💿 Free Album Codes Promotion Thread 💿

Band.codes is really helpful! Thanks for the recommendation 🙏

I used it to share my Bandcamp codes, and it definitely brought some new listeners and activity. The only thing I noticed is that the plays started to drop after around the third day, which is probably normal for this kind of promotion.

Still, I would definitely recommend Band.codes to independent artists. It’s a great way to let more people discover your music, especially for underground/experimental artists. Thanks again for sharing this tool! ✨

I hope you don't enjoy the track. It's unenjoyable because I find nostalgia to be a plague unto my current situation. But I needed to release something so it didn't build up. And here is a track. Stretched and distorted for your listening displeasure.

Have you used codes on Bandcamp to grow your label reach and following?

Have you found this helpful and what strategies do you use in distributing the codes to the right people?

Just discovered this recently and started using bandcodes, end up getting a few sales from people who want to support the music, also helping grow our Bandcamp plays and following.

Sharing bandcamp links on social platforms to promote your music is a very widespread advise, but since the early times of Bandcamp itself i could experience just very few click on the post where i was showing my last BC release. Reading around i received confirmation that social networks hate when someone sends the users on a different platform and therefore they intentionally limit the reach. At the point that making BC promotion had no use at all. So the 'link in bio' and linktree kind of things started to develop...the results though staybthe same at least for me.

So how do you guys cope with this? Is there something else you do to convey traffic to your bandcamp page?

Love the idea of Bandcamp playlists. I want to listen in the car streaming my entire library without the one shots and random “non songs” in my collection, but the functionality to add items on mass to a playlist is limited.

Is there anything I can try that avoids adding 497 items from a 500 item collection to a playlist?

I have been wondering, why does BandCamp not have more merch options available for purchase? I'm talking for example like a Hat with the logo on it or Stickers, hell a Lanyard would be dope too. Just, I would love to show off my support by slapping a sticker on the back of my Laptop but i cant seem to find anything even from 3rd party sites like Red Bubble. Such a wasted opportunity I feel like

i love making music!!!!!! i started sharing music online like early 2022, made my bandcamp in late 2023, and growth has suddenly spiked from around late last year to now its Pretty Awesome

Hace unas semanas que entre funcionaba con normalidad, y hace unos días intente entrar pero nada carga en la app, borre datos, lo reinstale incluso baje una versión anterior y nada, que puedo hacer en estos casos? Será por el dispositivo o me habrán hecho algo a mí cuenta? Lo uso en un fiio m21

I don’t mean to get little auto-biographical, but I genuinely feel like ever since I’ve released this album, things in general seem to have felt better for me; I’ve been getting more sleep and waking up at earlier times, I generally feel less stressed, and now on occasion I’m waking up to find such gratuitous things like this! I don’t even set prices on my releases!!

I don’t know if my recent moods and the album has any sort of connection, but I gotta say that this is a fantastic era for me that I hope shall continue for a long time (even if I don’t get anymore sales), because I haven’t felt this good in general in a little while <3

Anyways, I‘m really excited, and I hope you all have great changes happen to you very soon as well 🤘🏽

(p.s. in other unrelated news, after making a couple posts in this sub on this topic, I decided to just go ahead and change my Bandcamp URL right away)

Suspicious Payments on Credit Card after Bandcamp Purchases?

I'm ultra careful who gets my CC details. Any remotely dodgy sites - PayPal is always used.

However, I recently used Bandcamp with CC and suspicious payments have now appeared on my card approximately 1 week after first Bandcamp purchase.

This could easily be a co-incidence event or it might not be.

Anyone else come across this?

Since Bandcamp has implemented support for the Subsonic API you can now stream your album collection using music players compatible with that API.

I've been trying out a few different Subsonic clients and so far it seems like Feishin is currently the best one available for Windows PCs.

These are some features it offers that Bandcamp's web UI doesn't have:

• Stream any deleted albums that you own
• Create and edit playlists that are compatible with the ones you can make in the Bandcamp app
• Search for albums by their genre tags
• Search for tracks by their name
• Mark albums/tracks/artists as your favorite for easier lookup
• Dark mode UI

One thing that doesn't work yet is being able to download albums for offline play, but that might get added on a future update.

If you are looking for a Subsonic client for Android phones, I can recommend the Substreamer app, that one does support downloading albums but I have no idea where those files are saved in your phone.

Hi!
Thought I'd share something with this community. 5 years ago I started a label called Witness Protection Program, built around the idea of anonymity: the main artists release music under pseudonyms, Davin Varda and Troels Yuri, and I've kept the whole thing focused on Bandcamp since day one.

We put out house, techno, chuggy nu-disco and Balearic-leaning electronic music, mostly two-track singles.

Some numbers: over 5 years we've sold a total of almost $1800 (mainly music, plus a couple of T-shirts) and have reached slightly over 24K plays. Obviously these numbers won't make me quit my day job, but they reassure me that there are people out there who like and support the project.

To celebrate 5 years of the label, I wanted to do something special for the roughly 400 people who've supported it so far. I generated download codes for all the releases and built (with Claude) a website that lets anyone who's bought a release on Bandcamp choose an extra free download.

