Do you use Bandcamp?

^When I buy music off of Bandcamp with a "name your price" option, for people I've only heard a few songs by I usually pick the free option, but for ones I do follow I'll throw $10-$20ish.

  On 3/25/2011 at 3:02 PM, BCM said:

one thing i want to know about bandcamp - have any of you actually made any money? like, more than say £100?

I dont charge

  On 3/26/2011 at 12:29 PM, Ranky Redlof said:

related question

what percentage of people actually give money when you do the "name your price" thing?

 

I got more money when I set it to 'name your price' than when I was charging £3 for an EP! Lots of people download it for free but every once in a while some kind soul will chuck a tenner your way! Its nice!

I usually give $1-5.

Is anyone else having problems editing their profile in the past few days? I'm trying to change my email address and it keeps giving me a "Sorry there was an unexpected problem. Please try that again." message.

http://chrismossacid.bandcamp.com/releases

its a nice way to release my music they way they were meant to be Released... LOSSLESS.

  On 3/26/2011 at 5:43 PM, placidburp said:

  On 3/26/2011 at 12:29 PM, Ranky Redlof said:

related question

what percentage of people actually give money when you do the "name your price" thing?

 

 

I got more money when I set it to 'name your price' than when I was charging £3 for an EP! Lots of people download it for free but every once in a while some kind soul will chuck a tenner your way! Its nice!

I paid. :)

I have 3 bandcamp accounts btw.

On my side, about 10% of the people gave some money when I used the 'pay what you want' option. from 1 to 10$.

I just started using it, it seems pretty wicked so far

I don't charge any money and can barely get 20 downloads an album.

  On 3/28/2011 at 6:15 AM, Spore said:

I don't charge any money and can barely get 20 downloads an album.

Are you promoting any of your stuff? This goes without saying but bandcamp is just a storefront, it doesn't bring anyone new to your music, only the people you direct there..

  On 3/28/2011 at 9:21 AM, blacks said:

  On 3/28/2011 at 6:15 AM, Spore said:

I don't charge any money and can barely get 20 downloads an album.

 

Are you promoting any of your stuff? This goes without saying but bandcamp is just a storefront, it doesn't bring anyone new to your music, only the people you direct there..

well, not exactly no. any tips? I was thinking of buying some last.fm radio time targeted at specific users, I did it before in the past just for the fuck of it and it was kind of cool. Maybe that'll bring more people I guess.

Finally got around to posting all the stuff I've released in the past on bandcamp, here's the link! I mostly got it so that all my stuff can be streamed, but I'm curious to see if anyone would donate. If people seem to donate I might put a bunch of unreleased stuff up there and give up on getting a proper label, as it'd be cool to get a bit of money just to pay for my minimal music expenses!

  On 3/25/2011 at 3:02 PM, BCM said:

one thing i want to know about bandcamp - have any of you actually made any money? like, more than say £100?

I have, but I've put out half a dozen releases under a myriad of aliases. When you consider the hours spent making and promoting it, it doesn't seem like so much money.

  On 3/26/2011 at 12:29 PM, Ranky Redlof said:

related question

what percentage of people actually give money when you do the "name your price" thing?

i usually just down it for free then

but when there is a set (not too high) price i would down it anyway if i like it

seems like it's very -EV to do it that way from a commercial aspect(if you look at it in a vacuum ofcourse, newbies are better by just giving it away for free anyway as promotion)

maybe waiting for some drunk to put in 1000$ could be a good strategy ofcourse

In my case, and with other bandcamp users I've talked to, 10% paying for the release is usually a rule of thumb. If you get 50 downloads, 5 people will likely pay money for it, whatever amount. Now if you have some really cool fans and those 5 people each shell out $10-$20, you've just made more money than if you would had you chosen to charge a flat rate of $5 for the release and the same 5 fans bought it. (and in the latter case, those other 45 people just downloaded a 96kbps version from a torrent or Soulseek or Youtube rips)

hmm interesting, thought it would be harder to make money that way.

thanks for the answers guys!

I use it from my little poorly organised collective, http://music.longreachcollective.com, we just about paid for domains and hosting through it over the last year.

