Bandcamp, the online music store for independent artists, is giving those artists 100% of the proceeds from sales of their albums, T-shirts and other merchandise sold online on Friday, March 20, only.
That’s a big deal for indie artists like Tucson singer-songwriter Brian Lopez. Usually Bandcamp takes a cut of the sales to cover its costs.
As of noon, Lopez said he had sold a few records on the site, which was overwhelmed early in the day from the online traffic.
“For many artists, a single day of boosted sales can make the difference between being able to pay rent or not,” Bandcamp’s founder and CEO Ethan Diamond wrote in a note to fans on the website.
Diamond said they also were looking at other ideas to help artists generate revenue through their fans.
Bandcamp said it would get the money from Friday’s sales into the hands of artists within 48 hours.
Bandcamp’s campaign runs through midnight Friday. In addition to Lopez, some of the Tucson artists who sell their music on Bandcamp include Calexico, Naim Amor, Lopez’s side project XIXA, Gabriel Sullivan and Orkestra Mendoza.
