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Hello everyone

I've been wondering whether those of you who sell your music on Bandcamp et al get better sales if you offer physical media like vinyl, CDs, cassettes etc, or do people prefer to buy the digital only formats? I'm rather old fashioned (and middle aged too I guess) and to me I prefer to own a physical item as opposed to a ephemeral digital file, but I know from the many people I work with who are in their late teens / early twenties, the idea of buying something solid is completely bizarre, and they just acquire mp3s or stream any music. I just wondered if you'd experienced more or less interest in your music if you sold real artefacts instead of just mp3s?

I’d never pay for A FILE

I happen to be old fashioned about that sort of thing

Inclined to agree with the above. If a bandcamp or whatever only has an option to pay for a download, I'll 98% of the time just leave the page.
Offer something physical and it immediately becomes acceptable to charge a bit for a download, but I'm still not too fond of the idea unless there's a purpose such as it being a demo album used to fund the artists next release.

I'd also say that there's a really good chunk of people in their early 20's these days who enjoy buying physical objects to support an artist they like, there's a reason vinyl has had such a resurgence and it isn't a bunch of 60 year olds who suddenly decided to continue collecting.

I really really prefer when there is a cassette option. That’s my favorite. I do buy lots of music on bandcamp, just the digital, but that’s often the only option and it’s the primary way I listen to music. That or YouTube for bigger/more famous stuff I don’t care about.

I buy digital most of the time now. If you're buying a CD you're just buying files and the wasteful packaging, shipping etc. Band gets less, environment gets less.

Tapes and vinyl maybe there's a bit more of an experience but at the end of the day you're paying for ephemeral sound storage which you'll lose if/when your copy breaks.

PeteeBee wrote:I really really prefer when there is a cassette option. That’s my favorite. I do buy lots of music on bandcamp, just the digital, but that’s often the only option and it’s the primary way I listen to music. That or YouTube for bigger/more famous stuff I don’t care about.

^^ this. Bandcamp lets you stream everything for free anyway, and it seems unless something is pre-order, no one really withholds tracks from streaming 'purchase only tracks' any more. I'll buy the cassette for sure. AND because I've bought a cassette I invest the time in listening to it several times and forming a proper bond with the music, at which point I promptly use my free included download to grab the wav, ready for when the tape gets mangled in the future.

I've hit a "streamed this without paying too many times" on a few albums on bandcamp before. Not sure if it's just a few artists or everything, but it was a lot of listens.

I rarely buy physical anymore, and the option doesn’t usually impact my decision at all. If I can listen to a whole album on bandcamp and enjoy it enough to go back to it, I’ll buy it digital.

coldbrightsunlight wrote:I buy digital most of the time now. If you're buying a CD you're just buying files and the wasteful packaging, shipping etc. Band gets less, environment gets less.

Tapes and vinyl maybe there's a bit more of an experience but at the end of the day you're paying for ephemeral sound storage which you'll lose if/when your copy breaks.

I agree. My friend and I got into it about paying for digital only. She thinks it's dumb. To an extent I kind of see where people are coming from on 'why is it still $10 if there are no production cost for the physical media?" but I always wind up back to my sentiment of "I really like group/project xyz and it would be a shame if I didn't get to listen to another release by them, so I'll support the cause".

EDIT: That said, 4-5 min grind EPs SHOULD NOT be $10 for a digital only release. I am also guilty of getting the ridiculous percentage off for purchasing 'complete discographies' [up 72% off the band's perceived value]).

Ooo that pricing sucks.

In general though my viewpoint is $10 for digital vs $10 for CD is the band I like gets more money with digital. Why in the fuck would I want to cost them more money????

Agreed 100%. Sad thing is I'm pretty sure Bandcamp takes a significant chuck out of that.

I listened to the bandcamp ceo talk on npr about a year ago. I was surprised how low their take was. I can attest to the futility of collecting music in a physical format as I lost my record and vinyl collection two months ago.

From my experience $5-7 is pretty standard for a digital ep, $10-12 for a full album. Or at least that’s the price where I don’t really question it, I just click the purchase link. Any more and I wait until I use up the free plays.

Doesn't free bandcamp stream at lower bitrates than stuff you've bought?
I've gone fully digital.
I generally buy shirts to support bands.
I have like a hundred black shirts I don't wear :faceplam:

Me and you both.

goroth wrote:Doesn't free bandcamp stream at lower bitrates than stuff you've bought?

Yeah but I don't have a 1337 audio system so it's not noticeable. One of these days....