Bandcamp is a free band profile site that says it "isn’t Yet Another Place to Put Your Music. Rather, we power a site that’s yours. So instead of ads for Sexy Singles Chat, your fans see your design, your music, your URL. You retain all ownership rights, and we just hang out in the background handling the tech stuff."
Their terms of use seems standard enough, although you are granting them a "sublicensable and transferable right" with your content. This always concerns me, as it opens the door for them to sublicense it to just about anyone. Fortunately, the word "perpetual" doesn't rear its ugly head, and there is a clause that states you can terminate the agreement by following instructions on their site. There is also a section on "fees", which states that they can start charging you for their service at any time, and your continued use means that you accept the charges. Best to keep an eye on that one.
The site has an option to redirect a domain name (or subdomain) to your Bandcamp page if you like. It's mostly to be used as a digital store. They require that you upload your file in a lossless format, such as WAV, AIFF, or FLAC. This allows you to offer your tracks in nearly any format (MP3, Ogg, etc). I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's one thing to upload compressed MP3 versions of my songs to a site, but it's another thing entirely to give them CD quality uncompressed masters, particularly when they have the right to sublicense your content. At least with an MP3, they are limited in what they can do with your music by the quality of it. Plus, uploading lossless files takes much longer to upload.
Since your profile is basically blank until you have uploaded your first track, don't plan on signing up unless you are okay with their upload terms. Other benefits detailed stats, the ability to sell your music at a fan-suggested price (ala Radiohead), and fan widgets for sharing your music. They also talk up their SEO skills, comparing the ranking of artist pages on competing sites like GarageBand, iLike, CDBaby, eMusic, or Rhapsody. Sounds great, as long as they don't outrank your official site! I'll follow up when/if I decide to upload one of my tracks in WAV format.
Comments
Posts:
I'm using bandcamp for the
I'm using bandcamp for the digital releases of the I, Parasite back catalog and it's really fantastic. Uploading full resolution AIFFs makes it possible to offer tracks in multiple formats, including lossless FLAC.
I don't use the site as a "primary band page" nor do I think they are pushing you to do so at all. They give you the option to virtually host the page within your own domain - I set up a subdomain on my server http://digistore.iparasite.net and now I am selling my own music digitally in high res formats and no DRM for less than any other legal music downloading site.
Plus I can set the price to be "fan suggested" with a minimum (all I, Parasite albums are $5 minimum - I've had fans pay as high as $30 so far). You can also do codes to allow free downloads (for example, for people who bought a physical release) and even get the codes printed to moo cards for physical distribution.
All in all the site offers some great stuff, and it's incredibly easy to use. No need for all this suspicion – it's a great site that offers a great service with features I've want that no other similar site has offered.
//Chris
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Thanks for the additional
Thanks for the additional info. Perhaps I am being overly suspicious, and maybe I just read into it too much. Looking back, it actually sounds like they are wanting you to use their site as your primary music source, and not necessarily your official band page. My bad.
I still feel somewhat reluctant to upload material in lossless format. While I understand the benefit of being able to convert it to / offer it in multiple formats, I still don't like the idea of giving anyone lossless masters when the contract allows them to sublicense it at will.
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Chris, I was checking out
Chris, I was checking out the page that you created using Bandcamp. Looks nice, and I like that their branding hovers near the bottom, thereby allowing you to blend it into your official site design better. Your subdomain setup also works well. The individual song purchase process seems a little clumsy, and it would be better if the "download" link beside each track sent the user straight to their format selection. A format dropdown link for each track directly on the tracklisting/album page (similar to the "Download Album" link) would streamline things nicely, instead of sending users to a separate page for each track. A shopping cart feature for purchasing multiple tracks (but not full albums) would also be nice. But overall, this seems like a neat option, especially considering the price (free for now).
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