The Ultimate Guide To Bandcamp For Artists: Everything You Need To Know

Are you an artist looking for a way to sell your music and merch? Look no further than Bandcamp! In this guide, we will teach you everything you need to know about using Bandcamp to promote and sell your music. We'll cover topics such as creating a Bandcamp page, setting up digital and physical merch sales, and driving traffic to your page. By the end of this guide, you'll be ready to start selling your music like a pro!

What Is Bandcamp and What Are the Benefits of Bandcamp for Artists?

• Bandcamp is a website that allows artists to sell their music and merchandise. It's like an online record store where you can buy new releases, closeouts, or used items at a discounted price.
• makes a profit by taking 20% of the purchase price, and artists can keep 80%.
• it also helps with marketing for selling music on other platforms such as Spotify and iTunes
• Bandcamp Pro is a paid version of the platform that offers more features for artists.
• also has targeted messaging capabilities and allows you to give fans access to your private uploads and videos.

For artists, Bandcamp provides a unique and convenient way to sell music and connect with fans. One of the benefits of using Bandcamp is that artists have the ability to disable track previews on certain songs while still having the names displayed.

This is helpful for artists who want to avoid having their music pirated or who want to control how their music is experienced by listeners.

Additionally, Bandcamp allows artists to set their own price for each track, meaning they can earn more money per sale than on other platforms.

Lastly, Bandcamp provides detailed stats about each song, so artists can see which tracks are most popular with their fans and make adjustments accordingly. Overall, Bandcamp is a valuable tool for artists who want to sell their music online.

How Bandcamp Works

Bandcamp works by taking 15-20% of the purchase price, and artists can keep 80%.

Bandcamp Pro is a paid version of the platform that offers more features for artists.

The pro-version costs $10 a month but with it, you get an unlimited number of uploads, marketing tools, and targeted messaging capabilities.

With Bandcamp, you can give fans access to your private uploads and videos.

Additionally, Bandcamp allows artists to set their own price for each track, meaning they can earn more money per sale than on other platforms.

Lastly, Bandcamp provides detailed stats about each song, so artists can see which tracks are most popular with their fans and make adjustments accordingly.

What Is Bandcamp Fridays

Bandcamp Fridays is a way for artists to make more money by waiving the service's normal cut of artist revenue on the first Friday of every month. This initiative was created in response to COVID-19 tour cancellations, as a way for artists to still generate income.

Fans are able to follow their favorite artists, see the latest collections, and network with other fans on Bandcamp Friday. This makes it a very appealing event for music lovers.

Not only does it support artists during tough times, but it also allows fans to discover new music and connect with others who share their taste.

How to Set up A Bandcamp Account

To create an account on Bandcamp, you must have a valid email address. You can then select which projects on the site you want to listen to and follow. After signing in, you will be asked to create a username and password. After that, you can start creating your first playlists.

How to add music to your Bandcamp account?

With the Pro account, you get more features, such as customizable domain name and demographic statistics based on fan purchases.

You can make videos for merchandise and music, adding a visual experience to the online marketplace without the hassle of advertisements.

Another promotional plus to the Pro version is more control over song pricing.

Guide to Selling Music on Bandcamp

To sell music on Bandcamp, you must first create an account and upload your songs.

You can choose to price your releases however you want, and Bandcamp will take 15-20% of each sale depending on how many sales you've made to date.

When you upload a song for release, you can choose how you want to price it: free or paid.

You can also require fans to input their email addresses in exchange for unlimited access to your song or album, or all your songs can be completely free for unlimited plays.

To sell music on Bandcamp, you need to create an album.

You can choose to include bonus items with your album, such as bonus tracks or photos.

Bandcamp gives the artist complete control over their music and asks for little in return.

Guide to Selling Merch on Bandcamp

You can sell merchandise through a designated merch page on your Bandcamp profile.

There are pre-made merch categories for items such as clothing, CDs, buttons, and tote bags.

When you upload new merch to your Bandcamp page, you can title the merch, give it a description, include images of the product, set your desired pricing, and more.

You must fulfill orders yourself with the addresses a buyer provides.

When it comes to merch sales, Bandcamp is just the storefront so fans can view your items and transfer money to you for them

Getting Traffic to Your Band Camp Page

Your Bandcamp page is your online home for your music and a place where people can find and buy your merch. But if you're not careful, your Bandcamp page can become a ghost town. Here are some tips for getting traffic to your Bandcamp page: 

1. Make sure your page is easy to find. This means having a link to your Bandcamp page on your website, social media accounts, and anywhere else people might look for you online. 

