What started as a one-time initiative to help struggling artists who’d lost their whole live music revenue stream is now a monthly event – starting tomorrow (May 1), on the first of every month online music sales platform Bandcamp will waive its revenue share and give 100 per cent of sales to artists.
It’s a way to put money directly into the hands of artists without relying on royalty payouts from streaming services. And now labels and musicians are starting to put out special releases, arrange donations and merch specifically for the day. In a way, it’s a socially distant version of Record Store Day how it was originally intended – a way to support music sales and put exclusive and rare music into the hands of listeners. It just needs a catchy name.
You can find the full list of deals, exclusives and donations here.
Here’s a few of the Canadian highlights:
Arts & Crafts: Giving 100 per cent of revenue to artists
Caribou: All revenue donated to No Kid Hungry and Help Refugees Covid appeal.
Constellation: Giving 100 per cent of revenue to artists.
FET.NAT: Donating proceeds from sales of Le Mal sales to Feed Ontario and Les Banques Alimentaires du Québec.
Jagjaguwar: Giving 100 per cent of digital revenue to artists releasing new singles from Black Mountain and Cut Worms releasing early demos from Pink Mountaintops.
Sean Nicholas Savage: Proceeds from previously unreleased track Live 4 Real being donated to Food Issues Group.
The Song is Coming From Inside the House: Compilation of B-Sides from Mount Eerie, Palehound, Hand Habits, Lala Lala, and many more going to the Rapid Response Fund administered by Groundswell in San Francisco. (Mount Eerie is an honourary Canadian).
Sub Pop: Giving 100 per cent of digital revenue to artists releasing exclusive cassingle from Bully collection of remastered Helio Sequence bonus tracks new digital single from Downtown Boys digital singles from METZ.
And if that’s not enough of a shopping list, we also got recommendations from 20 local artists.
Bandcamp’s sale runs from 3 am until 3 pm EST on Friday, May 1.
