Thread for awesome stuff on Bandcamp that costs money but is still awesome

This is a cool idea, Jordan & I'm enjoying what you've done with it so far. Limitations will set you free!

Thank you!

°°°°BARGING IN WITH GENERAL HELP INQUIRY°°°°

because jfc i'm frustrated rn

HOW IN THE HELL DO I PURCHASE SOMETHING IN THE IOS MOBILE APP!???!!

i'm signed in on my fan account and all i can see is the wishlist button. when i press it, it says that i'll get an email about how to add the album to my collection but the email never comes. i'm still able to do it via the mobile website but it just seems to defeat the purpose of the app.

this app is making me feel stupid.

it might not be possible, deliberately so - doesn't Apple demand a cut from any purchases made via apps?

Bandcamp should have a day where 100% of their cut from that day's transactions goes toward improving the Bandcamp app on both platforms.

There are certain albums that, for whatever reason, can be wishlisted but not purchased through the app. It's something I've encountered from time to time since at least 2018.

yep- frustration all around. I

…I actually ran into a few albums last night that straight up said “unavailable for purchase on the app”

sorry about the fragmented post there. posting from my iPod touch and trying to exist with fat guy fingers🫠

anyway.🥴

new obsidian blue and yes: it's an absolute beauty.

(super vibed out instrumental hiphop. boom it in your jeep.)

I am loving this album - its on Dean Blunt's label I think? No info about them other than that they are London based.

Its got that late night blank wonky indie sound that Blunt has. "Rear Window Rider" is a malevolent lil' number

https://doublevirgo.bandcamp.com/album/foolish-narratives

yeh great record

Benefit album available today (only); some good/big names on the tracklist:

https://goodmusiccomp.bandcamp.com/

Good Music to Ensure Safe Abortion Access to All is a compilation made up entirely of previously unreleased recordings from some of the most important names in music today. The album features never-before-heard new songs, covers, remixes, live versions, and unreleased demos from incredible artists across many genres. The collection is available exclusively for 24 hours only via Bandcamp TODAY Friday, October 7

Technically my music is free if you choose to pay nothing, but anything you do pay is donated to social justice/mutual aid/bail funds, any day:

https://ianmanire.bandcamp.com/track/sketch-22

Stuff I bought this Bandcamp Friday:

Writhing, Of Earth & Flesh (debut album by an Australian death metal band)
Al Wootton, Forest Trilogy (ambient/dubby techno inspired by the woods)
Les Rallizes Dénudés, '77 Live (CD reissue, pre-order of November release)
Kevin Richard Martin, Downtown (ambient-ish stuff)
Blockdata, Entropy (sound-design-ish electronic stuff, pre-order of late October release)
Submerged, Fury (heavy, industrial-ish drum 'n' bass, pre-order of December release)

My list was...a bit long.

FWIW, my own happy insanity: pic.twitter.com/NwdbPLRPM5

— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) October 8, 2022

Not unsurprisingly, my more modest purchases--but some really good stuff:

https://www.twitter.com/musicophiliamix/status/1578591507065753601

Question about bandcamp etiquette, asking for folks on both sides of the transaction - what's a reasonable time to wait for a Bandcamp order before following up with the artist/label about the status? 95% of my physical Bandcamp orders are super quick and efficient with helpful shipping notices, but every now and then I order something that just kind of goes silent. I have the utmost understanding of how hard things are for artists and I don't want to be a pain in the ass, trying to feel out the best time to check in without being a pestering drag.

Specific case in point, I ordered some back catalog albums from a specific artist and the confirmation gave me the standard "estimated to ship" and "arrive no later than" dates. In this case, I'm about two days past the latter and not so much as a shipping update. Reasonable to send a friendly inquiry at this point?

absolutely reasonable

Thanks, I sent an email and got a good response. I'm just always wary of being a pestering punisher especially to these smaller artists trying to juggle everything.

