[Closed] Musicians of STW - purchasing question

I recently bought stuff from Bandcamp for a particular artist, which seems like a good compromise?

Yep, I was wondering about Bandcamp.  I'm not tied to physical media although I do like the fact that vinyl these days also tends to come with more downloads for when you are on the move

The majority of independent musicians I know (quite a few) and work with prefer BandCamp as the lesser of the evils. That’s not to say they aren’t on Spotify too but at least they earn money from BandCamp whereas Spotify is radio AirPlay rates (if they’re lucky)

Bandcamp.

You can can also use it as a store front to those that would like to buy a physical copy, if you have one. You also get control over the pricing.

Excellent, thanks all. STW as always is the source of all wisdom

And a fair amount of crap as well but funny crap

A band I play with just released a record last week using bandcamp and CD Baby, plus a stack of cds to sell at gigs. We're rubbish at marketing but already getting enquiries to send cds internationally and the downloads are working well because CD Baby distribute on a variety of digital platforms. Google makes searching for the record difficult due to a poor choice of band name but I've been impressed how quickly the record was made available if you actually search on amazon/itunes/whatever. Gigging pays better, medium size towns rather than big cities.

As far as getting paid for your music goes, Spotify & the like suck.

Direct sales on iTunes don’t generally happen unless you have a marketing budget, although there are various methods (and associated costs) of getting your music onto iTunes. Compared with the price of a decent recording, though, the cost of getting into iTunes is almost negligible.

unless you have a marketing budget, I reckon selling CDs at your shows might be the most cost effective

Which is better for you? CD baby or Bandcamp,? I'm just trying to find the most effective way to support a band when I have a choice

A million+ streams on Spotify will get you less than £1000, about £8-900 or so. Bandcamp is much better, you can have free downloads if you want, sell a whole digital album, sell CD’s, probably vinyl and cassette as well. Physical sales at gigs are a must, folk like me like getting stuff signed, and limited edition stuff sold only at gigs is always popular. Again, old-skool formats like cassette and vinyl have become really popular again, a 90’s band I love, Dubstar, have just announced a new album on pre-order, with signed CD’s, vinyl, and a cassette as well.

Bulk purchase a load of cheap Chinese music streaming devices. Give them away to as many friends as possible and ask them in return to plug in to mains, set to mute, and play your album on spotify on endless repeat loop, 24/7, 365 days a year.......

Which is better for you? CD baby or Bandcamp,?

Reading through the terms of various services it depends what you're looking to do. Some services charge an annual fee but you get a higher return per unit, others it's a one-off fee but they take more per cd. We went with the option that seemed to cover the greatest number of services (for potential exposure / findability) and that we wouldn't have to remember to renew subscriptions each year. For us, like many bands, even though we've made an interesting and well recorded album it's primarily a tool for getting bigger gigs and attracting interest rather than seeing a return.

Yes, streaming services are a con, I don't use them myself as a listener, but a lot of people use them as a first call to check out a band recommendation. Like I said, findability. Just don't let the bass player choose a band name that confuses google.