BandCamp a music industry revolution.

Posted by: migo on 06 September 2018

I am starting to explore the Bandcamp site for music.

 the Guardian: " Indie music service Bandcamp reaches $100m of payments to artists With sales up 30%, US company says it’s bucking music industry trends and helping musicians to get paid for their work".

 https://www.theguardian.com/te...00m-payments-artists.

Good ''audiophile'' names like Gregory Porter and Carmen Gomes are selling  CD's as well as downloads via the site;

https://gregoryporter.bandcamp.com/

 https://carmengomes.bandcamp.com/

But one can find rare treasures as well such  as  https://phronesistrio.bandcamp.com/

I should like if other forum would post suggestions as well as the site is huge and it can be difficult to find the real treasures.

Posted on: 06 September 2018 by Jeroen20

I can recommend these one's:

Posted on: 06 September 2018 by Nick Lees

Bandcamp is indeed tremendous- they’re over $300m in sales now. Many of us are fans on there - follow us if you dare!

Posted on: 06 September 2018 by Stevee_S
Nick Lees posted:

Bandcamp is indeed tremendous- they’re over $300m in sales now. Many of us are fans on there - follow us if you dare!

I agree with Nick Lees my guide and music mentor, bandcamp is wonderful but as Nick once said (in jest) it's like a class A drug with the associated costs. I am steve_s over there. 

Posted on: 06 September 2018 by AndyP19

I too love Bandcamp but  for me the VATman has priced them out of the market. Majority of my recent purchases although available on Bandcamp have been bought either via Qobuz, Boomkat or 7digital who have the edge in terms of price.

I’ll swallow the dollar or euro exchange rate but 20% VAT is generally a deal breaker and a pity that Bandcamp some how got singled out on this issue.

Posted on: 06 September 2018 by Bruce Woodhouse

I am a user too, and I do like just being able to browse and hear bits and pieces. Like flicking through the albums in a record shop! Sigh, those were the days.

Not all the quality is great, and some of the prices have drifted up but I have bought some good stuff. Back catalogue albums often best value.

Does the model still work better for artists than other platforms?

Bruce

Posted on: 07 September 2018 by Nick Lees

I believe they take a flat 10% for physical stuff and 15% for digital, and that is by so far the best deal artists can get.

It’s a shame they don’t include the tax in the purchase price for clarity, though it doesn’t stop me most of the time as almost everything I buy there isn’t available elsewhere (and I’ve bought over 750 albums, plus a few freebies).

Posted on: 14 September 2018 by Peet

  https://hudson-music.bandcamp.com/album/hudson

Posted on: 15 September 2018 by Kevin-W

As both a 'consumer' of music, and as a band manager and record company 'mogul' I have to say I love Bandcamp.

It by far offers the artist the best deal, both digitally and for physical formats and it's easy to use and gives you complete freedom to present your music as you desire. There are also no upfront costs, either.

As a music lover, it offers a huge range of music (especially obscure/outré stuff) at prices that are often better than those offered by the River and other big retailers - if said retailers stock, them, that is.

I increasingly buy physical music (CDs, records, even tapes) from Bandcamp as I know that the artists are at least getting a decent cut

Which they don't get from Spotify, which as far as I am concerned is pure, concentrated evil. But that's another story...

Posted on: 15 September 2018 by Kevin-W
Bruce Woodhouse posted:

Does the model still work better for artists than other platforms?

It does, Bruce, it really does.

Posted on: 22 September 2018 by Peet

Thank you Kevin for reaffirming my initial impression.

Please post some of your favorite BC albums as well.

 

Posted on: 23 September 2018 by Kevin-W

[@mention:40987866496453429] Some of my fave BC albums and artists include:

Islet (Released by The Movement);

Rothko (pretty much everything)

Paul Isherwood & Wayne Burrows (Exotica Suite)

Rome Pays Off (Out Walking)

Ese & The Vooduu People (everything)

Snorkel (all three albums)

Jazz Spastiks (Scratch & Sniff)

Cosmo Sheldrake (The Much Much How How & I)

Bonobo (The North Borders)

Sara Lowes (All For The Dream)

Pharoah Russell (Air To Breathe)

Submotion Orchestra (Colour Theory)

 

 

Posted on: 23 September 2018 by French Rooster

Anybody knows if there are digital albums to download in 24 bit format, on bandcamp ?   I feel that the maximum is 16/44, flac or aiff.  But not sure.

Posted on: 23 September 2018 by Bert Schurink
French Rooster posted:

Anybody knows if there are digital albums to download in 24 bit format, on bandcamp ?   I feel that the maximum is 16/44, flac or aiff.  But not sure.

There are multiple albums in high resulting available. Even in exceptional cases to 24/192. A lot is available in 24/96, and also visible. A bigger lot is available in 24/44.1 but often not visible. What I mean with visible, the 24/96 version are very often indicated as such. The 24/44.1 seldomly indicated as higher resolution files. If you look on my profile you will see several high res examples.

Posted on: 23 September 2018 by Bert Schurink

I love Bandcamp. It gives access to music which otherwise would be difficult to access as you are not searching individual websites for download. Only downside is that every now and then you are being faced with poorly recorded music, while quite often it’s very good. The super good deal days are more or less over since it became more popular and the VAT component was added. Now mostly it’s cheaper via Qobuz, if offered.

