Overview of Bandcamp features

General
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When researching for #BeYourOwnPlatform in may 2024 I wrote down all features that I think Bandcamp offers - in order to understand the differentiation from other platforms and how they correspond to their Fair Music Policy. I talked about these features only in Dresden but not in subsequent presentations. I felt like this list might be of interest to others

artist accounts

  • creating a page and uploading music is completely free
  • creating a fan account is free
  • no limit of paid downloads
  • free downloads (200/m, or 1000 for each 500$ earned)
  • name your price system
  • fan can pay more than base price
  • Creative Commons licences
  • pre-orders
  • bonus tracks and other files with downloads
  • lyrics and track-based webcovers
  • embeding player on external web pages / blogs
  • download codes
  • custom domain
  • public view of number of supporters/buyers of a release
  • commenting/reviewing system by buyers of a releasese
  • sell merchandize / physical media (shipped by the artist)
  • selling tickets for live video streaming events
  • subscriptions / recurring payments
  • fine grained management of releases that go to subscribers
  • crowdfunded ondemand vinyl production (not available anymore)
  • immediate (1-3 days) payments to artists PayPal account
  • transparent fees (10%-15% by BC)
  • paid pro artist plan (10$/m, video, bulk uploads)
  • streaming of tracks can be limited (pro)
  • private streaming of tracks with easy to set up private links (pro)
  • video hosting for each track
  • live video streaming with a ā€œmerch tableā€ and a chat
  • paid label accounts ($20/m <15 artists, $50/m for unlimited artists)
  • a release on the label is a part of artists page and is listed on both catalogues (artistā€™s and labelā€™s)
  • artists ā€˜underā€™ label accounts automatically have a pro artist account for free
  • artists can be part of multiple labels
  • artists can use their pro account (from label) for their own releases independently from labels

fans/buyers accounts

  • music collection of bought items, streamable
  • wishlist (easily populated with ā€˜heartingā€™ a release)
  • fan playlists (private to fan account and exclusive to mobile app)
  • downloads in wide range of formats for the same price and without DRM
  • mobile app for fans/buyers with their digital collections, player, playlists, and discovery
  • mobile app for artists for artists management, view of sales, plays, messaging to fans
  • featured / new releases streams in the fan app (discovery)
  • listening party as a lightweight streaming of new release
  • ability to follow an artist on the platform in addition to opt-in email collection
  • ability to follow other fans/buyers and their purchases
  • simple messaging system for communication between the artist and followers/buyers
  • expansive weekly radio podcast and a daily blog publication that continuously featured music scenes under the radar and also were clear about how to submit your music for consideration.

current relevant links:

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The wishlist & following are my most used features. I do the music discovery elsewhere (Fedi, blogs) and this is how I keep track of what Iā€™ve found!

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This is great!

What Iā€™m curious about is how many of these features can be facilitated on the client side, and/or in a direct listener-to-artist way, with no aggregator in the middle (as the centralized aggregator is the thing with the bundled operating costs and business agenda).

For example a wishlist could be a text file or a subfolder in browser bookmarks; a follow can be an RSS subscription. Of course, that way isnā€™t as fancy, and becomes intermixed with all the other things people use files and bookmarks and feeds for, thus attention becomes more diluted.

It brings me back to the idea of implementing some of these things as plugins for existing open source music player apps.

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I recently read that Bandcamp also includes Royalty Collector, which they havenā€™t done before. You can find more about this in their FAQ or Help. I also talked about this with an Bandcamp Employe which remarks their are in Discussion for example with Gema

https://get.bandcamp.help/hc/en-us/articles/27168777857047-Publishing-Royalty-Collection-On-Bandcamp

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