The business is entirely based on a revenue share. “We’re an artist-first company in every way.

A considerable amount of those users in turn donated their proceeds to causes, and Bandcamp also dedicated days in 2020 to give 100% of their revenue share to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Transgender Law Center. The initiative has since helped indie artists and labels gross $44 million on Bandcamp Fridays over the past year. On the first Friday of each month (aside from a Juneteenth commemoration) Bandcamp users can sell their music and merch without having to split the revenue with Bandcamp. They continued the initiative, calling it Bandcamp Fridays.

Mawas the first day they chose to waive their revenue share, and fans supported artists to the tune of $4.3 million. “So we started talking about: What are the different things we could do to support the community at the time? Ultimately, we settled on the best just being, ‘Hey, we should just have a day where all of the money goes directly to the artists.’” “We saw an opportunity to raise awareness around the fact that artists need this,” he adds. “I think the pandemic overall just highlighted the need to directly support artists,” says Ethan Diamond, CEO and co-founder of the 12-year-old music platform. The Bandcamp Fridays initiative started off in earnest.

Bandcamp friday