I use bandcamp

I use it. your money's no good to me.

I'll start using bandcamp when they PUT A GOD DAMN VOLUME CONTROL ON THEIR FUCKING MUSIC PLAYER! That shit drives me up the wall. What is this, 1998? How hard is it to code a damn volume control? Not all of us have easy access to a volume control on our speakers. I fucking hate that shit, and as a result I avoid any links to bandcamp like the plague. Complete fail.

/Rant over

  On 3/29/2011 at 7:13 AM, Spore said:

  On 3/28/2011 at 9:21 AM, blacks said:

  On 3/28/2011 at 6:15 AM, Spore said:

I don't charge any money and can barely get 20 downloads an album.

 

Are you promoting any of your stuff? This goes without saying but bandcamp is just a storefront, it doesn't bring anyone new to your music, only the people you direct there..

 

well, not exactly no. any tips? I was thinking of buying some last.fm radio time targeted at specific users, I did it before in the past just for the fuck of it and it was kind of cool. Maybe that'll bring more people I guess.

Well it all depends on the style of course, but I try to make a big list of all of the blogs/music outlets that handle your type of music, or even anything close to it and bug the hell out of them for any attention at all. Also, your facebook and twitter or whatever the hell can be a great resource to get your stuff out and get it in front of people, don't forget that the people who are going to like your stuff and actually promote are more often than not the people who already know you, as they'll care a lot more than a casual listener. All you really need are fifty real fans and they will get the next thousand for you. Hope that helps..

  On 4/12/2011 at 6:53 AM, blacks said:

All you really need are fifty real fans and they will get the next thousand for you. Hope that helps..

that's an inspiring little bit of advice. thanks !

For what it's worth, I use Bandcamp, and my fans have complimented me on the 320kbps MP3 and FLAC options, and the lack of DRM, plus the free full length previews for as many times as they'd like to listen to the music before they decide whether to buy it or not. Presumably they like the music too, but most often they seem to talk about how good these options and freedoms are. So I'm very happy with Bandcamp, and I think I'll exclusively offer my music through them in the near future.

our original plan for our site was to build it from scratch, but the dude that was going to build it for us got his house broken into and his computer equipment stolen. That forced me into a crash course in wordpress and building the site that way. At first I didn't like the idea doing it that way. I guess i thought that it would make it seem a generic option. I'm glad I was wrong. found out that other established labels such as brainfeeder, lex, and stonestrhow use the format. on our "releases" tab, we have links to the bandcamp releases. and within the bandcamp release, there's a "buy cd" option that links to big cartel. This seems to be working well for us.

our model right now (although I don't agree with it) is that the digital downloads will be offered for free and we'll put a price on the CDs of $9.99 + Shipping. I'd rather have the Digital Downloads a name your price instead of completely free. Perhaps when we reach the Neotropic release and Kemek releases, we'll implement that model instead.

Oh... Here's the bandcamp to the label http://architectsandheroes.bandcamp.com/

  On 4/23/2011 at 11:42 PM, asymmetrical head said:

our original plan for our site was to build it from scratch, but the dude that was going to build it for us got his house broken into and his computer equipment stolen. That forced me into a crash course in wordpress and building the site that way. At first I didn't like the idea doing it that way. I guess i thought that it would make it seem a generic option. I'm glad I was wrong. found out that other established labels such as brainfeeder, lex, and stonestrhow use the format. on our "releases" tab, we have links to the bandcamp releases. and within the bandcamp release, there's a "buy cd" option that links to big cartel. This seems to be working well for us.our model right now (although I don't agree with it) is that the digital downloads will be offered for free and we'll put a price on the CDs of $9.99 + Shipping. I'd rather have the Digital Downloads a name your price instead of completely free. Perhaps when we reach the Neotropic release and Kemek releases, we'll implement that model instead.Oh... Here's the bandcamp to the label http://architectsandheroes.bandcamp.com/

Cool man. Sounds legit.

  On 4/23/2011 at 9:04 AM, illfly mandog said:

BANDCAMP

SO YOU ARE EDIFICE! Welcome to Karakasa! I'm glad to have you as a label mate.