Do you know "Bandcamp Friday"? On the first friday of the month intermittently (closest thing to a schedule is this website) Bandcamp does an event where their "cut" of music sales goes to 0%. All money goes to the artist (except the cut for the the credit card company) (and except the cut for the label) (except also some labels, like Sargent House, set their cut to 0% on Bandcamp Fridays also?).
Whatever, TLDR buy music on Bandcamp Friday, the artist gets more money. I like this so I spent three years making a thread of Bandcamp music recommendations on a now-dead website, and now I'm moving it here. It is long.
⬇️⬇️ more below ⬇️⬇️
⬇️⬇️ click to make Iframely cry ⬇️⬇️
Hey y'all. Two things you should be aware of, both related to Epic Games, who bought Bandcamp last year, selling it to a company called "Songtradr".
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Today is Bandcamp Friday, the day Bandcamp as a corporation takes a 0% cut of all sales, and it very well might be the last one. (The post shared above is a long list of Bandcamp-artist recommendations I've been building across various social sites since 2020, when Bandcamp Friday started.) Songtradr is claiming they want to preserve Bandcamp's customer- and artist-friendly reputation, but even if they're telling the truth that doesn't imply they'll maintain every element of current Bandcamp. (Songtradr's business model is basically orthogonal to Bandcamp's, which might mean they'll keep everything that isn't in their area of interest untouched, or might mean they won't care about Bandcamp and will rip it to shreds.)
If Songtradr goes bad, you'll be able to download your purchased Bandcamp tracks and use them elsewhere. But if they decide not to stick with Bandcamp Friday, this might(??) be your last chance to buy that music without either Epic or Songtradr getting a cut.
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Another unclear thing about the Songtradr takeover is what happens to Bandcamp's union. The site employees won a historic unionization this summer, and it's altogether possible that this is specifically why Epic sold them off. Songtradr is trying to stave off questions about the union by noting they don't own the company yet and won't for several weeks, but they also told Billboard that "Not all Bandcamp employees will receive offers from Songtradr". The Bandcamp union (who you can follow on Mastodon) has issued demands including the continuance of the union and the employment of everyone who wishes to stay; they are asking supporters to sign their petition and, if you are an artist, to make statements of support on social media.