As a related note, wanted to shout out two really good experiences with this stuff - a) ordered the new Peel Dream Magazine from Slumberland and got a shipping notice 15 minutes later, I know this just means they clicked 'print' on a shipping label, but still surprisingly fast; b) ordered something from White Hills and they sent me a nice email about how they are currently on tour and will ship when they get back home, appreciated to get that kind of update.

Nothing about your previous post suggested in any way that you were a pestering punisher, so if the tone of your email was half as thoughtful as your post, I don't think you have anything to worry about. I think too often people enter into these discussions with a siege mentality - "where's my goddamn record, dipshits?" - which, unsurprisingly, doesn't tend to get results.

Not to turn this into a bandcamp complaints department but most labels, when you order multiple items from them, give you a break on the shipping costs when you buy more, like the first item might be $5 shipping but then they add just a buck or two for each individual item. Not Season of Mist though, they throw the full shipping charge at you for each and every single item in your cart.

Also NTTTIABCD but does anyone know why some albums don't have the option to add them to your wishlist?

xpost that seems like that has to be them being too stupid to know how to set it up? I would hope so at least.

when you set the shipping cost for 1 unit, theres another field where you have to set the shipping cost for additional units. you cant leave it blank, so i'd assume its a deliberate decision, imo.

It's annoying and this is literally the first label I've encountered it, but in the end I didn't even end up buying the one CD I wanted (the new Woods of Desolation) because, even though it was released today, it sold out completely in the half hour that I stepped away from my desk.

Sigh, hardly unique to Bandcamp, but I miss the days when you didn't have to pre-order an album the second it gets announced.

xp Free downloads can't be wishlisted, but is there anything else that can't be wishlisted?

Ah, thanks, maybe that's it...
I'll keep an eye out for next time I come across it...

The fantastic Bongo Joe label have just put out a NYP comp of contemporary Turkish psych artists with proceeds going to aid victims of the recent earthquake:

https://lesdisquesbongojoe.bandcamp.com/album/solidarity-with-february-2023-earthquake-victims

I don't know where to put this fabulous neo-classical piano release so I am putting it here:

https://mikiplayspiano.bandcamp.com/album/a-kind-of-mirror

And also while this thread is revived, please give your voice to this effort:

https://www.bandcampunited.org/show-support

Further, per this week's meeting and follow-up notes, they're encouraging (polite, obviously) emails to ethan @ bandcamp . com to protest their hiring of a union-busting firm. More information via this thread:

https://union.place/@bandcampunited/110136308462128979

(And of course, Bandcamp Friday in two days.)

Yuck. The union busting thing sucks...

Also:
Does anyone know how to turn OFF a genre in the music feed?
I selected to get alerts for DUB, but it's not much dub reggae, and tons of stoner techno, some of which might be fun, but too many alerts, and I can't get it to stop....

(I'm on the mobile app...)

lovely record, sleeve

thanks, yeah I really dig it

I'll throw this onto the pile, because I'm actually really proud of how it turned out. My first-ever "real" CD, a 2CD set in fact, compiling the three albums and one EP I released digital-only in 2022:

https://ianmanire.bandcamp.com/album/improvisations

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/0031873599_10.jpg

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/0031873605_71.jpg

really bizarre thing is I bought the new Grave Desecrator off of what appears to be a REALLY tiny label selling it, but it's legit their album to sell as this was linked from articles written about the band. I decided to buy a cd copy and just listen to the digital until it arrived, since it's coming overseas, but after the purchase, I notice only one of the 10 songs is downloadable. but it's not a situation where it's a new release that the artist hadn't 'released' yet, it shows as released and available.

so I message the label to ask where the other digital tracks are, and I get a response from them almost immediately from the guy saying he isn't 'allowed' to post digital at this time (???) and he points me to a Youtube link where the full album is.

is there ever a scenario where a label on Bandcamp legal wouldn't be allowed to share digital files if they had the rights to distribute the album? I have no idea how this works. Bandcamp told them though that they needed to provide digital copies of the files since it's what they are advertising.

meanwhile I ain't looking to take any money from the band, I just want what i paid for! and a youtube ain't it.

