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How to Publish Your Music on Bandcamp

Many musicians dedicate large amounts of time and money to recording their music, but very few capitalize on the music they produce. It has never been easier for a musician to release their music globally across multiple platforms and start to generate revenue from the music they produce.

The choice of digital services to sell your music on is vast. Some services take a big commission but market their websites heavily, while others take a small commission and leave the marketing to the artists that use them.

If you are a new artist, the marketing spend for the platform you use to sell your music is not important. What is important is the amount of commission you receive. Selling your music on iTunes might sound impressive. But, how impressive is it when you receive a low commission for your music?

One platform that established with musicians in mind is Bandcamp.

Bandcamp Takes a Small Commission

Created with artists in mind, Bandcamp is free and easy to add your music to, and the commission is one of the lowest at just 15%. There are also some cool features that help you market your music. In my opinion, this is the best service available for new artists, though not without its challenges.

Avoid high PayPal fees on Bandcamp

You need to set up your Bandcamp and PayPal payments as micro-payments. Don't sell your music as a complete album, but rather, sell each track individually. But, give the customer the option to buy the individual tracks as a full album. Make sure your account is set to micro-payments, and you will pay just 5%, not 30%.

Give Away Free Music on Bandcamp

The coolest feature on Bandcamp is the ability to give away free music. This is a great way to introduce new people to your music. When you give songs away on Bandcamp, you are rewarded with the e-mail address of the person who accepts your free download. This is a great way of building a fan base and a mailing list.

A personal e-mail address is the greatest marketing gift you can receive. That e-mail address is a constant point of contact and the gateway to the owner's social media accounts. Artists that use Bandcamp effectively give away free music and build big lists of people for when they have music for sale.

Bandcamp is Just a Shop

Bandcamp is retail space; it is a giant digital music store. Your music will be there with thousands of other artists and albums. It is up to you to market your music. Give away free tracks, link your Bandcamp page to every social media account you have, have your Bandcamp page as the signature on every forum you post on. The more your name and page are in the public eye, the more traffic you will generate. If anybody wants to buy your music, send them to the place where you receive the highest commission.

Bandcamp is a very good service and the perfect starting point if you are looking to sell your music. As with anything, you need to promote your music through social media and music streaming services such as SoundCloud.

With low commission and no upfront costs, Bandcamp is the perfect way to start selling your music online. Music fans do spend a great deal of time looking for new music on this website and are happy to buy music from Bandcamp, knowing the vast majority of the money is going to the artists and not a corporation.

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