March 24, 2026

Bandcamp ruined his music career

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Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode of the Music Business Newsletter with Matthew Rix, I read an email from an independent artist who thought Bandcamp was the answer and ended up feeling burned.
After committing to the platform for over a year, building out a full catalog, pushing fans toward direct purchases, and even launching merch drops… the results didn’t match the expectations.
What went wrong?
This artist shares real frustrations:
• Lack of discoverability on the platform
• The hidden costs of merch, shipping, and fulfillment
• How quickly margins disappear
• Why sales don’t scale the way streaming numbers do
• And the reality that Bandcamp may only work for artists who already have strong fanbases
In this episode, we break down:
• What Bandcamp is actually good for
• Where artists misunderstand its role
• Why it’s not a replacement for streaming
• The difference between monetization vs discovery
• And how to use Bandcamp strategically instead of emotionally
This isn’t a hit piece on Bandcamp.
It’s a reality check on how artists should think about it in today’s music industry.
If you’ve ever been told “Bandcamp is the solution,” this episode will help you see the full picture.
Have a question about the music industry or your own experience?
Send it to https://MatthewRix.com include as many details as possible so your question can help others too.

Listen to Mattrix Minute for daily Music Business insight without the music industry hype.
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WEBVTT

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Hey, this is Matthew Ricks, and today on the Music

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Business newsletter, we got an email from somebody who's been

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burned by being a band camp bro. He thought it

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was going to be something that it's not. He thought

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it was going to be the great revenue stream that

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so many of you band camp bros like to email

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and defend me on, and he's realized that it's not

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the way to be, and that you really can't make

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any revenue being an artist on band camp. But before

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we get started, if you have a question on the

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music industry that you'd like for me to answer, go

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to Matthewricks dot com click submit your question, give me

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as many details as possible, and we will answer it

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here on the channel. Now for the email, he says, Hey, Matthew,

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I'm writing because I am honestly feeling pretty burnt right now,

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and I'm trying to figure out whether I misunderstood something

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about how band camp works or if this is just

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one of those music industry lessons you only learn the

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hard way. The problem with band camp is is that

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the people who are telling you how great it are

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there are a bunch of broke boys. Is well, okay,

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So if you get on Reddit, or you get on Instagram,

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or you get anywhere where people are railing against streaming

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and they're hoping for the great revival of CD players

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backing cars, And you know it's gonna be this, this

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unique CD thing is gonna overtake the world again. You

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listen to them, you're gonna get burnt. It's just the

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way it is. For context, I'm an independent artist who's

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been releasing music for about six years. For most of

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the time, I followed the usual routes Spotify, Apple Music,

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and all the DSPs through a distributor like Tunecore. But

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after hearing a lot of artists say things like band

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camp is where the real support happens. It's not where

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the real support happens. It's just a bunch of broke

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boys who are mad that the algorithm hasn't, you know,

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gotten them forty million streams on Spotify, he says, And

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it's the most artist friendly platform out there. It's not

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the most artist friendly. It's nothing friendly. It's not user friendly.

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It's not artist friendly. Band camp sound of the he said,

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I decided to start leaning into band camp more and

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seriously got about it, and seriously got about it. A

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year ago. I guess seriously started being about it about

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a year ago. I don't know proof free drink emails Joe,

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he says, about a year and a half ago, I

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got serious with it. There we go, he says, I

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really committed to it. I built out my band camp page, properly,

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uploaded my entire catalog, designed merch bundles, did a couple

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of vinyl pre orders. I even started pushing my fans

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away from streaming on Spotify and Apple Music and tried

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to direct them towards band Camp because I believe the

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narrative that this was a platform where artists actually got

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paid fairly. Bruh, bruh. Sometimes you got to learn the

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hard way, unfortunately, he says, at first it seemed promising

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a few of my most loyal listeners bought albums directly.

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Did you hear what he just said? A few of

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his not all not I retained one hundred percent of

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my audience, and then I gained an actual hundred percent

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more because everybody just loves going to a broken down

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website and buying albums, he said. A few, he says,

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they bought the album directly, which felt great because the

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revenue from one band Camp sale can equal thousands of streams.

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That's what they like to, you know, tattoo on their

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chest when they're beating their chest about how great band

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camp is, he says, But the problem started piling up

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over time. The biggest one is discoverability. Wait, you know me,

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and there's there's millions of people just waiting to discover

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your music on a broken down, janky website and app. Shocking, shocked,

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I say, He says, unless someone already knows who you are,

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band camp doesn't really help new listeners find you. Huh huh.

