The indie music community has embraced Bandcamp and its suite of direct to fan monetization tools. And unlike most music tech startups, Bandcamp, which launched in 2008, has been profitable “in the now-quaint revenues-exceed-expenses sense” since 2012.
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Bandcamp grew 35% last year, according to new stats just released by the direct to fan music platform. Fans are paying $4.3 million to artists monthly using the site, including 25,000 records a day.
Nearly 6 million fans have bought music from hundreds of thousands of artists through Bandcamp. Have of those fans are under 30, according to the company. That’s signification at a time when consumption by younger music lovers is supposedly dominated by streaming.
Bandcamp is bucking the industry’s downward sale trend
digital album sales on Bandcamp grew 14% in 2015 while dropping 3% industry-wide
track sales grew 11% while dropping 13% industry-wide
CD sales grew 10% vs down 11% industry-wide)
vinyl was up 40%
cassettes were up 49%
Bandcamp vs. Streaming
Subscription-based music streaming “has yet to prove itself to be a viable model, even after hundreds of millions of investment dollars raised and spent,” the company wrote in a blog post. “For our part, we are committed to offering an alternative that we know works. As long as there are fans who care about the welfare of their favorite artists and want to help them keep making music, we will continue to provide that direct connection. And as long as there are fans who want to own, not rent, their music, that is a service we will continue to provide, and that is a model whose benefits we will continue to champion.”