Earlier this year, audio streaming platform Bandcamp waived its service fees for artists on Friday, March 20th, and again on Friday, May 1st. The initiative came in response to the shutdown of the live events in hopes of easing the financial burdens being felt by independent artists around the world at the moment.
On Friday, Bandcamp announced it would continue its “Bandcamp Fridays” initiative through the end of the year, to go into effect on the first Friday of each month until 2021.
The announcement posted to the Bandcamp website reads,
We started Bandcamp Fridays back in March to support artists impacted by the pandemic, and in the past few months the music community has come together in a huge way: in just four days, fans put more than $20 million directly into the pockets of artists and labels. That’s incredible, but just as amazing is that since the pandemic hit in March, fans have bought more than $75 million worth of music and merch directly from artists and labels, and to date, fans have paid artists over half a billion(!) dollars on Bandcamp.
The statement continues,
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. A more detailed calendar is below. Stay tuned for more details, and until then we’ll continue working to make Bandcamp the best place to support artists every single day. Thank you again, and we wish you all safety and good health.
As of Monday, the upcoming “Bandcamp Fridays” will take place on September 4th, October 2nd, November 6th, and December 4th.
Some of the bands and musicians who have benefitted from the streaming platform’s artist-friendly initiative with album/single releases so far this year include Young Mister, Dopapod, Gunn-Truscinski Duo, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, MonoNeon, Yo La Tengo, Benevento/Russo Duo, Zephaniah OHora, HIGH TIME, and John Frusciante.
Is it Bandcamp Friday? The answer is: pic.twitter.com/X6Nu41yiej
— bandcamp (@Bandcamp) September 4, 2020