Bandcamp, Bandcamp, BANDCAMP! If you are NOT using Bandcamp, forget what your friends are telling you is the hottest way to release music and get Bandcamp! No matter if you are using Distrokid, CDbaby, Tunecore, Soundcloud, some random mixtape site – whatever, you should ALSO have a bandcamp!
The Basics:
Bandcamp let’s you upload album / singles and sell them.
Bandcamp let’s you sell music / merchandise via their website
(They take 15% Commision of music sales and 10% of Merch – but iTunes for examples takes 30% of ALL SALES)
Inside the Box:
Different Audio Formats – Bandcamp let’s the downloader choose the audio format and audio quality they wish to download so they appease to casual fans and audiophiles!
Name Your Price – The checkbox says “Let Fans Pay More If They Want” and YES, Check it! This let’s people download something for FREE or NAME THE PRICE they are willing to spend with you! This is heavy as it allows supporters to give you a little extra and combined with our NEXT point it’s powerful!
E-Mail List – The next check box says “Require E-Mail Address” on Free downloads and it the download costs money or is a “Let Fans Pay More If They want” it will give you the option to “Require E-Mail Address If Fan Enters Zero” for the price. Bandcamp will Archive a list of E-Mail addresses and EVERY TIME you release new music on it, they will e-mail your fans. This list can be exported into other Mail Marketing services and programs easily if you wish to take your e-mail marketing to the next level!
Merch – You can sell Merch, keep track of inventory, add custom fields for items and most importantly, INCLUDE MUSIC DOWNLOADS WITH PURCHASES! Make limited edition merch that includes albums for sale downloads when they buy them!
Okay, cool! Bandcamp rocks……Now are you using it to it’s full potential? ISRC CODES!
TRACK ISRC: You probably saw this at the bottom of all your releases while editing and uploading them. Are you utilizing it?
An ISRC Code is a specific code generated by your distributor in most cases that tracks sales, plays and radio spins of a specific track, while the code given to the entire album is called the UPC, but essentially does the same thing. This ISRC code can be PERMANENTLY coded into the actual sound file to report when it’s played on the radio for you! Which means if you have your publishing in order, which you should by now, you are covered to earn royalties! Here’s how to use it. For example we use Distrokid, when our music is uploaded and becomes live on all streaming platforms we get a screen listing the songs and to the right it displays the ISRC code. Most digital distributors generate these for you – FREE – but you can pay a small fee to generate them yourself. Copy THAT code and input it into the TRACK ISRC field of your bandcamp upload! Boom, when that song is played or purchased it will report it to SoundScan! (Make sure you input your UPC code for the album itself too, not JUST the track ISRC codes)
You’d be surprised how many artists I talk to that have NOT done this step – crazy right?! Don’t be the next guy!
P.S. regardless of what music site / service you are using, there should be an ISRC code section for you to input this data and you should. Soundcloud has it listed under their metadata section for example!
