How I broke $1000 in Bandcamp sales over 9 months

Yesterday, a music friend & fan of mine bought a double-single of mine for $2, which put me over $1000 in lifetime Bandcamp sales.

This is a very cool milestone, not just because of how music seems to be quite devalued in 2024, but also because I did this over the span of 9 months (except for $40 made in 2019 from a few sales from an old project I’ve since abandoned).

After reflecting on it a bit, I realized I did have a bit of (unintentional) strategy (which I backed into) for how I did it:

• put out lots of music regularly (I have a big backlog of it)
• have some kind of merch (even just a few t-shirts helped)
• use fundraisers to drive awareness for both the music & cause (I didn’t keep a significant % of the $)
• exploit Bandcamp Fridays, not just with singles but advance releases of EPs/albums when possible
• promote organically & equally alongside other things - the above points make this easier

If I’m honest, I think the most effective parts were the causes & lining up releases to work with Bandcamp Fridays.

Alongside me building up Kid Lightbulbs, I’ve learned more about the value of divesting & supporting directly folks in need. While I’ve raised money for orgs like The Trevor Project, we’ve raised more money sent directly to marginalized folks here on Threads. Shoutout to ilyBBY for instilling the idea & everyone whose funds helped here.

As for lining up releases around Bandcamp Friday - I actually think this is the biggest thing that made an impact, and I’m glad Bandcamp Fridays are still happening. (There’s one in 3 weeks!)

When I released my 2nd album:

• I opened preorders on Bandcamp for 5/3 (BC Friday)
• Released on 5/17 as BC exclusive
• Released to streaming services ~4 weeks later

I’d probably shorten the timeframe next time, but this, plus a cause to raise funds for at the time, worked so well. Most of the $675 below is from this.

It’s worth noting that I don’t have any physical releases of my music. All the above (except for the few t-shirt sales I’ve made via Bandcamp) is digital. But a CD editions (and possibly vinyl) of my albums is something I’ve had on my backlog for a bit. I need time (and money) to sort it out, but I am keen to do this.

(As an aside: it would be super cool if Bandcamp had project-specific crowdfunding built in – with this, I could raise funds for a vinyl release of an existing digital release I already have on Bandcamp. Otherwise I’m probably going to end up on Kickstarter or something if I want to take a vinyl release seriously.)

Also worth noting that Bandcamp subscription earnings do not count toward your sales. I’ve also (miraculously!) gotten 5 people to subscribe to my Bandcamp, which gives them access to all my releases and a discount on merch, possibly other things.

Going pro?

I’m considering a subscription to Bandcamp Pro, which is the monthly paid version of Bandcamp for Artists that they seem to completely forget about in their marketing.

I’ve been trying to find a way to build true independence as an online musician, using tools aligned with my values & principles to never feel tied to any one platform. Direct support from fans is great for this, and having a website and email list I control (using services that don’t relentlessly try to take my $ without adding value) are the core, but I still need a way to distribute content to folks willing to support me directly.

I’ve used Dropbox & email to do this in a lo-fi way, and three people even bought my first album through this method, but it definitely doesn’t scale. Also Dropbox doesn’t really have a nice, branded listening interface - just a file viewer in a web browser. There’s decent video hosting options (Vimeo, YouTube though I don’t love being reliant on YouTube either) - but there’s nothing for audio that feels nice and something I can control. Soundcloud is increasingly gross about their paid offerings and seeming tolerance for bots and other garbage, and Bandcamp works but defaults to public releases and their subscription offering.

Except if you subscribe to Bandcamp Pro! Bandcamp Pro offers private listening and selective streaming. This means I can upload bonus material, keep it private, and serve it to my fans on my email list who are patronizing me directly. There are other useful features like better stats & targeting, but those feel secondary.

It’s $10/month, but I get $5/month for the first year as an early Bandcamp adopter. This is great for experimentation - I can take a year at half-price to see if this is worth keeping around.

Ironically, the problem this helps to solve is Bandcamp’s own platform fees. I lose 15% (+ processing fees) on every sale, including subscription payments. But if I sell my music on my own (ie. have fans pay on my website via Stripe), and just distribute the music via private Bandcamp access, I pay $5-10/month across all sales, and only pay processing fees per sales. This is cheaper in the long run, and arguably would have been cheaper if I ran all my releases (and perhaps even a patron subscription) in 2024 this way. It’s distribution as a scalable service — but the customer is mine, not Bandcamp’s.

I’m not sure if this is worth it, but I may set it up as an experiment, once I figure out my longer-term plan for direct-support releases. Watch this space, I guess?

Posted on August 18, 2024   #music     #goals     #diy     #essay