Bandcamp vs Spotify for Artists

Bandcamp and Spotify occupy opposite positions in the music industry. The choice between them depends on whether you prioritize the listener's convenience or the artist's compensation. Bandcamp lets artists sell music directly to fans, setting their own prices with an option for listeners to pay more. The platform takes a 15% cut, compared to the fraction-of-a-cent-per-stream that Spotify pays. With 600 million users, Spotify's discovery algorithm surfaces new music to listeners who would never find it on their own. Distribution reach is the trade-off artists accept for the low per-stream revenue. Bandcamp functions more like a record store than a streaming service. You browse, you listen, you decide to buy. The transaction feels like support rather than consumption. Apple Music sits between the 2 models, paying roughly twice Spotify's per-stream rate while offering a similar listening experience, but without Bandcamp's direct-to-fan model. The community around Bandcamp is passionate about independent music. Bandcamp Fridays, when the platform waives its revenue share and passes 100% to artists, have become a monthly event that generated over $100 million in direct artist payments since the program started. Bandcamp proved that a platform can be commercially viable while prioritizing the people who create the content over the people who consume it.