[Commons-Law] Plug for Bandcamp

[Patrice Riemens]

bwo Tetalab list

FYI. Looks interesting. However, 'caveat emptor' applies (in hackerspeak
"trust but verify" ;-)

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http://blog.bandcamp.com/2012/01/03/cheaper-than-free/

Cheaper than Free

A few months ago, we began tracking the starting point of every sale that
happens on Bandcamp. In the course of looking at the data (which we’re
using to help us plan out what to do next), we’ve noticed something
awesome: every day, fans are buying music that they specifically set out
to get for free.

For example, just this morning someone paid $10 for an album after
Googling “lelia broussard torrent.” A bit later, a fan plunked down $17
after searching for “murder by death, skeletons in the closet, mediafire.”
Then a $15 sale came in from the search “maimouna youssef the blooming
hulkshare.” Then a fan made a $12 purchase after clicking a link on music
torrent tracker What.CD. Then someone spent $10 after following a link on
The Pirate Bay, next to the plea “They sell their album as a download on
their website. You can even choose your format (mp3, ogg, flac, etc).
Cmon, support this awesome band!”

We see these sales as proof that Bandcamp can effectively compete with
filesharing and other free distribution platforms by a) giving fans a
clear, easy way to directly support the artist, and b) offering them a
better user experience. Our favorite recent example of this was an $8 sale
that started with the search “milosh flac -torrent.” So here was a fan
looking for a Milosh record, wanted a high quality flac, but didn’t want
to have to sift through a bunch of torrent sites. And that led them right
to Bandcamp, and right to putting money in the artist’s pocket. Beautiful.

A little more uplifting info to ring in the new year:

    In the month of December alone, Bandcamp artists raked in more than
one million dollars in music and merch sales (bringing the total
to-date to $12.6MM).
    22% of those sales happened because of Bandcamp, driven by things like
tags, the home page, recommendations, and search.
    40% of the time, fans pay more than the asking price for
name-your-price albums.
    53% of all purchases are made by fans located outside the U.S. (Check
out the countries in this recent snapshot of the live sales feed.)

When we first launched Bandcamp, the conventional wisdom was that music
retail was moribund, and that artists’ futures were all about those
terrifically lucrative tours you guys go on, supplemented perhaps by
trickle-down advertising revenue generated by millions of listeners
enjoying your tunes while doing their best to ignore ads for toothpaste.
Fortunately, it appears there’s still a thriving community of fans who
understand that the best way to support the artists they love is by
handing them money. We aspire to present this truth as clearly as
possible, and provide a service that respects both the integrity of the
artist, and the intelligence of any serious music fan. Thank you for being
a part of it!