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You don't say you know, you know, you know. I

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have an interview coming out this week with my boy

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Trev Trev Allen from the Struggling Artist podcast. Great interview.

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I think it's like a two hour long one. We

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just we dissect all this. But he's a big band

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camp bro, and he keeps telling me how I'm missing

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the mark and how I'm doing a disservice to artists

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for this stuff, and I just keep telling him, like, no,

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it's it's a place where it's a very niche, but

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it's a place for a small minded artists with their

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small minded fans who don't want to embrace technology, who

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you know probably get on Facebook and rail against you know,

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Netflix's algorithm, and they prefer TV the old fashioned way

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with commercials. These are the people who go to band camp.

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It's not a place where you're going to go and

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discover new music. Now I'm going to get to comments,

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so I just cover twenty seven new bands. Okay, that's one.

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That's one. But this guy's right. If you are a

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new artist being discovered and band Camp is virtually impossible

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because you're sending people to a website, they don't understand

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because the people you're trying to direct to band Camp,

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for the most part, have Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, whatever.

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But anyways, let's continue with the email. He says band

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Camp doesn't really help new listeners find you. No, they

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do not, Like I was expecting some level of organic

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discovery through the platform itself, But it honestly feels like

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a storefront in the middle of the desert. That is

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the best, most honest way to describe band Camp. And

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if you're in the desert, I guess and you're looking

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for a storefront, it's a great place. But if you're

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not there, you're never gonna find it. That's a good line,

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he says. If you don't drive people there yourself, nothing happens.

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Very true, he says. Then there's the fees and the logistics.

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People talk about band camp like artists keep everything. But

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once you factor in the platform cut, payment processing, manufacturing

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for merch shipping costs, and the time it takes to

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manage all of it, the marginie margins shrink quickly. Huh. Huh.

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You don't say you don't you know? You know you're

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not getting a hundred percent of your music. Huh. One

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hundred percent of your royalties just aren't going directly to

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your pocket when you sell those ten thousand CDs this

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coming weekend. HM. So I didn't know this about band camp.

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I'm new to this that. I guess if you get

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the merchandise made through them, yeah, I mean obviously if

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you make yeah, they take a manufacturing cut to sell it,

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and then the shipping costs. I didn't know that. I

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mean it makes sense. So here, if you're this guy,

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or if any artist, there's a platform cut, payment processing, manufacturing,

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shipping costs. I mean that's they're they're taking money for

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different ways. And he says and and he goes the

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margins shrink quickly. He says, I also ran to a

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situation recently that really upset me. I did a limited

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merch drop tied to a new release, shirts and cassette bundles.

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Cassette bundles. Anyways, he says, a handful of orders came

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in from overseas, and by the time I handled shipping

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costs and a couple of returns, I actually lost money

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fulfilling those orders. The fans weren't the problem, but the

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platform makes it feel like the artist is responsible for

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every moving piece of the transaction. So I didn't know

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that if somebody buys something on band camp they can

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return it. Yikes. Okay, because like even a lot of

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artists merch stores like it's all sales are final because

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people change their mind or they fall out of love

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with the band. It's not cool. So I didn't know that.

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That's interesting, he says. Another issue is how silent the

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platform feels. He says, when a song does well on Spotify,

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Apple Music, you see numbers move on band Camp if

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people aren't actively buying, it's just quiet. No algorithm, no playlist,

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no algorithm, no playlist. Ecosystem no passive listening. It's either

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sales or nothing. But bro, they have no algorithms, so

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that's supposed to be in your favor. That's what all

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the band camp pros tell me. The problem with Spotify

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and Apple Music and the Internet and technology in general

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is the algorithm. So you're telling me you not having

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an algorithm actually works better for you. What you're telling

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me is that there's no algorithm, so there's nobody to

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push your music. But the band camp bros think that

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that's the best thing in the world. No playlist ecosystem either.

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You mean to tell me, You mean to tell me

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there just wasn't ten thousand of your fans just Jones

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and the share your band camp link with their Instagram followers,

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their Facebook friends, and you did a bundle with a

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cassette and T shirt. I don't know. You know bands

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who do that kind of stuff, You should have a

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pretty big following because the money and that stuff is.

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Your margins are so low, so you need to sell

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a lot to make up for the low margins. And

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that one, my guy might have been because it was

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available to you doesn't mean you should have done it.

