Last Friday (March 20), Bandcamp waived its revenue share on music sales for a 24-hour period to help artists impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the platform has now shared some extraordinary figures from the initiative.
As the company explained in an update on the campaign, "on a typical Friday, fans buy about 47,000 items on Bandcamp, but this past Friday, fans bought nearly 800,000, or $4.3 million worth of music and merch."
Bandcamp added that those figures show purchases were made at a rate "more than 15 times our normal Friday, and at the peak, fans were buying 11 items per second."
"We don't yet know the long-term impact of COVID-19, but we know that we all need music — to uplift and inspire us, to heal us, and to give us hope," the company wrote, thanking listeners and a number of labels who also directed 100 percent of their funds to artists independent of the campaign.
"We'll continue working to make Bandcamp the best place for fans and artists to come together and sustain each other in the challenging times ahead."
Read about how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Canadian artists, and follow Exclaim!'s list of Canadian music and film events affected by coronavirus.
As the company explained in an update on the campaign, "on a typical Friday, fans buy about 47,000 items on Bandcamp, but this past Friday, fans bought nearly 800,000, or $4.3 million worth of music and merch."
Bandcamp added that those figures show purchases were made at a rate "more than 15 times our normal Friday, and at the peak, fans were buying 11 items per second."
"We don't yet know the long-term impact of COVID-19, but we know that we all need music — to uplift and inspire us, to heal us, and to give us hope," the company wrote, thanking listeners and a number of labels who also directed 100 percent of their funds to artists independent of the campaign.
"We'll continue working to make Bandcamp the best place for fans and artists to come together and sustain each other in the challenging times ahead."
Read about how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Canadian artists, and follow Exclaim!'s list of Canadian music and film events affected by coronavirus.