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. Bandcamp also continued Bandcamp Fridays throughout 2021, and yesterday (24 January) Bandcamp announced that the monthly event will run until May 2022.
Bandcamp CEO Ethan Diamond wrote, "Over the course of 17 days, fans paid artists and labels more than $70 million dollars, helping cover rents, mortgages, groceries, medications, and much more. If you’re among the nearly 800,000 fans who participated, thank you."
"It will likely be several months before live performance revenue returns in full," Diamond added. "So we’re going to continue doing Bandcamp Fridays in 2022, on February 4th, March 4th, April 1st, and May 6th."
