Bandcamp outline site changes and new features

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Music uploading and streaming website, Bandcamp have announced changes to their site.

Among the new features is to follow both artists and fellow fans, meaning that now users will get a notifcation anytime a band they like posts a new track or a friend likes a certain song.

Also new to the updated interface is a “wishlist” feature, which allows users to bookmark releases to buy later – or encourage others to purchase for you.

The designers say they aim to turn “every fan into a promoter of the artists they love”.

Bandcamp explained more on their blog:

“Just over a year ago, the internet was abuzz with the concept of “frictionless sharing”: watch a video, read an article, or play some music, and the activity is automatically shared with your friends. I hated the idea (rightly and eloquently panned by Farhad Manjoo as killing taste), and we set out to create its opposite. Bandcamp for fans is a social music discovery system based on the high-friction concept of ownership. If someone simply listens to a song, I frankly don’t care at all. And if someone listens to a song and then burns .01 calories tapping a Like button… well that’s slightly more interesting, but I still don’t care much. However, if someone is passionate enough about a record to spend money on it – to actually support the artist who made it, and perhaps even write a bit about why they love it – that makes memuch more likely listen to that record, and perhaps add it to my collection as well.”

Bandcamp recently laid out the changes in a Beta version, in which they said user purchases rose by 40%.