This past Friday’s edition of #NewMusicFriday was a special one, and not because of any one particular release. Instead, it enabled a music community to come together from around the world to support independent artists on Bandcamp, the music hosting platform that waived its revenue share and promised 100 percent of all sales, all day long, to bands and artists.
The numbers are in, and they are staggering: Music fans spent $4.3 million on music and merchandise through Bandcamp, with nearly 800,000 items purchased over a 24-hour period. It rates as 15 times the business Bandcamp would normally do on a Friday; usually, they’d sell about 47,000 items.
At its Friday peak, Bandcamp was selling 11 items per second.
“We want to thank everyone who joined us last Friday in supporting artists and raising awareness about the impact of Covid-19 on the music community,” Bandcamp writes on Monday (March 23). “We don’t yet know the long-term impact of COVID-19, but we know that we all need music — to uplift and inspire us, to heal us, and to give us hope. We’ll continue working to make Bandcamp the best place for fans and artists to come together and sustain each other in the challenging times ahead. Thank you again, and we wish you all good health!”
Well done, everyone.