If you prefer to support independent artists by buying their music instead of streaming it, today might be a good day to pick up some albums because Bandcamp Fridays are back. Since March 2020, around the time the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, Bandcamp has often run a day-long event on which it doesn’t charge commission fees.
Bandcamp hasn’t run the event every month and there were concerns that Bandcamp Fridays might no longer happen after Epic Games bought the marketplace earlier this year. But, at least for the next few months, Bandcamp Fridays will be a thing again. Bandcamp confirmed it will run the event on October 7th, November 4th and December 2nd, as well as today.
More than 800,000 music lovers have taken part in Bandcamp Fridays so far. As a result of the 21 events to date, the platform says it has paid out over $78 million to artists and labels. After payment processor fees, artists and labels get around 93 percent of a fan’s money. Bandcamp says that on every other day, artists and labels get around 82 percent after it takes a cut.
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