(CelebrityAccess) — Last Friday, music marketplace Bandcamp announced that it was waiving its share of the proceeds from merch sales through the service to help support artists affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, the company announced that the program was a success. According to Bandcamp, fans purchased more than 800,000 items on Friday, or $4.3 million worth of music and merch.
That’s up more than 15 times its typical Friday sales of about 47,000 and at the peak, fans were buying 11 items per second, Bandcamp said.
“We would like to thank all of you, along with NPR, Pitchfork, Billboard, Resident Advisor, Music Ally, Variety, The Verge, Consequence of Sound, Vice, Paper, Forbes, Paste, and many more for helping us spread the word, and for the many labels who gave 100% of their proceeds to their artists as well,” Bandcamp said.
“We don’t yet know the long-term impact of Covid-19, but we know that we all need music—to uplift and inspire us, to heal us, and to give us hope. We’ll continue working to make Bandcamp the best place for fans and artists to come together and sustain each other in the challenging times ahead,” they added.
