Originally Posted by Tony Pascarella

It's really not super difficult. I integrated Tourmaline's almost seamlessly into their website.

If they made it easier to discover new music it'd probably be perfect.

This.

I really hope bandcamp becomes the #1 music streaming site.

Originally Posted by snu

I'm not so sure I like the free downloads being limited for artists. It's a business so I understand the financial aspect of it...but I think all these changes, with the way the music is handled, are going to turn a lot of people off from the site. I like bandcamp and think it's about as good as it gets until something better comes along. Some artists just want to give away stuff for free and by limiting that it really makes an artist pay for free downloads or be forced to find other means of distribution.

But see, you can still use Mediafire or whatever if you want to do that.

Originally Posted by Tony Pascarella

Personally, I think these new changes are a fair balance. Once you reach the cap, downloads aren't expensive for a band to purchase, and if you sell music and merch through them, you're probably going to get some free downloads from that.

Thoughts?

Yeah, it's totally fair and I'm behind most of the changes they make.

However as a guy in a band who gives free downloads, I'm a little annoyed that I'll have to start paying for something that was previously free!

Originally Posted by grrrrr

Yeah, it's totally fair and I'm behind most of the changes they make.

However as a guy in a band who gives free downloads, I'm a little annoyed that I'll have to start paying for something that was previously free!

Look at it this way.

If you have a merch store and haven't sold 2 t-shirts after giving away 1,500 ($20 for 1,000 plus the initial 500) downloads, there's a good chance you might want to find another career.

I personally think bandcamp is awesome..bottom line. Put all the other BS aside, its just straight up about the music...no number plays, no competition..just the way it all should be. Much love<3

I love the bandcamp service, but limiting the amount of times you can give away a track/album for free is fucking ridiculous and just plain stupid. Every change they've made up until this point has only made the service better.

Most changes are good and I love Bandcamp, but paying for free downloads/limiting the number of free downloads is BS.

Good site, but the new free download thing is stupid. The bands will just upload it to mediafire and distribute it that way, which means Bandcamp will be losing business

Originally Posted by Matthew Tsai

Bandcamp is currently my favorite site.

Ditto. I've discovered so much music through the site and the prices are pretty low compared to itunes and amazon.

pretty cool idea. bandcamp has always been pretty good

Originally Posted by snu

I'm not so sure I like the free downloads being limited for artists. It's a business so I understand the financial aspect of it...but I think all these changes, with the way the music is handled, are going to turn a lot of people off from the site. I like bandcamp and think it's about as good as it gets until something better comes along. Some artists just want to give away stuff for free and by limiting that it really makes an artist pay for free downloads or be forced to find other means of distribution.

i agree

Originally Posted by Tony Pascarella

Look at it this way.

If you have a merch store and haven't sold 2 t-shirts after giving away 1,500 ($20 for 1,000 plus the initial 500) downloads, there's a good chance you might want to find another career.

This.

Personally, I would like to think this is only going to help artists...I can't see any downside.

I'm not feeling too happy about this whole idea of putting a limited quantity of free downloads for artists. I know, Bandcamp is a business, but it sucks for those of us who aren't necessarily trying to make a career out of it (i.e., I release music for fun). It's not that I'm going willy-nilly releasing stuff either, I just don't think my music should be sold. (Note: My music.) I think that as time goes on however (especially with the economy) there has to be way for music sites like Bandcamp to turn a profit. Hm, guess I might have to start looking into other venues to give out music...but I seriously hate Megaupload/Rapidshare/Etc. type websites as they tend to confuse people who've never visited those sites.

Bandcamp is awesome, but making artists pay for free downloads doesn't seem right. It just limits the artist and makes them try to turn a profit. Sometimes artists just want to release music for fun, and Bandcamp making a profit out of that isn't fair. I understand that Bandcamp is a business, but this can turn people away from uploading to their site.

I saw this post and immediately signed my band up for an account, simply because I love how easy it was to set up for pay what you want downloading, but I'm right with some of you guys - paying for free downloads is bullshit. However, seems the overall benefits outweigh the costs for me.