2. Use keywords strategically. When people are searching for music like yours, you want your page to show up in the search results. That means using relevant keywords in the titles of your tracks, in the descriptions of your albums, and in the tags you use. 

3. Stay active. One of the best ways to keep people coming back to your Bandcamp page is to regularly upload new content. This could be new tracks, remixes, live recordings, or anything else that would interest your fans. 

4. Offer something unique. If you want people to visit your Bandcamp page rather than another artist's page, you need to offer them something unique in terms of your overall package.

This means you can't just upload a Bandcamp page with no content and expect people to find it. You need to give them a reason to visit your page and come back again.

Additional tips for using Bandcamp as an artist

• Once you have set-up your account, be sure to edit your profile and fill in all the basic information.
• Select a profile picture. Make sure you choose one that represents you and your brand well and not just a dummy photo.
• Customize your artist biography. This is where you really get to market yourself and let visitors know what you're all about.
• Select design and layout attributes like background image, color scheme, header image, etc.
• Add links to all of your social media accounts. Keeping everything synced up is essential when it comes to social media marketing.
• Be active on the site. The more you interact with fans, the more likely they are to support you.
• Use Bandcamp Friday as a way to boost traffic and sales on your page.
• Release new music and merch regularly to keep people coming back for more.
• Previews can be disabled if you want to encourage people to buy your music. But be careful not to make it too difficult for potential new fans to check out your stuff.
• Free music downloads are a good way to generate buzz and get people interested in your work.

Bandcamp FAQs

Is Bandcamp Free?

Yes, Bandcamp is free for artists to use. But they also offer Bandcamp Pro for $10/month, which gives you additional features like custom URLs, advanced stats, and more.

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How Much Does Bandcamp Charge?

When a fan purchases something from an artist on Bandcamp, the artist keep around 80% of the sale, while Bandcamp takes about 20% (or less most times) for their revenue share and payment processor fees.

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Is Bandcamp a reliable site?

Yes, Bandcamp is one of the most trusted music sites in the world, with fans who have paid artists $921 million using Bandcamp, and daily alone, fans buy an average of 70,000 records.

This makes them one of the few sites that can be completely relied on when it comes to buying or streaming music. Not only is the site trustworthy, but it also has a great selection of music from a variety of genres, making it the perfect place to find new artists and explore different types of music.

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Is Bandcamp Good for Artists?

Yes! As mentioned previously, fans on Bandcamp have paid out over $920 million to artists since the site began.

This makes Bandcamp one of the most artist-friendly platforms in the world and a great place for artists to sell their music.

In addition, Bandcamp provides artists with a lot of control over how they sell their music and what price they sell it for.

This flexibility is one of the reasons why so many artists have had success on Bandcamp.

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Does Bandcamp Pay for Streams?

Yes, Bandcamp pays artists for streams. The amount you earn per stream depends on a number of factors, including the price of your music, the country the stream originates from, and whether the stream is from a paid subscription or not.

In general, artists earn around $0.005-$0.007 per stream on Bandcamp.

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When Does Bandcamp Pay Out?

When you sell a digital item on Bandcamp, the payment is processed first by Bandcamp and then paid out to your PayPal account 24-48 hours later.

This includes our 10-15% revenue share, along with any payment processor fees. For higher-value purchases, like a track that sells for $500, the transaction will be manually reviewed and may take up to 14 days to process.

However, once the payment has been processed, you will receive your earnings within 24-48 hours.

Does Bandcamp Distribute to Spotify? Does Bandcamp Distribute to Deezer?

Yes, Bandcamp can distribute your music to Spotify and Deezer. To learn more, check out our blog post on the respective topics.

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Does Bandcamp Copyright Your Music?

The short answer is no. Bandcamp's Terms of Use make it clear that they only take the rights that they need in order to operate the service. That includes hosting your music, selling it on your behalf, displaying lyrics and artwork, and so on. They don't take any ownership of your music itself.

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Is Bandcamp Worth It?

I would say it is 100% worth it, considering you have nothing to lose by signing up and trying it out. The platform has been growing steadily over the years and is now one of the most popular ways for artists to get out there and make some money.

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