Digital music retailer Bandcamp has announced its fee-free musician project Bandcamp Fridays will continue through the end of 2020. Since Friday, March 20, Bandcamp has donated 100 percent of its fees earned on sales during the first Friday of each month to the various musicians, artists and record labels that are unable to make money through their live tours (a primary source of revenue for many artists.)
Coined Bandcamp Fridays, the initiative was created as a means to support musicians shortly after the coronavirus pandemic essentially shuttered the live music and entertainment industry almost overnight.
The remaining Bandcamp Fridays, which run from midnight to midnight PST, will continue to take place on the first Friday of each month, falling on the following dates:
- August 7, 2020
- September 4, 2020
- October 2, 2020
- November 6, 2020
- December 4, 2020
Bandcamp revealed on Twitter today that the last four Bandcamp Fridays alone have resulted in over $20 million going directly to artists and labels. Dating back to March, the retailer says, “fans have bought more than $75 million worth of music and merch directly from artists and labels, and to date, fans have paid artists over half a billion dollars on Bandcamp.”
In honor of this year’s Juneteenth, Bandcamp donated 100% of its earned sales revenue to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Moreover, numerous record labels also waived their share of revenue dollars to support BIPOC initiatives through groups like Black Lives Matter and anti-racism organizations along with local bail-out funds.
To show their support for the initiative, many musicians have shared exclusive releases for Bandcamp Fridays, ranging from merchandise and live concert albums to even brand new music. Additionally, artists like Bjork and Yo La Tengo have all joined Bandcamp for the first time in order to participate while Sonic Youth have shown their support by using the platform to offer fans a number of rare releases from their archives.
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