Since March, Bandcamp’s responses to both the Coronavirus pandemic and racial inequalities have all been extremely admirable. They’ve been recognized for the past fews years for creating and promoting campaigns that provided financial support to various organizations. Along with supporting the Black Lives Matter protests, they’ve also openly supported the American Civil Liberties Union, the Voting Rights Project, and the Transgender Law Center. Compared to other streaming services, Bandcamp has really been standing out for their dedication to their artist’s well-being. Hopefully as COVID-19 progresses, we will begin to see more streaming platforms take the bold and empathetic stance that Bandcamp has.
So far, Bandcamp has waived 10-15% revenue shares for three different days to support their artists. According to Marc Hogan’s Pitchfork’s article, the musician Hether Fortune made $1,500 from one “Bandcamp Day.” According to Fortune, she has “maybe roughly gotten that over the last five years in total from Spotify, but that’s being generous.” The new “Bandcamp Day” is hopefully going to supply some smaller (maybe less commercial) artists with more financial security. Another benefit of these days is that artists and labels can choose to “give up” their funds and donate them to other organizations or causes. So for the last Bandcamp Day, many artists donated their proceeds to Black organizations and different bail funds. Artists and labels also offered special merchandise and donations from their personal Bandcamp pages to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Here is a list of some of these labels and artists, and where they’ve chosen to donate their proceeds. Merge Records is another one of the independent labels who chose to “give up” their funds. Co-founder, Mac McCaughan has been very impressed with Bandcamp’s unique and empathetic approach as a streaming service. McCaughan said in reference to Bandcamp that, “Each page feels very independent and artist-made. And there’s no autoplay!” Many users of Bandcamp have been very happy with the transparency of their platform, as well as the uniqueness and individuality of people’s personal pages.
On Juneteenth (June 19th) this year, Bandcamp put out a statement on their website to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protesters. Bandcamp said that “today, Juneteenth, from midnight to midnight PDT, and every Juneteenth hereafter, for any purchase you make on Bandcamp, we will be donating 100% of our share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.” Beyond that, Bandcamp is also encouraging everyone to look for ways to support racial equality. According to the Billboard article, “Bandcamp Pledges to Donate Its Share of Music Sales to NAACP,” they will also be “allocating an additional $30,000 per year to partner with organizations that fight for racial justice and create opportunities for people of color.'”
Links –
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/9405944/bandcamp-donate-music-sales-naacp
https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-naacp-ldf-fundraiser
https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-naacp-ldf-fundraiser
