Bandcamp Fridays will continue for the rest of 2021

Bandcamp launched Bandcamp Fridays in March 2020 as a way to support artists during the pandemic. The monthly event, which takes place on the first Friday of each month, sees Bandcamp waive its revenue shares for 24 hours to allow artists to receive more money from merch and music sales on the site, a small gesture to help artists that have lost money due to festival/tour cancellations during the pandemic.

The first Bandcamp Friday took place on 20 March 2020, and within 24 hours the site sold more than $4.1 million. Bandcamp continued to give up its revenue shares on the first Friday of each month in May and June too, and decided to carry it on for the rest of 2020 back in July last year.

Bandcamp Friday has continued throughout 2021 so far, and yesterday (2 August) Bandcamp CEO Ethan Diamond confirmed that it'll carry on for the rest of the year.

Diamond wrote on the site, "On the first Friday of every month since March of 2020, we’ve waived our revenue share to help support the many artists who have seen their livelihoods disrupted by the pandemic. Over the course of these 13 days, fans paid artists and labels $56 million dollars, helping cover rents, mortgages, groceries, medications, and much more. If you’re among the nearly 800,000 fans who participated, thank you. The next Bandcamp Friday will be on August 6th, and we’ll continue to hold those on the first Friday of every month thereafter for the rest of 2021."

He added, "If you’ve started to feel guilty about buying music on any day other than Bandcamp Friday, here’s something to keep in mind: on Bandcamp Fridays, an average of 93% of your money reaches the artist/label (after payment processor fees). When you make a purchase on any other day of the month (as 2.5 million of you have since March, buying an additional $190 million worth of music and merch) an average of 82% reaches the artist/label. Every day is a good day to directly support artists on Bandcamp!"