a streaming service. 

“I consider us a record store and a music community,” he told NPR. “The primary difference being that we’re a way to directly support the artists that you enjoy listening to.”

So here’s the big question of this Bandcamp review: can you make money on Bandcamp?

How Does Bandcamp Work?

You upload your music directly to Bandcamp in the highest quality format possible (WAV or AIFF). Then you enter all the info about the song/album, add the lyrics, upload the artwork, and list the song/album credits. 

As Diamond said, Bandcamp has its own community. It even has its own feed, so you can follow artists to see what they’ve recently released and fans to see what they’ve recently purchased. 

As an artist, you can set a limit for how many times a fan can stream your song. The idea is that the fan will be persuaded to buy the track/album once they’ve reached their stream limit. 

Whenever someone buys your music on Bandcamp, that release is available to them for unlimited offline streaming through the Bandcamp app. 

Is Bandcamp Free To Use?

Bandcamp is totally free to use on the front end. But they do take 15% for digital sales, dropping it to 10% once you reach $5,000 in sales. 

For physical sales (i.e. merch), they take 10%, not including shipping and taxes. 

Plus, there are processing fees, which range between 4-6%.

So yes, it’s free to use upfront, but the costs come on the backend.  

Selling Merch

Merch is kind of the bread-and-butter for success on this platform. So far, Bandcamp fans have purchased $298 million in merch. 

According to Diamond, half of the sales on Bandcamp are from physical goods.

So what merch should you have on Bandcamp?

Well, in the past five years on this platform, Vinyl sales are up 613%, cassette sales are up 349%, and T-shirts sales are up 492%. 

So if you’ve got merch, you might as well list it on Bandcamp. 

Music Downloads

The Bandcamp community isn’t like the Spotify listener community. Bandcamp fans are typically music nerds and want to support artists financially.

And even though merch is the top seller, Bandcamp says “digital music is still an essential source of artist revenue on Bandcamp, and you should absolutely start by uploading your albums and tracks…”

Diamond said they’ve seen strong growth with digital sales 

“And when you buy digital on Bandcamp, what you’re buying is access,” he said. “So you can grab a download – you know, there are people who want to grab the high-quality file – but you can also stream through our app, unlimited once you’ve purchased the music.”

Show Listings

Bandcamp integrates with Songkick and lists your upcoming shows on the sidebar of your Bandcamp profile. 

And when a fan clicks on the listing, it takes them to the concert on Songkick. 

If you perform live often, this is a super convenient tool. 

Bandcamp Community

Bandcamp Community (AKA Subscriptions) is a feature very similar to Patreon. 

It’s a place where fans can financially support you on a regular basis in exchange for exclusive content. 

It appears Bandcamp does not take a commission from Community support, but there will be Stripe processing fees. Other than that, it doesn’t cost you (the artist) anything.

This is similar to Bandzoogle’s no-commission Fan Subscriptions.

Bandcamp Daily

Bandcamp Daily is where Bandcamp does write-ups and features on their artists. This can be a great way to get exposure…if you can’t get their attention. 

How do you get featured on Bandcamp Daily?

• You have to have a fully completed Bandcamp profile that looks great
• You can try tweeting one of the music writers (just focus on the writers who have covered music similar to yours)
• Mainly, it comes down to the quality of your music and how well it’s doing on the platform

This is according to senior editor of Bandcamp Daily, Jes Skolnik.

“Our features are really sort of concentrated on the humanity of the artist and who they are and what they’re making and how they’re going about making it,” she said. “So as long as there’s good music and you’ve got a cool, clean Bandcamp page, and we love what you do, we’re happy and excited to feature you.”

She also said they keep an eye on sales, preorders, and new uploads as those are indicators of good music and active musicians. 

Bandcamp App

Bandcamp has an app for both artists and fans. 

Fans use the regular app to listen to music (an unlimited number of times if they’ve bought the music).

Artists use the Bandcamp for Artists & Labels app to track stats, downloads, and followers. You can also send your followers a message, which then notifies them by email. 

Bandcamp Live

Bandcamp Live is “ticketed live streaming with integrated merch and supporter chat.” 

