Bandcamp Rakes in More Than $4 Million for Artists in Wake of COVID-19

Bandcamp has announced that fans spent $4.3 million on music and merch on its platform this past Friday. Earlier that week, the platform stated that it would be waving its revenue share for one day to help raise awareness and funds for independent musicians who have been affected by the music industry’s full-stop shutdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

In an update written by the company’s co-founder Ethan Diamond, the company explained that the website experienced 15 times more activity and purchases than normal this past Friday. “The numbers tell a remarkable story,” wrote Diamond. “On a typical Friday, fans buy about 47,000 items on Bandcamp, but this past Friday, fans bought nearly 800,000.”

On Friday, Bandcamp experienced so much traffic that, at times, the website struggled to keep up with demand. “At the peak,” writes Diamond, “fans were buying 11 items per second.”

In the wake of widespread concert cancellations and the halt of physical sales on Amazon, independent musicians are relying on merch sales and digital downloads on Bandcamp as one of their sole remaining sources of revenue. Last week, Rolling Stone staff members suggested a series of records available on Bandcamp for purchase on Friday.