ead Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Folks, I have a question/dilemma. As an old git I like physical music meaning CDs (more than LPs nowadays). In order to get the most money to the bands that make them, where is the best place to spend my hard-earned in order to do so? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 At gigs, of course. 🙄 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ead Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 1 minute ago, Happy Jack said: At gigs, of course. 🙄 Of course, but what about at the moment and where that option is not possible, for example band not touring near me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Sorry mate, it was a (failed) try for irony ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ead Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 No worries, and a strategy I always deploy where possible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor J Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Bandcamp.com, no doubt about it. On Friday the 5th of February they are waiving their fees again so bands get even more from sales on that day. 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike257 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Bandcamp, or see if the artists have their own store on their website. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 As others have said Bandcamp or direct from the band web site. Bandcamp waive their revenue share on the first Friday of every month, so if you want to maximise the amount of money that goes to the artist(s) wait and buy everything on 5th February. Also buy a T-Shirt. IME from producing CDs/Vinyl/T-shirts for my various bands, there is a lot more profit to the band off a T-Shirt sale then there is from a CD or record. Unless the T-shirts and very complicated multi-colour design and the CD/record packaging cheap and cheerful, most artist make 2-3 time the profit on a T-Shirt sale as they do on music. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulWarning Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 As I understand it, although Bandcamp don't take any fee for the sale physical copy sales they inform you about, you still have to send off the CD or whatever, they do offset this by debiting your account a percentage for physical sales then they take it off any downloads, so don't do downloads I guess. Big Cartel is also free 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 From the band’s website, if they’re set up for this. Our drummer used to visit his local PO pretty much on a daily basis with our on-line sales. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 26 minutes ago, Lozz196 said: From the band’s website, if they’re set up for this. Our drummer used to visit his local PO pretty much on a daily basis with our on-line sales. The Terrortones used to sell CDs and records directly through our website and the later on via Bandcamp. Despite the fact that everything was slightly cheaper on our website, and you were protected through paying by PayPal, once we had the Bandcamp page set up our website sales went to zero overnight. Personally I wouldn't bother with selling direct from a band website, because it was a lot of effort to set up compared with doing it through bandcamp. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ead Posted January 26, 2021 Author Share Posted January 26, 2021 Thanks for all of the advice folks, much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybone Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 The bands website / Facebook page, Bandcamp, etc. Yes, from a band point of view, selling direct is quite time consuming, however, it is well worth taking a bit of time to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 49 minutes ago, Skybone said: The bands website / Facebook page, Bandcamp, etc. Yes, from a band point of view, selling direct is quite time consuming, however, it is well worth taking a bit of time to do. And my personal experience is that most people prefer to buy their music from a recognised website such as Bandcamp/Amazon/iTunes rather than from a small band's site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 We made loads of sales online from our website, I suppose possibly genre and age of the fans might be factors, but do your own promo properly, via facespace/twatter etc, and you reap the rewards. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 2 minutes ago, Lozz196 said: We made loads of sales online from our website, I suppose possibly genre and age of the fans might be factors, but do your own promo properly, via facespace/twatter etc, and you reap the rewards. I would suspect that the fans of your band and the fans of The Terrortones were much the same in age and musical tastes. We made plenty of sales direct from our website, right up to the point when we created a Bandcamp page after which all the sales went via Bandcamp. If it hadn't been such a complete change I probably wouldn't have noticed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skybone Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 I think it does depend on the genre & age of the fans. Certainly, some of the more "niche" genre fans are more comfortable dealing with the band directly, as then they know that 100% of the sale is going direct to the band and not an intermediary. Stuff like merchandise, t-shirts etc. are more likely to be sold directly than via a third party. There again, these days, I would expect that a lot of people would also expect to deal with sales via Bandcamp / Spotify / iTunes etc. for music sales. IIRC, there is a part of Bandcamp where you can set up a merchandise page/link (need to remind myself of all that side of things). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nail Soup Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 Another way to support bands and venues is to hold on to any tickets you have and wait until the gig happens .... rather than getting a refund. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ead Posted January 26, 2021 Author Share Posted January 26, 2021 9 minutes ago, Nail Soup said: Another way to support bands and venues is to hold on to any tickets you have and wait until the gig happens .... rather than getting a refund. Yes, already doing that. Plus the one band that has cancelled indefinitely I've donated the money to the venue. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinB Posted January 26, 2021 Share Posted January 26, 2021 Direct sales by talking directly to a band member and then sending them money via PayPal is fine. Buying from a recognised e-commerce platform (Shopify, Big Cartel, Bandcamp, etc.) is fine. It's the middle ground of home-made looking websites that I wouldn't touch with a bargepole. No way am I entering my credit card details into some cobbled-together PHP monstrosity! 😆 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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