Bandcamp is waiving fees today in support of artists

Back in March, Bandcamp announced that it was waiving its share of the revenue for a day, in order to support artists whose livelihood have ground to a screeching halt amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The March 20 event pulled in an impressive $4.3 million for artists, amounting to the biggest sales day in the platform’s history. The earnings from music and merchandise amounted to 15x Bandcamp’s normal haul for a 24-hour period, with 11 items being sold per second.

Earlier this week, the site said that it would continue to do so for the first Friday of the next three months. That includes June 5, July 3 and today. Don't know where to start? Might I recommend checking out the new album Ultrasonic from Field Works? It’s a lovely and engrossing ambient work built using field recordings of the endangered Indiana bats. Haven’t bats had it rough enough of late?

If you need further recommendations, 150 artists and labels are also participating in a number of different ways. Some, like Arts & Crafts, Kill Rock Stars, Sub Pop, Saddlecreek, Merge and Matador are also giving all of the revenue to artists. Others like Cloud Nothings, Deerhoof and my personal favorite, The Hold Steady, have released new material. Others, like Cooking Vinyl and Sufjan Stevens, are giving proceeds to related charity. Here's the full list.

Seems like a nice win-win all around. And hey, we could all use a little new music to get through this.