Published
Mon, May 23, 2016, 14:23
- The online music retailer says its experiencing success in spite of market trends.
Bandcamp has responded to a report predicting the demise of paid music downloads.
Earlier this month, a report from Digital Music News citing anonymous sources from Apple claimed iTunes would scrap paid downloads in two years, raising questions about the long-term viability of paid download retailers. In response, Bandcamp issued a statement on its blog last Friday detailing the success of its model and disputing the feasibility of subscription-based streaming services.
While the battle for market supremacy being waged by the likes of Apple Music and Spotify in the subscription market has been subject to considerable media coverage and heavy investment, Bandcamp said the model "has yet to prove itself... even after hundreds of millions of investment dollars (have been) raised and spent." In spite of declining download sales in the market at large, Bandcamp's are steadily increasing: the company grew by 35% in 2015 and its album sales increased 14% despite a 3% dip across the industry.
The post ends with a paragraph stating that Bandcamp does not consider itself a download store, despite selling digital music. It claims that its combination of streaming and optional download is distinct because it provides customers with uninhibited, multi-platform access, where a paid subscription service would presumably limit users to consuming audio rather than owning it. It ends by asking users to, "Please consider joining us in never using 'streaming' as shorthand for 'subscription-based music.' The former is an inevitable technological shift, the latter is an unproven business model."