I bought a Spacemen 3 disc from Bandcamp where there was no digital copy offered for rights reasons. But I’m not sure of the details. It was when they were trying to bypass their shitty former manager I think.

is there ever a scenario where a label on Bandcamp legal wouldn't be allowed to share digital files if they had the rights to distribute the album? I have no idea how this works.

Yes. I've bought some reissues of Japanese jazz albums where the reissuing label only negotiated the rights for physical product, so I didn't get a download with my purchase. Or sometimes they won't have the rights to everything, so for example you'll buy a 2CD set with 15 tracks and only get a download of, like, nine.

my guess is maybe that happened, but the label mistakenly listed their album as CD + full digital rather than CD only (which I have seen on a few bandcamp albums).

The last Stereolab "Switched On" comp had the tracks from Lo-Fi on the CDs but not the digital purchase.

A few years ago this French label Transversales released a Philip Glass album on vinyl via Bandcamp that included a download code. It was sold out on their Bandcamp site by the time I heard about it, but I was able to find a copy through a distributor. However, copies sold via distributors didn't include a download code. So I emailed Transversales asking for a code but they told me they didn't have digital rights, only physical rights. I didn't, and still don't, understand why, if they didn't have digital rights, they were able to include a download code with copies purchased from their Bandcamp. (It's still available from them on digital.)

Whenever I get a vinyl release with no download code, I email the label with a photo of me holding the vinyl.

over 50% of the time they send me a BC code, which is great as I use BC as a streaming service for purchases and wishlist.

but sometimes there are strange rights issues, where they send a google drive download, instead of BC, as they dont have digital rights, some just ignore me.

Transversales, might have the right to include a code with every purchase but not be allowed to sell, however you say they are selling digital copies as well.

rights management is pretty opaque, you might just have to poney up to buy the digital, keeping an eye on sales/discounts. I've done that a few times when it was buy again or nothing.

couple of years ago, trevor jackson was selling off 2 * 2cd promo compilations of his Underdog remixes via bandcamp.
no digital at all for any of that stuff, yet, the releases are still listed in my Bandcamp listings in Sonos.

sometimes i have seen some labels put £999.99 for a digital file of a limited 7" single (for example).
no idea if the 7" came with an actual digital code.

Bandcamp confirmed, while trying to resolve the issue for me, that they no longer support selling of cds without free digital download attached. that I didn't know, but the wording made it seem like a recent change.

That’s weird, bcuz as was pointed out upthread, often labels (especially reissue labels) have the physical but not the digital rights — these would be small labels, mostly, why not let them sell physical product through BC?

It does seem weird not to offer this anymore

i’m assuming not for eg this

https://outlet-label.bandcamp.com/album/the-outletters-drive-by-dub-the-path-version

I have a question. How does changing the preorder download to the actual release on the release date work? Apparently it's not an automatic process? Because this has happened before (even in the previous Month too) that a release day comes and goes but nothing happens, all I (the fan who paid months ago) can see is the preorder. And then I see it everywhere on illegal download sites. It feels like I'm being encouraged to not support bands there anymore if I'm being honest. Maybe it's just the label (or some guy in the band, who does their social media stuff after he gets home from work, who should have remembered it was yesterday) being sloppy, but this makes the whole BC experience feel bad indirectly.

Today, it's the new Saturnus album, for instance. "Releases June 16 2023" - my ass it does. And no, it's not "it's still June 16 somewhere on the planet lol" anymore, I waited.

It apparently isn't automated. I've had this happen to me before.

One time it was that Bandcamp was listing a release date one week prior to the actual release date and the band didn't fix it, but I've also seen bands release the album late on release day