Bandcamp Fridays are making a return.
The popular monthly promotion, during which the platform waives its usual revenue share and gives all proceeds straight to artists and labels, is making a comeback on September 2 after a several-month hiatus following the company’s acquisition by Epic Games in March. Historically, Bandcamp Fridays have taken place on the first Friday of every month, and, according to a blog post from Bandcamp co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond, the promotion will resume this fall. In addition to the September date, Bandcamp Fridays are scheduled for October 7, November 4 and December 2.
Since launching Bandcamp Fridays, the company claims the promotion has ceded more than $78 million from over 800,000 fans to artists and their teams over a total of 21 days. On promotion days, artists receive 93% of the money from the sale of their merchandise or music after payment processor fees, as opposed to the usual 82%.
Bandcamp has long been lauded as a haven for independent artists and was seen as an especially valuable partner during the onset of the pandemic, when many artists struggled to make ends meet without touring revenue. Some fans of the platform were shocked when news arrived that the popular independent music marketplace was selling to Epic Games, the gaming and virtual reality behemoth behind Unreal Engine, Fortnite and more.
In a statement at the time of the acquisition, Epic Games said that Bandcamp would “play an important role in Epic’s vision to build out a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music and more,” but Diamond clarified in a blog post that the company’s “artist-first” revenue model would remain in place, along with Bandcamp Fridays.
