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Bandcamp lets musicians be heard
Promoting your music online is not an easy task; MySpace is notoriously crappy, and that means there's room for other options.
One of these other options is Bandcamp. Gratuitous American Pie cracks aside, the service seems pretty solid. It has a nice minimalistic feel to it, while leaving enough space for a band to brand itself. It's a bit less artsy than Muxtape, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
From a technology standpoint, the service sets itself apart in a few ways:
- Artists can make their downloads available in multiple formats, from low-fi MP3 through Ogg, AAC, all the way to studio-quality FLAC or Apple Lossless. The artist uploads one lossless file, and Bandcamp handles the transcoding.
- A band can offer low-fi versions of a song for free while charging for higher bitrates, and even let fans "name their price". Users get correctly tagged tracks and cover art.
- Comprehensive analytics for artists, including tracking embedded tracks users have shared elsewhere (somewhat invasive, I think).
If you're a musician looking for a place on the web, Bandcamp may well be worth a look. And if you're already a user, let me know what you think about it in the comments.
Comments
9
Subscribe to commentsDeoWulfFeb 3rd 2010 6:37PM
This might be worth a look. I'm not really making music anymore, but I plan to start again...... sometime.....
Stolen BoyfriendFeb 3rd 2010 8:12PM
I've been using Bandcamp for a while now, and it's great. Really solid.
I can use my own domain (stolenboyfriend.com) and it's absolutely free. Can't get much better than that.
I'm amazed it hasn't gotten more publicity.
emassoniFeb 3rd 2010 10:38PM
I've already used this site a few times to download some albums from local talent. Love the fact that I can choose a high quality MP3 (V0). Prior to this, I noticed artists would just upload their 192kbps (often worse) album to their blog. Glad to see more people using this site.
My only gripe would be that to download something you have to put your e-mail and then it automatically signs up you up to the artist's mailing list. Not a big concern, though, because I usually unsubscribe with the first e-mail I receive.
Mihran DeirmendjianFeb 3rd 2010 11:01PM
THANK YOU! This is exactly what I was looking for. I just want to say that DownloadSquad has been an invaluable informant in regards to online tools/services which would otherwise remain well under my radar. I regularly check this sight just for this reason. Keep it up and thank you very, very, very much.
BatmanFeb 3rd 2010 11:02PM
THANK YOU! This is exactly what I was looking for. I just want to say that DownloadSquad has been an invaluable informant in regards to online tools/services which would otherwise remain well under my radar. I regularly check this sight just for this reason. Keep it up and thank you very, very, very much.
Stolen BoyfriendFeb 4th 2010 3:31AM
@emassoni:
"My only gripe would be that to download something you have to put your e-mail and then it automatically signs up you up to the artist's mailing list"
This is only if the artist has selected the option I believe.
toniuttiFeb 4th 2010 7:58AM
Been using Bandcamp from several months now. The service is awesome, their blog is amusing (as the faq) and it actually works. The new ability to add physical goods to the store is top too.
blogwardFeb 4th 2010 12:14PM
Why have Mirhan and Batman posted exactly the same thing?
MikeFeb 5th 2010 7:31AM
I have been using the bandcamp platform for a few months not. I use it to promote 2 EP's of which i have released for free (partly because they contain remixes of famous peoples tracks which i dont hold the rights to, and cannot sell ethically - as i want to support the original artist.)
Though i have not had a allot of traffic towards my bandcamp page (lack of promotion) it is still one of the easiest and quickest way to allow all your fans true access to music of their choosing.
if anyone is interested and wants to grab my EP's visit www.bandcamp.com/gyre
Thanks to downloadsquad for making this article and pushing a genuinely great website!