You're listening to sound opinions and today we are taking a broad view on the year in music,

how different segments of the industry are reacting to the pandemic that has defined 2020. We'll get to live music and record stores later in the show,

but first we're going to talk about the digital music industry.

That's right, Jim. Over the course of 20 20 it seemed that no digital music service was doing more to respond

to the reality of COVID-19 than Bandcamp. On March 20th, they announced that for 24 hours,

they would waive their transaction fees and pass everything directly to artists

and labels.

An amazingly generous act for these artists and labels who are struggling since live music

had been shut down. That was the birth of Bandcamp Fridays and I

know a lot of music lovers who participated in that including us and it's

a routinely repeated once a month for the rest of the year.

So we are fortunate to be able to speak to Andrew Jervis, who is the chief curator at Band Camp

and the host of the podcast Band Camp Weekly.

Andrew, thanks for coming on sound opinions.

Greg and I have been talking for years

about the vast source of income for most musicians,

most working musicians, is performing live.

As of last March, they have had that taken away from them.

But now, without live performance, it seems more dire than ever for streaming being the new dominant way people are

listening to music not to be paying the people who create that music.

Is part of the mission of Bandcamp trying to offer

an alternative to not paying musicians?

...