Bandcamp co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond explains the company's decision to waive its revenue share on select Fridays to support artists during pandemic shutdowns.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Artists report Bandcamp revenue is orders of magnitude above streaming services
“We hear all the time, mostly through Twitter, that, you know, the money that artists make through Bandcamp is orders of magnitude bigger than what they're making from streaming services that it's how they're, you know, paying rent and getting equipment and buy…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Early Bandcamp sales converted from 'torrent' and 'free MP3' search queries
“And we found again, 2008, 2009. So we, what we were competing with, right, as you said, was like LimeWire. Right. Hook share and stuff like that. So we looked at those search terms and it was the name of an album plus the word torrent or the name of an artist …”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Live music consolidation will lead to pricier tickets and less diversity
“The tickets will get more expensive. I think there'll be less diversity in music as a result, but you know, the laws are changing, right?”
Disclosure
Bandcamp deliberately avoids pursuing hypergrowth, scale, IPOs, or acquisitions
“No, they don't. No, I mean, we're really just, I focused on our mission of serving artists. That's what inspires me. That's what I, you know, what I get excited about doing And I would say the company has grown and succeeded more as a side effect of focusing o…”
Insight
Paid transactions create more meaningful online community participation than free likes
“You don't, you know, click a like button or a heart to add something to a collection. You have, you transact, right, to create a collection, and that gives the collection so much more meaning, right, because you actually spent a limited resource, right, your m…”
Assertion Supported
Fans paid artists $50 million across the first 11 Bandcamp Fridays
“We have another one tomorrow, but we've had 11 since then, and just on those days, fans have paid artists fifty million dollars.”