How I Built Resilience: Ethan Diamond of Bandcamp

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the early 2000s, the online music community was defined by MySpace, illegally downloaded music, and poorly made band websites. Then came Bandcamp – a music marketplace where fans can directly and easily support their favorite musicians. The company has steadily grown since its launch in 2007, but last year traffic and sales surged. CEO and co-founder Ethan Diamond talks with Guy about launching a virtual concert space in the pandemic and why the company started Bandcamp Friday, a monthly event where all processing fees are waived and all funds go directly to the artists. These conversations are excerpts from our How I Built Resilience series, where Guy talks online with founders and entrepreneurs about how they're navigating turbulent times.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	New Year's is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.
0:13.0	As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.
0:17.0	So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.
0:24.0	Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.
0:28.0	Hello everyone and welcome to how I built this resilience edition from NPR. I'm Guy Ross.
0:33.0	Each week, on Thursdays, we invite entrepreneurs and other business leaders to come out of the show live to talk about how they've been building resilience into their businesses this year.
0:43.0	And you can join us every Thursday at 9am Pacific 12 Eastern on the how I built this Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn pages or on NPR's YouTube page to hear the live conversation and maybe even ask a question.
0:55.0	And today, my conversation with Ethan Diamond, the CEO and co-founder of Bandcamp.
1:01.0	Bandcamp describes itself as an online record store and music community.
1:06.0	Any band or musician can post their music on the site, sell it, and also offer merchandise and tickets for live performances.
1:14.0	And the artists keep more than 80% of the profit.
1:18.0	Bandcamp had been steadily growing since its launch in 2007, but last year was its biggest yet.
1:26.0	Traffic to the site surged as concerts and festivals mostly shut down.
1:32.0	You know, as you said, we're essentially an online record store and music community where fans connect with artists and directly support them.
1:41.0	And about half the business is physical records, so vinyl, cassettes, CDs, a lot of t-shirts as well.
1:48.0	And then half the business is digital music, so people buying digital albums and digital tracks directly from the artist.
1:57.0	And we also recently launched live streaming, so now tickets are part of it as well.
2:02.0	But, you know, I would say that the thing that the really sets us apart is that we just built the whole company around the welfare of the artists.
2:12.0	So we don't, so advertising, we don't really focus on subscriptions, we just help artists sell their music.
2:18.0	And then we take a small revenue share on every sale.
	...

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