I!
LOVE!
BANDCAMP!
With that said, I have more thoughts on the matter.
Picture me, a young kid with the internet finally answering the questions that grown ups hated answering when I was a kid and access to enough distractions to never leave the house again. Among those distractions are flash games, The Best Page in the Universe and music. Oh all the music I could suddenly access!
I'll freely admit that I downloaded A LOT of music back then, at first only one song at a time (because the internet was not as fast or vast) followed by full albums and eventually discographies. I use the term download rather than pirate because let's be honest, piracy's definition needs a bit of a rehash. I was not profiting off the music I was downloading so I was simply stealing.
So far so good, more money from my paychecks have gone towards merch and music than I care to count, not to mention the traveling I've done to see bands elsewhere in the world, however this is where there's a slight twist.
Packaging has become a large asset for some bands. E.g. I would never, ever, skip an Ocean album simply because the packaging and artwork on their albums is better than the music on an average album. Literally the thing I said when I bought my first Ocean album was "even if the music sucks it's worth buying for the artwork."
On Bandcamp you (usually) get the option to stream the whole thing as many times as you want and if you buy it it's linked to your fan account which is accessible to stream via an app but you can also download it in a format and quality of your choosing
Of course there is the odd one out that doesn't allow full streaming or (strangely) allows streaming but it's impossible to buy the album but those are a minority within a beautiful community of people trying to get their art out there by any means necessary.
This may read simply as a love letter to Bandcamp which of course it is. But that's only a part of it, the other part is a call to arms.
I implore fans, bands and labels to realize what a great platform Bandcamp is and utilize it to its fullest potential. If labels were to crunch the numbers they'd see that they're actively hemorrhaging money simply by lacking Bandcamp savvy.
or you know...at least seed for future generations of pirates who don't have credit cards.
Jón Þór