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Bandcamp Fridays are back again
The music marketplace will waive its fees on the first Friday of each month through December.
Bandcamp is bringing back monthly commission-free Fridays
For 2022, Bandcamp is bringing back its once-a-month commission-free sales days starting on February 4th.
Bandcamp will keep waiving its fees one day a month through the end of 2021
Artists and labels have earned $56 million from Bandcamp Fridays.
Bandcamp will waive its fees every first Friday of the month until July
If you want to support independent musicians, Bandcamp isn't taking a cut of sales today and on the first Friday of June and July.
Bandcamp will waive its fees to help musicians affected by coronavirus
Tours and concerts are being cancelled left and right due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is taking a toll on musicians who rely on income from live shows to pay the bills -- most artists only take home about 10% of their record sales, so the majority of their revenue has to come from ticket sales and merchandise. To give bands and artists a small boost in sales, Bandcamp is waiving its commission fees on Friday, March 20th. Hopefully this will help musicians weather the storm while venues across the country are closed.
A big library of independent music is coming to TikTok
TikTok users will soon be able to choose from a huge variety of independent music to accompany their videos. Merlin, a digital rights agency for indie record labels, has signed a global partnership with the app, bringing music from labels like Epitaph and Sub Pop to TikTok's library. According to TechCrunch, the deal is also part of TikTok's rumored music streaming service, Resso, which is meant to compete with the likes of Spotify.
YouTube won't block music videos from Indie labels, but it won't pay them either
There's been some brouhaha about YouTube blocking a huge swathe of music videos before launching its paid Spotify rival. The truth, however, is a little more nuanced. Labels who haven't signed up to the website's new terms, the majority of which are independents like XL Recordings, will have their artist channels blocked in the next few days. It's not a blanket ban, however, since clips released through Vevo will remain, as well as fan-uploaded copies of tracks from artists like Radiohead, Adele and The xx. The kicker here, unfortunately, is that labels who won't sign up to the paid tier are also kicked out of YouTube's ad-supported monetization scheme. So while we may still be able to find Lotus Flower on a Radiohead fan's channel, the band itself won't get a single penny.
