

Bandcamp
178 likes
Music platform with direct artist sales, global discovery, instant streaming and download of DRM-free tracks, physical merchandise, offline listening, flexible pricing, and community features for fans supporting independent creators across numerous genres.
License model
- Freemium • Proprietary
Application types
Country of Origin
United States
Platforms
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
Features
Bandcamp News & Activities
Highlights All activities
Recent News
- Maoholguin published news article about BandcampEpic Games cuts 16% workforce, sells Bandcamp to Songtradr amid financial instability
Epic Games, the Fortnite Battle Royale creator, is cutting its workforce by 16% percent, which equa...
- IanDorfman published news article about BandcampBandcamp is being purchased by Epic Games
Bandcamp has announced that Unreal Engine maker Epic Games has purchased the company following 14 y...
Recent activities
- POX updated Bandcamp
- Maoholguin added Bandcamp as alternative to [untitled]
- tintin_yuan added Bandcamp as alternative to Lark Player
- Taramays liked Bandcamp
What is Bandcamp?
Bandcamp information
AlternativeTo Categories
Audio & Music, Online ServicesApple AppStore
- Updated May 20, 2025
- 4.82 avg rating
Comments and Reviews
I was pleasantly surprised having looked into the Bandcamp's terms and stances on the music distribution market. Their 'fair trade music policy' proves the service to be one of the rare examples of genuinely fair and open relations between a platform, an artist/label and consumers. Their profit shares are much lower than commercial giants like iTunes and Amazon offer. Unlike many subscription-based streaming services, Bandcamp provides DRM-free and uncompressed content in the very close-to-direct way. They also seem to rejoice in opposing themselves to the former. Also, given the ridiculous Soundcloud copyright decay, Bandcamp confirms several things they will never implement:
To be completely fair, these should come with remarks:
In the end, all of it is regulated by the artists themselves, who set prices (including "name yours") and streaming limits. It makes Bandcamp probably the best global distribution platform for creators and an easy way for their fans to dig and buy music without overpaying slippery guys in suits who contribute nothing. Moreover, Bandcamp itself commits greatly to reconsidering the obsolete media business traditions and unjust trends, and shows off as a moderate rebel. No wonder it is so popular among independent artists and labels.
Very clever review, love it.
They put on this face of being in support of independent artists and being DRM-free. However, they don't mind banning/taking down artists' pages for no reason (literally) and they give no warnings, notice or even respond to inquiries from the artist. Worse of all, if you as a customer purchased any music from an artist who then gets banned, you no longer have access to the music you PAID FOR! Fraudsters.
Any documented example you can give ? serious articles you can link to ?
Artists with politically unpopular songs are removed from Bandcamp. E.g Tim Pool and FiveTimesAugust Story: https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-bandcamp-removes-timcast-five-times-august-from-platform
Good way to support more obscure artists, as well as find some of their music that can't be found elsewhere.
I have loved BC for almost a decade. Still ad free in 2022 says a lot, plus I've heard commercial artists of the underground and mainstream consider the pay system very fair. Most music is cheap, a lot is even free or "pay what you want", and it remains the most common place for unsigned artists of all genres to upload entire discographies and distribute them freely. With that being said, it differs from "music-listening" services like spotify, and instead is for previewing music and downloading high def audio files to disk, so that it can save money by not serving large amounts of streamed music; and is likely how they remain alive in today's competitive monopoly driven models.
Lastly, if you enjoy finished/released music, especially of unsigned or underground/cult music, then you will enjoy the space and find loads of good content.
DRM-free music is important. Thank you for keeping it alive.
Great for artists.
Great way to discover new underground music.