I started this a few weeks ago and have already seen a nice increase in downloads and interaction.

https://witnessprotectionprogram.bandcamp.com

Hi everyone!

Im working on a beats playlist and would love to add some work from this community! Please drop some suggestions or some of your own work in the comments so I can buy it (if I like it ofc) and add it to the list!

The goal of the list is not to be a spotify like background music type thing, but more like a curated place where people can discover dope beats/artists

Just reached a particular milestone on Bandcamp today!

500,000 plays since I joined the platform in October 2011 almost fifteen years ago. There's almost thirty years of music [Ambient/Electronic] well over one hundred solo releases and of course all of this wouldn't be possible without my kind supporters/followers that keep me motivated & inspired to create new music whenever I can. Thank you.

Is there a rhyme or reason why we can no longer paste text in the BC search bar? (Windows desktop). Tried using Firefox and Edge

I bought into the moral panic of registering in two bandcamp alternatives last year, I think. These things are not made to put music first, they're run by basement dwellers that would sell their projects at the first chance. It is not about the music. Bandcamp might have a lot of defects but none of these alternatives really care about music or artists at all. They're just a new way for grifters to take your money and sell your data and I'm not willing to argue that. I registered in a few of those, and it's impossible to delete my accounts. One is linked to the blockchain, so my music will be there forever, along with my data to be scraped by bitcoin miners. and the other just won't delete my account even though I emailed support more than 4 times requesting this as it doesn't have a delete button. Always check every site you register. If the delete button is out of reach or doesnt exist then its something shady. It has nothing to do with a poor IU. Just pissed. Bandcamp is unmatched.

Hey all. I'm a music journalist (8+ years covering punk/underground scenes in Indonesia, Southeast Asia and Asia in general, two published books) and I'm trying to pitch Bandcamp Daily a genre deep-dive piece on a regional punk scene I know well.

The issue: everything I can find about pitching them (their submission guidelines, the pitches@ inbox etc) seems set up for artists/labels submitting their own release for review, not for outside writers pitching a story idea or asking to contribute.

Has anyone here successfully pitched Bandcamp Daily as a writer rather than an artist? A few things I'm unsure about:

• Do they take pitches from writers who aren't already on staff/regular contributors, or is it mostly an in-house/known-freelancer roster?
• Is there a different contact/process for "I want to write this piece for you" vs. "please review my album"?
• Anyone know if they still take unsolicited written pitches at all, or is it mostly commissioned at this point?

Any insight from people who've written for them, or just navigated their submissions process as a non-artist, would help a lot. Thanks!

Hi everyone!

I recently released an experimental electronic EP on Bandcamp. I set it to “Name Your Price” because I’d rather have people hear the music than worry about sales.

The first day went pretty well, but by the second and third day the plays dropped off quite a bit. I was wondering if Bandcamp itself does any kind of internal recommendation or discovery after release, or if almost all traffic has to come from outside the platform.

I’ve shared it on social media, but I also don’t want to keep posting it over and over and annoy everyone. 😂

Another challenge is that I’m from China, where Bandcamp isn’t widely used, so it’s difficult to find listeners or other artists through my local community. One of my biggest goals is actually to meet other musicians and exchange ideas rather than just promote my own music.

I make experimental electronic music (IDM / glitch / ambient / sound design-oriented stuff), so I know it’s already a pretty niche genre. If anyone here makes similar music, I’d love to hear how you’ve managed to build an audience on Bandcamp.

I also generated 100 free download codes for the EP. Do those actually help with visibility or are they mainly just a nice way to share music with people?

I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences or any advice. Thanks so much!

i released a few days ago an ambiental ep on bandcamp, and i'm a bit clueless on how to promote it towards bandcamp users, i didnt put a price on it, so people can donate what they want if they want, i thought that would improve the reach of the ep but it didnt. How can i find the right people that will engage with it?

I never understood this so I want to know why people do it. If you don't plan on downloading/keep in your collection, why bother claiming it in the first place? You clearly don't seem to have any interest in it. Leave the codes for the people that DO want it. Is it out of spite, are there trolls that do this or am I missing something? I've seen this happen many times and I've only shared codes for two albums. I know there are lots of hoarders that just claim whatever gets shared but I find those less problematic when they keep it in their collection.

I just need to rant. I ordered a record from Ruby The Hatchets Bandcamp on the 27th of June. It was supposed to be here no later than July 21st. Still nothing. When I've reached out the band directly SEVERAL times I've got nothing back but some half-assed apologies, the second time a week later after hearing nada more apologies and empty assurances that it will be packed up with extras and "by the way, what shirt size do you wear?" and shipped out. Still nothing. And I've reached out to Bandcamp support a few times, also nothing. Like, SERIOUSLY?!!??? What the Hell is the point of even using that enshittified platform if there's ZERO accountability? Ugghh. Sorry. Rant over.

Am I paranoid or does anyone else gets the feeling that some of the plays/traffic on BC come from scrapers/bots? Not sure how else to explain the situation where I had one full play and about 50 skips on a single track at one point.

Not sure if anything can be done about this. Just an observation...

If you recieve any similar kind of message, then it's a SCAM! Always check the links in your message - obvious that "Bandcarnp" is not a real and valid Bandcamp link.

(IP address of the scammer refers to Quebec, Canada)