Study: Bandcamp helping to cut down on music piracy
Bandcamp, one of the fastest-rising virtual storefronts for digital music, has posted an interesting blog entry stating that users are finding music on their site and paying for it after originally searching for pirated material via Google or other search engines:
“A few months ago, we began tracking the starting point of every sale that happens on Bandcamp. In the course of looking at the data (which we’re using to help us plan out what to do next), we’ve noticed something awesome: every day, fans are buying music that they specifically set out to get for free.
For example, just this morning someone paid $10 for an album after Googling 'lelia broussard torrent.' A bit later, a fan plunked down $17 after searching for 'murder by death, skeletons in the closet, mediafire.' Then a $15 sale came in from the search 'maimouna youssef the blooming hulkshare.' Then a fan made a $12 purchase after clicking a link on music torrent tracker What.CD. Then someone spent $10 after following a link on The Pirate Bay, next to the plea 'They sell their album as a download on their website. You can even choose your format (mp3, ogg, flac, etc). Cmon, support this awesome band!'”
Bandcamp's ease of use and simple design has been a boon for bands, labels and consumers alike, creating a direct line between band and fan and a bevy of purchasing options, including different file formats, sliding price points and pay-what-you-want downloads. The study went on to point out the rising revenue numbers for artists on the site:
“In the month of December alone, Bandcamp artists raked in more than one million dollars in music and merch sales (bringing the total to-date to $12.6MM). 22% of those sales happened because of Bandcamp, driven by things like tags, the home page, recommendations, and search. 40% of the time, fans pay more than the asking price for name-your-price albums. 53% of all purchases are made by fans located outside the U.S.”
What do you think? Do you use Bandcamp to stream and purchase digital music? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments.
