[UPDATE 2] On Friday, Bandcamp held a fundraiser donating a share of sales to support the pro-immigrant and pro-refugee work of the American Civil Liberties. 400 independent labels and artists joined in, and indie music fans responded, spending more than $1 million on music on the platform.
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Bandcamp, along with 400 indie labels and artists donated a share of Friday’s sales to the American Civil Liberties Union as a protest against the Trump administration’s recent anti-immigration actions. Bandcamp will donate all of their 12% share of the proceeds of every sale, and 400 artists and labels will add a share of their sales.
Sales passed the $1 million mark with several hours still remaining on Friday. That represented a 550% increase over an average Friday on the indie music sales platform. Friday is “already our biggest sales day of the week,” the company said late in the day. “All of our share of that (~12%) goes directly to the ACLU.” That would net at least $120,000 for the ACLU, prior to any donations from labels and artists. Funds from artists and labels along with the final sale hours could push the total donation to $200,000 or more.
Indie labels and artists participating yesterday included Anti-, ATO, Barsuk, City Slang, Epitaph, Father/Daughter, Fat Wreck, Kill Rock Stars, Merge Records, Mexican Summer, Miracle of Sound, Rhymesayers, RVNG, Sub Pop, Four Tet, Neil Gaiman, Lushlife, P.O.S., Speedy Ortiz and hundreds more.
“The bands you like and the books you read and companies whose products you enjoy are all run by people who hold opinions on how the world should work and how other people should be treated,” wrote Bandcamp supporter Richard Rutherford on Facebook. “Some of them are going to make those views more specific than others, but everyone’s got their line-in-the-sand where they’re not going to be able to keep it to themselves any longer… It’s not as if Bandcamp ever even pretended to be apolitical. Their entire business model is a reflection of their social and ethical convictions, which they happily explain every year when they publish their accounts.”