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chebeHave you heard about Bandcamp? It's a platform that allows musicians to provide music to the fans, at minimal cost. And I mean minimal, right now it's free. You can customise the page so it fits into your website, so no third-party ads, and then with one click you can download music in a tasty variety of formats. The fan doesn't have to install any software. Music can be given away free, for a donation (you the buyer gets to set the price, but remember Paypal gets about $0.30 of it), or for a set price. Bandcamp take care of the all the backend stuff, so when your album releases you know the site won't go down. And it's free. In about a month Bandcamp will start taking 10-15%, but that's still less than almost everyone else. And it means if you give your music away for free, they're not going to charge you for it.
I think it's a genius idea. One thing in particular put them in my good books. You can buy physical goods as well (if related to a release), and addicted as I am to physical music I bought a CD, and a download began automatically as well! I think this feature may need to be enabled by the band, but anyone I've bought CDs or vinyl from gave me the download so I could start enjoying the music then and there! The samples on the site aren't samples, they are the full songs (minus any bonus/hidden tracks), and at a better bit-rate than most places. And, they don't own your work, you're free to use other music retailers, etc. There's just so much about Bandcamp that I love. For artists I think are really doing it right see; Amanda Palmer, and Zoe Keating.
There are many, many bands and artists I'd love to see using this, pretty much anyone independent, as I know it means I'm supporting them as much as I can. One such band released an EP on iTunes only, no physical version pressed. After finding out that iTunes dropped the DRM I signed up. I had to download a large, constantly updating program, and whenever I download something I have to transcode the format to be able to get it on my portable music player (not an iPod). Bandcamp is just a simpler, more elegant system that gives the artist more control and the fan less hassle. One artist even got into the U.S. billboard charts with no marketing or publicity!
It's not perfect yet, there features missing that I'd really like to see, like a shopping cart. Right now you have to pay individually for each album. But they're working on it, and it really seems to me to be a massive step in the right direction.
I think it's a genius idea. One thing in particular put them in my good books. You can buy physical goods as well (if related to a release), and addicted as I am to physical music I bought a CD, and a download began automatically as well! I think this feature may need to be enabled by the band, but anyone I've bought CDs or vinyl from gave me the download so I could start enjoying the music then and there! The samples on the site aren't samples, they are the full songs (minus any bonus/hidden tracks), and at a better bit-rate than most places. And, they don't own your work, you're free to use other music retailers, etc. There's just so much about Bandcamp that I love. For artists I think are really doing it right see; Amanda Palmer, and Zoe Keating.
There are many, many bands and artists I'd love to see using this, pretty much anyone independent, as I know it means I'm supporting them as much as I can. One such band released an EP on iTunes only, no physical version pressed. After finding out that iTunes dropped the DRM I signed up. I had to download a large, constantly updating program, and whenever I download something I have to transcode the format to be able to get it on my portable music player (not an iPod). Bandcamp is just a simpler, more elegant system that gives the artist more control and the fan less hassle. One artist even got into the U.S. billboard charts with no marketing or publicity!
It's not perfect yet, there features missing that I'd really like to see, like a shopping cart. Right now you have to pay individually for each album. But they're working on it, and it really seems to me to be a massive step in the right direction.
