Bandcamp 1.0: The best home on the web for your music?

Today’s guest post comes from Mike Ventimiglia who graciously agreed to write up a review of his experience with Bandcamp.com for his band, The Mississippi Kings. I’ve seen a lot of bands utilizing the tools on Bandcamp, so if you are looking for a platform for managing your band’s digital downloads, you might want to check out Bandcamp.

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Bandcamp is currently a free music platform that gives bands their own personal website to manage music downloads while offering real-time statistics.

I stumbled onto this site recently when they went 1.0 a few weeks ago.  After checking out the site and its features I decided to shift my band’s entire music page to a Bandcamp profile in order to help us better track, organize and sell our music.

You begin by uploading a lossless version of an audio file (.aif or .wav), after which this file is automatically converted into a variety of formats (FLAC, Apple lossless, 128/320kbps Mp3’s, AAC and more).  This wide range of download options is one of the main features of the site, allowing fans different files suited to their taste as well as allowing the artist to name their price for higher quality formats if so desired.  (For example offering free mp3’s at 128kps, while offering higher quality downloads at a pre-determined price).

Artwork is large and viewable while the songs stream rather quickly.  I never found myself waiting for a song to load after hitting play which is a great surprise compared to most other music sites. The overall look of the site is uniform and neat, providing for easy browsing of albums and singles.  While the band profiles are not totally customizable, I was able to make one that looks fairly similar to our own existing website.  I believe this is one of the aspects of the site that still needs some work, as further control over the site’s design would allow even more integration with your existing webpage.

This brings us to another great feature of Bandcamp (one which was a selling point for me), the ability to change the URL of your profile to your own custom domain or sub-domain.  For example I changed my band’s profile from mississippikings.bandcamp.com to music.themississippikings.com with little trouble and was able to exploit it as the Music section of our website, instead of yet another streaming site for your band’s music.

Once on your site, Bandcamp makes it easy for your fans to share your content over the web, by having quick share links on each song page.  In an instant, fans can embed your music on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc., with a few simple clicks.  You also have the option of collecting email address for fans if you so choose.  Once the address is entered an email containing the download link is sent to the fan’s email (much the same way the recent Nine Inch Nails downloads have been released).  After downloading the track fans will notice that all the metadata is provided as well as the album artwork, making it simple to import into iTunes or other media players.  The site also allows you to enable download codes which can be given out to die-hard fans for free downloads before anyone else has access.

All transactions are paid for using PayPal/credit card and the artist keeps one hundred percent of the profit minus PayPal’s transaction fees (usually around 50 cents per album).   You can also keep track of your profits, free downloads, hits, and song plays, through the real-time statistics provided in your login page.

Overall I’d say if you’re offering a lot of downloads for sale on your website, then Bandcamp is a great way to keep them organized and collect the vital information you want from fans while maintaining a profile that can be an extension of your own website.  I found their customer service to be very quick and they are willing to take ideas from bands in order to make their service more user-friendly.  With the only downfalls being the strict layout structure and the availability of only one Buy CD link (problems that they are supposedly currently working), I’d recommend musicians give the service a chance and see if it can be useful for them.

For more information you can watch the video provided on the Bandcamp homepage.

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Written by: Mike Ventimiglia

Co-founder of Red Coast Records: Specializing in breaking independent artists though alternative group management and DIY methods.

Also a member of the international touring act, The Mississippi Kings.
www.themississippikings.com
The Mississippi Kings on Twitter