Bandcamp is bringing back its Bandcamp Friday promotion, where it waives the deduction of any money you spend on buying music from artists or their labels. Historically, the company ran promotions on the first Friday of every month, and it appears to be the same this time around. According to its update page, it has Bandcamp Fridays scheduled for September 2nd, October 7th, November 4th and December 2nd.
Bandcamp says that when you buy music during Bandcamp on Fridays, on average, 93 percent of that money goes to the artist or label (with the rest paid processing fees). This compares to an average of 82 percent the rest of the time. It launched promotions in 2020 in response to the pandemic’s impact on tourism and music festivals.
As far as I can tell, it’s been a few months since the last Bandcamp Friday – according to a cursory search of my email inbox, an archive of Bandcamp’s update page for the promotion, and some math (the page now says it’s promotion 21 Running the Times, where it said 17 times with four future dates), the last was on May 6. After that, the company remained mostly silent about the future of Bandcamp Friday.
To be fair, there was probably a lot going on earlier this year. In March, Epic Games announced that it was acquiring Music Marketplace, adding that Bandcamp “will continue to operate as a standalone marketplace and music community” but that it will be “a creator marketplace for content in Epic’s vision.” Will play an important role to create ecosystem, technology, sports, art, music and much more.”
At the time, Bandcamp co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond said that things will more or less remain business as usual for its users. He also promised that Bandcamp Friday would continue, which he did at least for a while.
While the company did not immediately respond ledgeRequest for comment on why it took a break, I’m glad to hear they’re back. Personally, there are a few Manchester Orchestra and Car Seat Headrest albums I have my eye on, and it’s a perfect excuse to pick them up. How are you?