Bandcamp Fridays are returning!

Beginning in September and lasting until the end of 2022

 

Bandcamp is bringing back its Bandcamp Fridays promotion, in which it waives its cut of any money you spend on its marketplace buying music from artists or their labels. Historically, the company has run the promotion on the first Friday of each month, and that appears to be the case again this time. According to its update page, it has Bandcamp Fridays scheduled for September 2nd, October 7th, November 4th, and December 2nd.

 

According to Bandcamp, when you buy music on a Bandcamp Friday, 93 percent of the money goes to the artist or label on average (with the rest going to payment processing fees). In comparison, the rest of the time, the average is 82 percent. The campaign began in 2020 in response to the pandemic’s impact on tours and concerts.

 

As far as I can tell, the last Bandcamp Friday was on May 6th, based on a cursory search of my email inbox, archives of Bandcamp’s update page for the promotion, and some math (the page now says it’s run the promotion 21 times, where it used to say 17 times with four future dates listed). Following that, the company remained mostly silent on the future of Bandcamp Fridays.

 

To be fair, there was probably a lot going on earlier this year. Epic Games announced the acquisition of Bandcamp in March, saying that it would “continue to operate as a standalone marketplace and music community” but would play “an important role in Epic’s vision to build out a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music, and more.”

 

Bandcamp co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond stated at the time that things would continue as usual for its users. He even promised that Bandcamp Fridays would return, which they did for a while.

 

While the company did not respond immediately to The Verge’s request for comment on why it took a break, I’m mostly relieved to hear they’re back. Personally, I’ve had my eye on some Manchester Orchestra and Car Seat Headrest albums, and this is a great opportunity to pick them up. So, how about you?

 

Apple has released a new M2 processor for its 13-inch 2020 MacBook Pro. It outperforms the older M1 chip, especially in single-core performance. However, the M2 will also power Apple’s lower-cost MacBook Air, which will have a brand-new design and a slew of other advantages.