When I finished making the Found My Way album in the autumn of 2019, I released it for distribution through CD Baby. This meant that it was quickly available through Spotify and other streaming services, and initially available to download as quality mp3 files directly from CD Baby.
During the summer of 2020 I eventually got around to getting the physical CD version sorted, as some people had indicated that they wanted physical copies of the album. I announced the arrival of the CD copies here.
Enter Bandcamp
Some time ago I realised that CD Baby were no longer doing downloads so people who wanted to get hold of the album on mp3 couldn’t do so. I realised I need another solution.
Late last year there seemed to be a flurry of people releasing things via Bandcamp, and I decided to investigate. I had heard of Bandcamp before, and had even bought a couple of albums through it, but had never really thought about using it as an artist.
Well the signup process was pretty easy and before too long I had my own Bandcamp artist account, and the Found My Way album page is here. I’ve also uploaded my Life Line album from a few years ago.
The advantages of Bandcamp
For a singer/songwriter like myself Bandcamp offers the flexibility to release albums or tracks in whatever combination you want. You can just upload the songs in a grouping, and that becomes an album.
You can also supply artwork for the album, some general notes about the album and copyright information for each of the individual tracks.
People who are interested can buy the whole album, or just individual tracks if they prefer. And Bandcamp even allows users to play the tracks a few times without having to buy them.
Obviously Bandcamp doesn’t offer all this for free, and they charge a 10 – 15% commission on every purchase. But that’s not bad really.
What do you think?
It’s easy to think about things as an ‘artist’ (in Bandcamp’s terms), but what about you? Does Bandcamp offer everything that a music lover needs? And is there anything obvious that’s missing?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
Keep well, and keep safe.
Most of the album was recorded and mixed at 
All the songs were my own, except one track ‘Don’t Let Go’ which was the result of a collaboration with Francis Greene – a guitarist and keyboard player who I regularly encountered on open-mic nights. Having co-written the song, Francis was happy to come and record some keyboards and backing vocals on the track. That was a fun evening. See 
Tracy and I had met at an open-mic night in Woking some years ago and had performed together at many open-mics since.
Karen is a neighbour who I’ve known for a few years, and she has been a singer for ages. Whilst we’ve never done open-mics together she has instead been involved with other events like Ripley Rocks for example.
In terms of other contributions during the recording, I should mention Joanna Lawrence – another Woking resident and an accomplished string player. She agreed to be part of the project and her viola and violin can be heard on two of the album tracks. She did well decoding the hand-written scores that I gave her.
