Bandcamp Fridays – the monthly event in which the music distribution service waives its cut of revenue sales for one day – will continue for the rest of the year.
The platform kicked off the initiative back in March of this year as a one-off in response to the financial toll of the coronavirus pandemic on musicians worldwide, with gigs, tours and music festival around the globe cancelled or postponed. For 24 hours, 100 per cent of revenue from purchases of music and merchandise on Bandcamp went directly to artists and labels. Typically, the platform takes a 15 per cent share of digital sales and 10 per cent from merchandise sales.
After a successful launch (in which musicians made over $4million), Bandcamp announced the continuation of the initiative, donating their share of revenue for three 24-hour periods in May, June and July. It’s been a tremendously successful endeavour thus far – over the course of four separate days, Bandcamp says fans have put more than $20million directly into the pockets of artists and labels.
Now, they’ve announced Bandcamp Fridays will continue, once a month, until the end of the year, as the pandemic continues to take a massive financial toll on artists and labels around the world.
“Thank you to all the artists and labels who shared their music with us, and the fans who spent their hard-earned coins to support the artists they love,” wrote CEO Ethan Diamond in a statement on the Bandcamp website.
“Because the pandemic is far from over, we’ll continue to hold Bandcamp Fridays on the first Friday of every month until the end of the year.”
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The next revenue waiver will take place on August 7, running for 24 hours from 8am BST. To check when Bandcamp Friday falls in your time zone, visit the site Is it Bandcamp Friday?.
Bandcamp Friday will take place this year on:
August 7, 2020
September 4, 2020
October 2, 2020
November 6, 2020
December 4, 2020