Musicians utilizing the Bandcamp platform raked in over $4 million dollars on Friday when the platform waived revenue shares during the COVID-19 pandemic. Selling music and merchandise, musicians were able to make 15 times what they would on a normal Friday. In all, 800,000 items were sold. To put that in to perspective, 47,000 items are sold on a typical Friday.
Bandcamp was not the only platform to waive revenue shares during the pandemic. Smaller labels like Anti-, Fat Possum, Merge, Polyvinyl, Saddle Creek and Sub Pop did the same on Friday.
Last Friday, fans spent $4.3 million—15x a normal day of sales—in support of artists on Bandcamp https://t.co/ElpCIN3s4f
— bandcamp (@Bandcamp) March 23, 2020
These are small gestures for the many creatives significantly impacted by the ongoing global health crisis. Live Nation has shut down all of its U.S. venues for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, major music events such as Bonnaroo, SXSW, Coachella, Something In The Water and Broccoli City Festival have all either been postponed or cancelled.
Overseas, the impact is significant as well. On Sunday, The Guardian reported that U.K. musicians had lost an estimated £13.9m in earnings because of the virus.
A recent report from Forbes indicates that the pandemic will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. The report projects that if the U.S. were to follow Italy’s path, there could be nearly 700,000 confirmed cases nationwide. However, projections closer towards Germany’s trajectory could lean closer to 220,000 confirmed cases.
