5 causes to purchase music from Bandcamp

Should you’ve ever heard concerning the ethical issues with music streaming and need to do one thing about it, one nice strategy to get away from it’s by shopping for music instantly from artists. One platform that is nice for doing that’s Bandcamp, the place artists can instantly promote their music and merchandise. As a substitute of getting paid a fraction of a cent per stream, you may really assist your favourite artists extra instantly.

So in case you’re unsure about Bandcamp and all the advantages from utilizing it, listed here are a number of the essential the explanation why you may need to purchase music from artists on Bandcamp and forego your ordinary streaming habits.

1 You personal the music you purchase and it may’t be taken away from you

No DRM software program to be discovered right here

If you purchase music on Bandcamp, be it a digital copy, a CD, vinyl, or a cassette, you get to maintain that music in whichever format you buy it in. On the flip facet, whenever you hearken to music on a streaming service, since you’re paying a subscription price and do not really personal the music, it may be taken away every time on the will of the distributor.

As such, all downloads from Bandcamp are freed from DRM (digital rights administration) software program. So you may’t be restricted from utilizing the music at a later date on the will of any copyright holders. As soon as you have downloaded that music, you may’t have it taken away from you.

Moreover, whenever you purchase digital downloads on Bandcamp, you may re-download the music you bought indefinitely. That is in distinction to different platforms which will solely allow you to hearken to bought media on their platform, like how Apple solely enables you to obtain music you beforehand bought on iTunes to 10 gadgets.

2 You’ll be able to assist artists extra instantly

Whereas streaming providers pay a fraction of a cent per stream, shopping for music will get cash into artists’ fingers

Whereas streaming providers pay artists cents, and even fractions of a cent, per stream, whenever you purchase music on Bandcamp, you are supporting the artist extra instantly by giving them cash instantly for purchasing their tracks or albums. Bandcamp itself takes 10% of the earnings from bodily media buy and 15% from digital purchases, with the remainder going to artists.

On occasion Bandcamp may have a “Bandcamp friday” occasion the place artists get 100% of the earnings from gross sales. That is a fair higher alternative to assist your favourite artists, since you may make sure that each cent you spend goes straight to them.

3 You may get prime quality lossless tracks

Spotify will not allow you to obtain FLACs, however Bandcamp will

A whole lot of the time whenever you purchase digital tracks from an artist on Bandcamp, they’re going to be CD-quality, which is 16-bit/44.1kHz lossless high quality. That is normal lossless high quality, and is considerably higher high quality than the best high quality you may at present get on Spotify.

Lossless principally implies that the unique sound of the recording is retained, and though lossless music remains to be compressed to a level, it isn’t compressed to the diploma of the common MP3 file, and the compression is finished in a means that also retains the unique high quality of the music. So by shopping for lossless music from artists by Bandcamp, you will be positive you are listening to every part you need to be listening to, as long as you are listening with wired headphones or audio system, at the very least.

4 You should purchase music from smaller artists that are not on streaming providers

Anybody can promote their music on Bandcamp, making it nice for native acts

To get music on a streaming service, there are a whole lot of steps to be taken, and it is actually tough for small unbiased artists to get on streaming providers. However Bandcamp permits bands to easily add their music to the location with out leaping by all of the hoops one must on a streaming service like Spotify.

So in case you’re extra excited by exploring native or small bands that may’t handle to get on a streaming service, Bandcamp is a good way to try this. Should you go to a neighborhood present and see a cool band you actually like, there’s an awesome probability they’re already on Bandcamp, so you may assist them instantly there.

5 Some artists use a pay-what-you-can mannequin

You’ll be able to pay much less if you do not have a lot to spend, or pay extra if you wish to

Mick Haupt / Unsplash

Bandcamp has the choice for artists to promote their music beneath a pay-what-you-can mannequin, which is nice for individuals who need to assist artists however do not essentially have a lot cash to take action. Most individuals who do that are smaller artists, you are unlikely to discover a larger artist beneath a label that does this, but it surely’s a pleasant strategy to present assist on your favourite native artists even when you may’t totally afford to beneath regular circumstances.