Posted on: 25 September 2018 by k

Oh this is good news. I see you can buy the CD's as well via the link.

I wanted to give this one as a present to a good friend for a long time; https://carmengomes.bandcamp.com/album/little-blue

It's a pretty good deal as it includes the download when you buy the CD;

Qoute;

''To sing a song I need to picture the story of the lyrics in my head; I have to feel them. If I can't feel them, I can't sing them. And how can I expect you to believe what I am singing if I don't feel it myself? So you can say that the songs on this album are very personal, very close. Carmen Gomes

Includes unlimited streaming of Little Blue via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. less ships out within 5 days''

Posted on: 28 September 2018 by Peet

Mind you, that when you buy a CD on bandcamp you get the download as well, but the downloads in most cases are 16/44.1 .

Posted on: 28 September 2018 by Sloop John B

I see a high res version is mentioned:

https://www.soundliaison.com/i...omes-inc-little-blue

I’m yet to be fully convinced about hi-res but this seems to have been specifically recorded to take advantage of the increased resolution.

.sjb

 

 

Posted on: 28 September 2018 by French Rooster
Bert Schurink posted:
French Rooster posted:

Anybody knows if there are digital albums to download in 24 bit format, on bandcamp ?   I feel that the maximum is 16/44, flac or aiff.  But not sure.

There are multiple albums in high resulting available. Even in exceptional cases to 24/192. A lot is available in 24/96, and also visible. A bigger lot is available in 24/44.1 but often not visible. What I mean with visible, the 24/96 version are very often indicated as such. The 24/44.1 seldomly indicated as higher resolution files. If you look on my profile you will see several high res examples.

Thanks Bert, I find a lot of 24/96 recordings on band camp, but using google search.   It is not so easy to find hirez directly on the bandcamp site.   If I tap on google “ 24 bit jazz bandcamp”, the search gives me all albums.

I downloaded 2 funk albums:  sweet maya and the expansions.  Good music, good sound too.  Sweet maya is a 1977 album, but this digital version is specially well made.

Posted on: 03 October 2018 by k
Sloop John B posted:

I see a high res version is mentioned:

https://www.soundliaison.com/i...omes-inc-little-blue

I’m yet to be fully convinced about hi-res but this seems to have been specifically recorded to take advantage of the increased resolution.

.sjb

 

 

the highest resolutions on the site are the new DXD albums recorded in 352khz;

The albums on the BandCamp site are 44.1khz, CD quality.

Posted on: 06 October 2018 by christian u

Great thread!

Posted on: 06 October 2018 by AndyP19
christian u posted:

Great thread!

I agree, just looked at Nathan Bowles and Gabriella Cohen this afternoon on Bandcamp. Wonderful stuff but ended up buying them on Qobuz ‘cause it was cheaper.

Bandcamp used to be my goto place now it’s a starting point to listen to the stuff then buy it much cheaper elsewhere. Go figure as they say.

Posted on: 09 October 2018 by Dave***t

As someone who has music available via Bandcamp, I have to point this out: not everything on Bandcamp is as independent and artist-friendly as it seems, or as it's made out to be.

Yes, it is a great platform that in some cases allows artists to get paid directly for making their music available for download.

But none of the music I've been part of that is now available via Bandcamp was put there by me or us.  It's put there and operated by record labels, and works no differently than other label sales (i.e. it depends entirely on the terms of your contract, which historically have sometimes been less generous for downloaded music than physical sales).

I'm not knocking Bandcamp.  I use it to buy music myself.  But there's an impulse to think that Bandcamp is all just artists 'selling direct'.  Some of the time it is, and that's great.  But frequently it's not, and the misunderstanding should be corrected.

Posted on: 09 October 2018 by French Rooster

In 3 days I discovered more music than in several months on qobuz or highrezaudio:

yussef kamaal, Kamaal Williams, jt lewis, Darryl Reeves, Resolution 88, ...and more.  The prices are very low too.    Just a coin:  not so easy to navigate on the site.    I thanks the forum to have let me discover this site!       

Posted on: 10 October 2018 by French Rooster

A little coin:  the format is not clearly apparent.  Some recordings are marked 24 bit, other not, but finally, after the download, they appear to be high rez.

Posted on: 10 October 2018 by k
Dave***t posted:

As someone who has music available via Bandcamp, I have to point this out: not everything on Bandcamp is as independent and artist-friendly as it seems, or as it's made out to be.

Yes, it is a great platform that in some cases allows artists to get paid directly for making their music available for download.

But none of the music I've been part of that is now available via Bandcamp was put there by me or us.  It's put there and operated by record labels, and works no differently than other label sales (i.e. it depends entirely on the terms of your contract, which historically have sometimes been less generous for downloaded music than physical sales).

I'm not knocking Bandcamp.  I use it to buy music myself.  But there's an impulse to think that Bandcamp is all just artists 'selling direct'.  Some of the time it is, and that's great.  But frequently it's not, and the misunderstanding should be corrected.

But I guess that if it is the artist who has put up the music, the money goes straight to the artist?

And if it is a label it is a different story then it goes 1st. to the label and then to the artist.