Last week, Bandcamp announced that it would waive the company’s share of revenue on Friday to benefit out-of-work musicians during the COVID-19 crisis that has canceled shows, tours, and festivals across the globe. Bandcamp has already cemented its place as one of the music industry’s best platforms, sharing revenue with artists at a higher rate than other streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify, and on Friday the company reinforced that position.
In a statement posted to Bandcamp’s website today, the company announced that sales totaled $4.3 million dollars. That’s $4.3 million dollars that went straight into the hands of musicians.
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“On a typical Friday, fans buy about 47,000 items on Bandcamp,” the statement read. “But this past Friday, fans bought nearly 800,000, or $4.3 million worth of music and merch. That’s more than 15 times our normal Friday, and at the peak, fans were buying 11 items per second.”
The statement continued, “We don’t yet know the long-term impact of Covid-19, but we know that we all need music—to uplift and inspire us, to heal us, and to give us hope. We’ll continue working to make Bandcamp the best place for fans and artists to come together and sustain each other in the challenging times ahead.”
Pitchfork stated that, according to Secretly Group, Khruangbin and Leon Bridges‘ Texas Sun EP was among the label’s top-selling releases, along with Phoebe Bridgers‘ Stranger in the Alps and Nap Eyes‘ Snapshot of a Beginner.
Read the entire statement here and visit Bandcamp’s website to purchase music from a massive collection of artists.
[H/TÂ Pitchfork]