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Because you got to really loving artist to buy a

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cassette in twenty twenty six of it. Now, I'm gonna

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get the comments in the emails that go oh I

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listened to his music and cassultes and these dues. It's great,

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it's great. I remember back in the day you'd like

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to try to find your song on an album on

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a cassette, you know, like grew winding and you're fast forwarding.

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You're like you're trying to get it right at the

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start perfectly. Ah, that sucked, he said. And the part

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that's really making me question things now is this. I

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spent a year pushing people towards band camp, thinking it

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would strengthen my artist income, but financially it hasn't even

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come close to what streaming plus live shows brought in.

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But if you listen to the band camp bros, they're

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going to tell you, if you sell ten thousand CDs,

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you can make five point nine million dollars in a weekend.

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But what their argument fails. And I think this is

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why you're sending me this email is because people don't

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want to go there and buy the music. It's a

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very very it's I think I said this in a

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band cam video a couple months ago. It's you being

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a puddle in the ocean. Like you you're you're hanging

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out on the puddle when you should be in the ocean,

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he says, Which brings me to the real question I'm

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wrestling with. Have artists collectively over romanticized band camp as

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the artist's first platform, without a doubt, Without a doubt

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they have you will have artists passionately and they believe

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the rhetoric there's you know, it will tell you that

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Spotify sucks, Spotify doesn't care about artists. But then they

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act like band camps like doing this out of the

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kindness of their heart, like they're not some they're not

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owned by some multi conglomerate company, right, and that they

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don't have their hands and everything because they're trying to

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get rich off of your backs. They act like that

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does not exist. They act like band camp is doing

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this because they love artists in Jesus and nuns and kitts.

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It's like that's what they act like, and it's so

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far from the truth. And any of you employees from

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band camp, like the last video I did a few

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months ago, if you want to send me some emails

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and you want to tell me I'm wrong. Please do it,

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because I will be more than happy to continue to

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roast your terrible, god awful platform that rips artists off

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and actually hurts their careers more than it helps, because

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that is what band camp does. And you artists who

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tell your fans to stop going to Spotify and stop

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going to Apple Music and go to band camp, you're

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lowering your reach. You're shrinking the number of people who

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are going to discover your music, and then you're gonna

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complain that nothing happens and you're going to be this guy,

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he says. I'm not saying it's bad across the board.

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Clearly it works well for certain artists with very dedicated

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fan bases. Yes, you have to get to the point

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where you're probably been doing music for twenty five years

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and then he put a vinyl on band Camp and

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those people go. But if you're a new artist starting off,

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or if you're an artist who's been around and you're

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now just kind of like moving on the up, band

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Camp is the death nails for you, he says. But

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for a mid level independent artist trying to grow, it's

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starting to feel like band camp is a great is

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great for the super fans you already have, not for

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building a career or reaching new people. I'll give you that.

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I mean, I don't think it's great for super fans,

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but if you had that experience, then cool. You're an

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anomaly to me, he goes. And So the reason why

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I'm reaching out to you is that I saw your

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email a few months back about why band camp isn't

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better than Spotify, and at first I scoffed at it,

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But now I'm starting to realize that you're probably onto something,

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he goes. So what I'm also asking you and I'm

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trying to figure out is band camp actually a sustainable

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revenue platform for most artists? Absolutely not, absolutely not. You

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are talking about it being, you know, for the one

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percent of one percent of artists to sell their vinyls

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or their you know, their niche little merch items and

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have a couple of fanboys buy a CD or a

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vinyl and they'll pet themselves on the back because one

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CD does equate thousands of streams. Yes, but you got

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one fan versus thousands of fans in Spotify. They don't.

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They don't think like that, he goes. Is it better

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used as a supplemental tool rather than the main focus.

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I don't think you need band camp at all. Okay,

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and y'all can come at me. I don't think you

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need it. I think you need that as much as

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you need a rumble channel. I don't think you need

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it at all. You're you're breaking up your fans, you're

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sending mixed messages, you're not growing your fan base. So

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all you're doing is keeping your music on there when

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they could be going to Spotify, to Apple Music to

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you to listening to it, and you're getting paid. You're

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not getting paid when they check out your music on

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band camp, he says. And why does the industry keep

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pushing the idea that band camp is a solution to

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streaming economics when it seems to come with its own

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set of problems. The industry doesn't a bunch of broke

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boys who are mad and angry at the big bad

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Internet and the big bad algorithm and Spotify, and they

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want to make twelve dollars per stream on Spotify. They're

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the ones that push this crap when it comes to

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band camp. The industry doesn't. And I'm gonna tell you why,

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Because you don't see a lot of signed artists on

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band camp. You might see some artists that are any

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indeed labels, but you're never going to see any majors

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on band camp. Okay, so the industry isn't pushing that.

