Carry on Bandcamping

05 Tools Whaam 06-07 Campaigns Sam Smith, Kollegah, Mixcloud, Sony Xperia 08-11 Behind The Campaign Pharrell JUNE 04 2014 sandboxMUSIC MARKETING FOR THE DIGITAL ERA ISSUE 110 CARRY ON BANDCAMPING COVERFEATURE CARRY ON BANDCAMPING D2F AND SOCIAL GET PEGGED DOWN The unbundling of the album with iTunes and the subsequent move into granular streaming payments could be read as a crisis for artist income and sustainability, especially for small and DIY acts without the sell something through the site. In luxury of a large advance. But a real motor here is D2F sales – and specifically those from Bandcamp. We a month, it’s around 50,000, and last year look at who is doing it right with their artist marketing on the Bandcamp platform and how it is becoming a we had about 160,000 artists selling one or social network in its own right – and one that can fill the obvious gaps left by Facebook. more items through Bandcamp.” Bandcamp’s community has become a social network of sorts, including “fan hen musician Zoë Keating accounts” with profiles for every user that’s published details of her 2013 earnings bought something as well as explorable Win February, most of the media “collections” of their music, with their coverage predictably focused on how little comments and mini-reviews if they’ve been she was making from streaming services. posted. Keating made $38.2k from sales on “To me, the key piece of this is that it’s Apple’s iTunes Store last year, then $25.6k a social music discovery system, but it’s from Bandcamp and $11.6k from Amazon. based on this concept of ownership, which Her streaming income was much less: $3.3k is a high-friction concept in contrast to what from Pandora, $1.8k from Spotify and $1.2k was the hot thing a couple of years ago, from YouTube. which was frictionless sharing – watch a The real story here was more about movie, play some music and have how much Keating was making on that activity automatically Bandcamp, selling music direct to her go out to your friends fans. It was a reminder that, for artists and followers,” who have worked hard at fostering those relationships, Bandcamp can be a significant source of income. The progression of Bandcamp find, listen to and share emerging and tells sandbox. “We’re up to $3.1m every 30 $25.6k Bandcamp is evolving beyond its roots as established artists alike. days and our total to date is now $70m.” a D2F sales platform, though: its website But first, that core business of sales. “The He adds, “ We’re about to hit 10m Zoë Keating’s and mobile apps are showing how it has big number for us – our core metric – is how transactions through the site. Bandcamp the potential to become a powerful new much fans are paying artists through the And the other big stat is that every income in 2013 music discovery service too, where fans platform,” Bandcamp CEO Ethan Diamond day, about 6,000 unique artists 2 | sandbox | ISSUE 110 | 04.06.14 COVERFEATURE extremely fun to go down. Whenever I’m Bandcamp is driving spend – commuting, I just put on the feed and use real spend it to quickly dig through stuff I would never Diamond also claims that a recent otherwise encounter.” study of around 50,000 Bandcamp users Whereas Bandcamp was initially (examining their buying habits before purely about buying – whether digitally, and after getting fan accounts) found physically or frequently both – it’s that, once they got an account, their becoming more about listening, 600,000 spending doubled – a sign that the social with the company’s smartphone features and music feed are having a apps providing fans with access to Artists who sold real impact on artist income. Of course, their collections on the go . at least one item this is somewhat self-fulfilling as these “People are moving away from via Bandcamp are consumers more liable to spend downloads, although there will always be in 2013 anyway, but this does show how acts people who want the high-quality file they and platforms can maximise the spend of can take offline,” says Diamond. super-fans. “What we’re seeing more and more is “The fundamental fact that Bandcamp is providing access with these fan accounts. based on is that fans want to support the Yes, you get a download, but what it’s really artists they love and our job is to support says Diamond. same thing, though. “It’s very hard to have about – besides supporting the artist – is that connection by giving fans easy ways to “I always felt that idea was completely this experience in a streaming service where getting instant access from anywhere.” express their support,” he says. ridiculous. If somebody listens to a song – I there’s no friction to collecting something. don’t care! I don’t want to know. If they click It’s meaningless. You have to have some to Like it, that’s a little bit more interesting; form of friction there to make it meaningful,” but if somebody feels strongly enough about he says. a record to spend money on it, or more Actually, Bandcamp isn’t anti-streaming. importantly to support the artist that made You’ve been able to stream music from it, and maybe write a little about why they artists’ Bandcamp profiles for a long time like it, then I’m interested.” now, mainly in order to try before buying. And alongside the social additions to the Bandcamp is proving service – including the ability to follow other to be the stealth fans and artists – there’s a Music Feed streaming success feature showing what those people have been buying. The idea of music collections is, of course, It makes Bandcamp a curated streaming as old as physical music itself, and carried music service of sorts. “The feed plays from through into the downloads era. It’s track to track and it kind of becomes a also making its way into the world of personalised radio station programmed by streaming music, with Rdio enabling its the people’s tastes you respect enough to users to build virtual collections for some actually follow,” is how Diamond frames it. time now, and Spotify having recently “We brought that into our mobile app added a similar feature. relatively recently and it becomes this Diamond isn’t convinced that this is the rabbit hole of music discovery that’s 3 | sandbox | ISSUE 110 | 04.06.14 COVERFEATURE a small percentage of the fans who clicked on a Like button to receive them. Conspiracy theories abound about Facebook pushing people to pay for ads. But the social network argues that, with an average of 1,500 potential stories from friends and pages available any time a user checks their news feed, it has to find a way to boil that down to (again, on average) 300 of the most relevant updates. It’s a familiar debate, but where could Bandcamp fit in? For those artists using the service, it could become a more reliable way to get their news and new music in front of their keenest fans. Especially if they then own the data on those social interactions. “We’ve even toyed with the idea of limiting it to merch is unfortunate. “This is another thing we’re working instead of having ‘buy now’ maybe we It does seem like an obvious thing on,” says Diamond. “I’ve experienced this should test what would happen if it just says for them to do ,” says Diamond. pain first-hand: we have a huge number of The company is also part ‘support’ – namely here’s what you get if you However, he has some sharp words people who like us on Facebook , but when of a wider cultural shift that’s support the artist.” for the streaming services. “It’s really you do a post to 50,000-odd fans, only 500 $70m happening in the music industry as interesting that you don’t hear from more actually see it.” That said, further details on artists realise that they’re not just More platforms should artists talking about how much they love what Bandcamp is working on are under Total sales via powerless and passive observers be making a Bandcamp that model,” he says. wraps for now. Bandcamp of digital music trends. They can make connection “You hear it from executives at the top He’s clear on the data question, though. to date their own luck, build their own tribes and level of the companies who stand to make “We have felt from the beginning that hustle to build sustainable careers. It remains surprising to sandbox that millions from the artists’ work. That’s a when you follow an artist on Bandcamp, “All of the people who I’ve seen who streaming music firms – Spotify, Beats warranted debate that’s going on: what’s that data – who’s following them – belongs are successful on Bandcamp, they’re not Music, Deezer and the rest – haven’t been good for musicians in streaming?” to the artist. Zoë Keating can go into her unified by any particular genre,” asserts beating a path to Bandcamp’s door to find a Bandcamp account and get all of her emails Diamond. “The unifying factor is that they way of building stronger links from their own Filling the Facebook gap whenever she wants. That’s not something hustle a lot, both online and offline. They services to its community of supporters.

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