Federico Pilati , Antoine Houssard and Pier Luigi Sacco

STREAMING’S UNEVEN TUNE: EXPLORING THE INEQUALITIES ON BANDCAMP MUSIC PLATFORM

February 3, 2025

In the digital age, music platforms like Bandcamp promise independent artists greater control and fairer compensation. However, our research reveals that even alternative platforms mirror the inequalities plaguing mainstream streaming services, raising urgent questions about building a more equitable music ecosystem.

 

 

In today’s world, music streaming has become the dominant way we access and enjoy music. While services like Spotify and Apple Music have revolutionized the industry, they have also sparked concerns about the fair treatment and compensation of artists, especially independent musicians without major label backing.

Many have hoped that alternative platforms like Bandcamp could provide a more equitable solution. Bandcamp allows artists to directly upload, price, and sell their music, cutting out middlemen and promising a fairer share of the revenue. However, our research reveals that even on this alternative platform, significant inequalities persist, mirroring the issues seen on mainstream streaming services.

Through analyzing a dataset of one million Bandcamp sales transactions, we discovered a striking imbalance in both popularity and revenue among artists on the platform. A small group of musicians garnered the majority of purchases and earnings, while the vast majority struggled to gain traction and generate substantial income.

Surprisingly, our findings also suggest that many artists adopt a strategy of undervaluing their products, often selling albums or tracks for free or at extremely low prices. While this approach can lead to larger “tips” from fans, it also risks perpetuating the devaluation of music and encouraging a “cherry-picking” culture where listeners pick and choose individual songs rather than supporting an artist’s full body of work.

These results echo broader concerns in the music industry about the concentration of power and revenue in the hands of a few major labels and superstar artists. Just as on mainstream platforms, a winner-take-all dynamic seems to prevail on Bandcamp, where a small elite captures most of the attention and income.

Our analysis underscores the challenges of truly democratizing the music industry and ensuring fair compensation for creators. Simply changing the platform architecture is not enough to dismantle deeply entrenched power structures and business models that prioritize the interests of major corporations and a select group of hit-makers.

While Bandcamp offers artists more control over their transactions, our findings suggest that genuine empowerment and equity will likely require more radical reforms. These could include stronger collective action by artists to negotiate better terms, new business models that more directly involve fans in the creative process, and perhaps even a rethinking of platform ownership and governance structures.

Ultimately, our research serves as a wake-up call for those seeking to build a more sustainable and equitable music ecosystem. It highlights the persistence of inequalities even on alternative platforms and underscores the need for concerted efforts by policymakers, industry leaders, and artists themselves to challenge the status quo and explore innovative solutions that put the interests of creators first.

About the article

Pilati, F., Houssard, A., & Sacco, P. L. (2024). Mirroring the inequalities of mainstream music platforms: popularity, revenue, and monetization strategies on Bandcamp. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2024.2356169

About the authors

Federico Pilati is adjunct professor at the University of Bologna, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Milano-Bicocca, and research affiliate at the Medialab of the University of Geneva.

Antoine Houssard is PhD candidate at the CNRS Center for Internet and Society.

Pier Luigi Sacco is full professor at the University of Chieti-Pescara, senior advisor to the center for entrepreneurship of OECD and research affiliate at the metaLAB (at) Harvard.

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