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That is something you have been told by other people. Oh,

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the industry is pushing. If the industry is not pushing bandcamp,

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he said, I'd really appreciate your honest take on this, because,

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like I said, I've watched your video before, and I

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know how I felt, and I know what I'm seeing now,

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and I feel like I bought into a narrative that

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doesn't hold up in practice. That is the problem with

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most of the band camp thing, at least for you,

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if you had enough self awareness and you're being honest

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with yourself to realize this isn't working. Most of these

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band camp pros, they realize it's not working, they don't

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want to, you know, change anything. They don't want to

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retract a statement. They don't want to deviate because they're

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stubborn and they would hate to have to go back

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and tell their twelve fans that they have when they

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said Spotify bad, big corporation bad, go to band camp

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and now go band camp sucks. We bought into a lie.

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Now go check out our music on Spotify. They won't

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do that. They'll keep doubling down on band camp knowing

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nobody's going there, knowing they sell one CD and they

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act like they sold you know, a million, because they're

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so desperate for anything. When if they would apply it right,

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build relationships, do what they need to do on Spotify,

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on Apple Music, they would have so many more fans.

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But once again, they're focused on the puddle. When the

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Internet is the entire world. When Apple Music and Spotify,

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that's the entire ocean. But they're focused on this puddle.

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And so how many people can you fit in a

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puddle versus the ocean? And that's the problem. So this

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isn't an industry narrative. This is probably people on Reddit

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or x Twitter whatever, trash and Spotify because they want

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to get paid more. And so you bought into it

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because you know, if anything, if you want to succeed

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in anything, it does take time. It takes patience, it

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takes smarts. You have to outsmart people. You can't just

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sit there and rail against the Spotify right now is

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ingrained in our psyche as people from music. No, it's

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not I don't lose some Spotify. Okay, well, congratulations, you're

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the one guy. Okay, you're probably also the dude who

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thirty years ago graduated high school and you're still hanging

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out in high school parking lot, you know, wearing your

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lettermans jacket. But everybody else is it ingrained in our minds.

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My ten year old son goes to Apple Music to

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listen to his music. My twelve year old goes to Spotify. Okay,

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we got both accounts. They are never going to get

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off of that. They're never going to think that it's

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sexy and cool to go get a cassette tape or

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to go to band camp buy a whole album. Because

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here's the thing. When albums were being sold, when we

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were selling albums, that was because we knew we had

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to do our best. When I was an A and R,

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when albums were the when albums were the thing. You

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have twelve songs, you're hoping for nine of them to

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impress the fans. Well, everything has changed now now we're

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living in a single world. We got to do one

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song at a time. We put this song out, we

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might put another one out in seventy days or ninety

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days or whatever. So when you put a whole album

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out these days and people are actually paying money for

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that full album the price of their Spotify subscription for

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the month, it needs to be outstanding. And the truth is,

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most of you band cambros, it's not. You might have

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a song good, you might have a good song here,

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good song there, but it's not a masterpiece. So you're

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losing fans. And you can only burn fans so many

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times with them paying fifteen twenty dollars for your music

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and it's subpar because you're probably against producers or you know,

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editing or whatever, because you know you got to be

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a pure to be on band camp and sell cassettes

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or vinyl. But well, my friend, I am sorry you're

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going through this. It's better now that you realize this

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than ten years from now and then you're you know,

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you're jaded and you're trying to burn everything to the

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ground because you got burned by band camp. So my

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advice for you would be the sooner you can get

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off of band camp, the better it is for your career,

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for you to grow your fan base. If you want

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to be a purist and you want to play for

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like ten people, and you have ten people blowing smoke

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up your skirt and tell you how great you are

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and how they they bought your cassette or you're vinyl,

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then stay on band camp. But if you want to

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do something bigger than ten twelve people, you got to

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get off band Camp. You got to embrace digital because

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that's where everybody's at. So I appreciate your email. If

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you have a question on the music industry that you'd

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like for me to answer, go to Matthew Ricks dot com.

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Give me as many details as possible, and until next time.

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I We'll talk to you later.