This is a very smart move, what with 2020 being what it was.

As of this writing, Bandcamp Live is currently getting rolled out. 

“We’ll notify you as soon as you can create your first event, but if you’re eager to get streaming now, please let us know,” says Bandcamp.

Do Artists Make Money From Bandcamp?

When I checked the Bandcamp for Artists page, fans had paid Bandcamp artists $815 million since Bandcamp’s launch in 2008. 

And Bandcamp gives an average of 82% to their artists, which comes out to $668,300,000.

As of this writing, there are more than 1.8 million artists on Bandcamp (492 artists per page x 3724 pages = 1,832,208 artists).

So if we divided $668,300,000 among the 1,832,208 artists…

That’s about $364 per artist since the beginning of Bandcamp. 

But of course, we know it’s not evenly divided among every artist. There is going to be a smaller group of artists with the biggest fanbase making the most money. 

So you probably won’t make a living solely from Bandcamp (and you shouldn’t plan for that), but you can make some money from this platform. 

My Experience on Bandcamp

As you can see, I’ve made $422.50 since I joined Bandcamp back in 2009. 

So yeah, it’s cool to have made that money, but nothing to brag about. However, that is more than I’ve made from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.

What’s really cool is, fans have streamed my music nearly 11,000 times on Bandcamp, which tells me people use this platform. 

Bandcamp doesn’t pay artists per stream. But to me, it’s more about making my music available wherever my fans are. 

That’s why, when I distribute my music, I send it everywhere. Even if the Digital Service Provider (DSP) pays garbage rates. 

And I always upload my new music to Bandcamp.

Bandcamp Pro

For $5 a month for your first year and $10 a month after that, you can get access to Bandcamp Pro.

What does Bandcamp Pro offer?

Here are the features:

• Batch upload (he free account makes you upload one song at a time)
• Targeted messaging: target messages to fans based on their location and amount spent
• Private streaming: give private access to specific email addresses before your music is live
• Video hosting: post videos alongside your music (no ads)
• More statistics: buyer location and  how they found you
• Google Analytics: who’s linking to your Bandcamp profile, where your music is embedded, profile visits, etc.
• Optional streaming: make tracks appear in an album listing but disable streaming (only available when the fan downloads the album)

I think Bandcamp Pro is only worth it if you’ll be using this platform as the main place you’re sending fans.

SoundCloud vs Bandcamp

So how is Bandcamp different from SoundCloud? Below are the main differences between the two platforms.

(I personally prefer Bandcamp, but I upload my music to both platforms).

Upload Limits

Bandcamp’s free account allows unlimited uploads. Put as much music on there as you want.

SoundCloud limits free users to up to 3 hours of audio. For unlimited storage, you need to upgrade to Pro Unlimited for $12 a month.  

This is the main thing I don’t like about SoundCloud. Whenever I release new music and put it on SoundCloud, I have to go back and remove my older music to make room for it. And that’s annoying. 

Getting Paid

On Bandcamp, you can get paid when people download your music. You can even set your own price (even $0, in which case you can ask for an email address instead).

On SoundCloud, you can enable downloading and send fans to an external “Buy” link. But it doesn’t offer a way for fans to buy your music directly on the platform. 

Differing Mindsets

Bandcamp is more focused on getting artists paid directly from fans. They’re dedicated to combating the unfair pay in the music industry by giving artists most of what fans pay.

SoundCloud is more focused on social sharing amongst its community. 

Although with Bandcamp’s ability to follow fans and artists, add music to your wishlist, and have a collection of purchased music, it’s an equally effective way for your music to spread. 

Final Thoughts

As with any singular platform, you can’t rely on it solely for your whole music income. Diversification is the key. 

Distribute your music to DSPs like Spotify and Apple Music. Upload your songs to YouTube. Put it on SoundCloud. 

Basically, you want your music to be everywhere it possibly can be, including Bandcamp. 

Here’s my Bandcamp review takeaway: upload your music to Bandcamp. It’s free. You want your music to be anywhere your fans could be. And you may make a little money in the process.