Bandcamp Gets Updates. New Look & Feel

21 January 2013

Since its inception in 2008, Bandcamp has become an essential online distribution platform for independent musicians across the globe. Its artist-focused approach has proved to be an extremely successful model, with some even calling it "a vision of what the future music industry might look like."

One area that hasn’t always received as much praise is “fan” usability. Besides the “Recommendations” page it's usually the case that your Bandcamp experience, unlike SoundCloud, is complete once you’ve heard out the particular artist or label’s page that you’ve been directed towards.

Bandcamp have now announced updates, with developments set to allow for more on-site interaction. Users will be able to create “Collection” pages, where you can profile music you've previously bought on the site, add a “Wishlist”, allowing you to bookmark music that interests you and follow, leave comments and communicate with artists (and fans).

"We’re giving fans the ability to showcase their Bandcamp music collections, follow their favourite artists, explore the music of like-minded fans, add items to a wishlist, and more. In developing these features, we’ve been guided by one overriding objective: grow revenue for artists while keeping the core Bandcamp experience as simple and clean as possible." - Bandcamp

Cleverly, you'll need to have bought music from Bandcamp to receive an invite for a fan page – but this does point to the fact that the site is sticking to their agenda - where artists receive payment for the music they upload.

It's hardly surprising that Bandcamp estimates - since launching the changes in a Beta version - music purchases have risen by 40%.

Tags

Share

Join Our Mailing List