I never thought it would happen. Musicians can now livestream shows on Bandcamp. This is a game changer.

I started live-streaming shows on Concert Window maybe 8 years ago. It was not a great experience. Tips were tough. Video quality varied. Plus my gear sucked and I didn’t know as much about how to live stream.

After some severe technical problems, I abandoned the site a year or two before they shut down. I began searching for other sites that could do half as well.

Facebook was decent for a short while. But the numbers were deceptive. Then they stopped notifying my fans almost entirely. They also had no easy way for musicians to get tips except to post a link to PayPal or Venmo.

I don’t have any fans on Twitch. The cost to start over was just too much. I hear they have a way to get paid. But it sounds dubious. Just too much work.

YouTube works well. It’s a good site for streaming and where I do my weekly free shows. But it has problems too. You can accept tips, but YT takes 30% and only from public shows. You can get tips for hidden shows.

I came up with a cool method. I sold tickets on Bandcamp. Then I emailed a private link to purchasers. It was challenging to say the least. There was no automation. I had to contact ppl directly. It was a hassle. But it was my best option… until now.

One of the reasons I started using Bandcamp was the versatility. You can sell merch directly to customers. You can also include digital downloads with every physical purchase. They even have an app to easily stream music you buy. It’s made for musicians.

It’s honestly the best service I’ve seen. The  livestreaming is exactly what I dreamed of.

First, it’s easy to setup. Pick a day. Pick a time. Name the show. Give it a description and set a price.

Next page. Pick 8 products to highlight during the show. Awesome! Viewers can buy or give a tip as they watch the show.

Next page. Setup a moderator or give someone a ticket.

Ok. Figuring out the Fan Name is a bit difficult and annoying. I wish you could just enter an email address.

Final page. Test the stream.

Then you launch the sales.

And here’s one of the big reasons I love it. Bandcamp notifies everyone who bought from me in the past.  Awesome!

I realized one of the big benefits of Bandcamp is buy in. The reason we use Facebook is not because we love it. It’s because everyone is on it. So it’s easy.

If someone buys music of mine on Bandcamp, they are now in the Bandcamp ecosystem. It’s easy to buy another album or a sticker or a shirt. They now trust the site. They’ll buy again.

So having a concert on the same site where fans are already buying music is better for all future sales.

So how does the livestream run?

Great. It’s solid and stable. You can watch the show on your phone or computer (sadly not on the app).

There’s a basic, but solid chat feature. It starts working 30 minutes before showtime. That’s also when Bandcamp emails a show reminder.

It’s easy to buy one of the eight featured products. And the video quality is high (thought not the highest)-720 pixels.

Customers can buy tickets. They can also pay more than is required, like most everything they want to buy in my store (if you enable that feature). So I have some people buying $8 tickets for $20-30.

I wish Bandcamp would allow us to start live-streaming 15 minutes before showtime if we desired so we could offer a pre-show. As it is, you have to hit the Start button to start live-streaming the show. That’s not great but it works.

Overall, I am thrilled with livestreaming on Bandcamp. It’s a time saver that also allows me to make money while livestreaming shows with very little hassle.

Bampcamp Suggestions

PS. In case Bandcamp reads this, I do have a few cool suggestions that would make their service even better.

1. Allow sub-categories in the merch store.

I have a lot of merch. It would be amazing if I could list stickers, shirts, songbooks, jewelry or whatever other sub-categories I could add to the merch section.

2. Offer credit card readers.

I have tried many ways at live shows to encourage fans to buy in the Bandcamp store so that I could just hand-deliver the CD to a customer. It just doesn't work well. What I need is a credit card reader like the one used by Square or Paypal. That would allow me to accept credit card payments PLUS it'd get more customers into the already robust Bandcamp ecosystem. Please, please do this Bandcamp!

3. Sales upgrades.

I don't know how they'd do this with their current system. But it'd be nice if a customer were about to buy a CD, they could a post that said, “For $10 more you can get this…”