These are this week’s Bandcamp essentials (December 4th)
Starting life as a way of supporting the artists and labels impacted through the coronavirus pandemic, as well as releases supporting other causes and initiatives, we've launched a weekly roundup of the most vital Bandcamp releases. On Bandcamp's final fee-free Friday, we've have collated essential tracks, compilations, EPs, and albums from the likes of Brother Nebula, dBridge, A.G., Alex Falk, Planet Mu, GASH COLLECTIVE, DJ SWISHA, Yung Singh, Anz, KG & Uniiqu3, Coco Bryce and more
Clubs around the world are shut, and opportunities to find new music out in the wild have been ripped from under our feet as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. While hearing new music played out by your favourite DJs will have to be put on hold due to these unprecedented circumstances, it’s never been easier, or more important, to support the artists and labels putting out EPs, albums and compilations in the midst of all the madness.
With tour cancellations and festival postponements leaving many members of the international electronic music community out of pocket, Bandcamp has become an even more vital platform for supporting the music you love, with 80% of all sales from the online music store going directly to artists and labels. In March, the platform announced it would be waiving its revenue share for all sales for one day, and on Friday 20th, took no cut from purchases made. In total, $4.3 million was spent on music over the course of 24 hours, all going straight to the creators. Throughout lockdown, Bandcamp continued to waive their fees on the first Friday of every month, as well as on 19th June (Juneteenth), when the platform donated 100% of its profits to the NAACP Legal Defence Fund. In July, it was announced that a fee-free "Bandcamp Friday" would take place on the first Friday of each month for the rest of 2020.
Earlier this year, as a show of solidarity to support the artists and labels impacted through the pandemic, and to support releases raising funds for charity initiatives and organisations, we launched a weekly roundup of the most vital Bandcamp releases. Today is marks the final fee-free Friday on Bandcamp, with 100% of proceeds from sales going straight to artists. With that in mind, we've collated essential tracks, compilations, EPs, and albums from the likes of Brother Nebula, dBridge, A.G., Alex Falk, Planet Mu, GASH COLLECTIVE, DJ SWISHA, Yung Singh, Anz, KG & Uniiqu3, Coco Bryce and more.
We would also encourage you to check out Blackbandcamp.info, an expansive, crowd-sourced list of Black artists on Bandcamp in which you can find an incredibly wide array of amazing music. Read our feature about Black Bandcamp here.
