Direct Sales

How Bandcamp pays royalties.

Bandcamp is not a streaming platform — it is direct digital and physical sales. Bandcamp's own fee is 15% on digital items (dropping to 10% after an artist passes $5,000 in lifetime sales) and 10% on physical items, with separate payment-processor fees of roughly 4–6% on top. On "Bandcamp Fridays," Bandcamp waives its entire share.

Payment model: Direct sale, revenue-share fee — not a per-stream royalty at all.
Estimated rate: Artists typically keep 82–85% of a sale after Bandcamp's fee and payment-processor fees; roughly 93% on Bandcamp Fridays, when Bandcamp's fee is waived entirely.
Royalty types generated: Direct sale proceeds (not a traditional royalty)

How to collect it

No separate registration needed to collect the sale proceeds themselves — Bandcamp pays out directly, daily.
A cover or non-original composition sold as a download still carries its own mechanical licensing obligation, independent of the Bandcamp transaction.

Related royalty types

Mechanical Royalties →

Rates verified 2026-08-28 from cross-industry research; treat all per-stream figures as estimates — they vary by territory, subscription tier, and your own distribution deal. Rekon is independent of Bandcamp and not affiliated with it.

Find out if you're actually collecting every royalty Bandcamp owes you.