Distributor EMPIRE Partners With Bandcamp To Go Direct To Consumer?

Distributor EMPIRE Partners With Bandcamp To Go Direct To Consumer? #bandcamp #empire #curtissking #directtoconsumer #musicbusiness
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[@tmsmith30]

Thank you, Curtis King! I just installed Bandcamp because of you. I'm all for supporting artists and ensuring they are positively compensated for their talent. We have the power as consumers to affect change. LET'S GO PEOPLE! #powertothepeople

[@LovingSoul61]

I would still rather keep my music exclusively on my website. I agree with your response about the value of dtc.

[@smilingerrors]

This is the way, but it still faces the same issue of attracting traffic. The same scourge of pay to gain profile parasites circle the industry. Very few media platforms will place non paying content in their trending lists.

[@drelovestats6715]

@@smilingerrorsit’s not Impossible get to work

[@rbggwapo]

​@@smilingerrors just use clever marketing copy + a simple clever site name then cover your city with simple paper ads with a QR. Preferably like a thousand, maybe posting up like 250 at a time

[@KAUTIOUZBEATZ4]

Good i miss getting a CD & listening to it and looking at the cover art & credits 💪🏿... everything comes full circle i guess 🤷🏿‍♂️

[@doyadirty3804]

CD and vinyl days were so much more than just music. It was a feeling. Getting a record was a whole experience. Now u type a song in youtube skip half of it and on to the next

[@arzabael]

@@doyadirty3804 don’t worry friend we are all learning how immediate gratification has ruined the way we experience things. CDs are “coming back in a big way” and I believe that

[@tmsmith30]

​@@doyadirty3804A whole vibe. I miss searching for CDs/albums and hearing the sounds of them hitting the next one. #recordstorejunkie

[@emmanuelaboagye7970]

For any Artist on the rise, I think Seth Godin said it best. “Piracy is not the problem, obscurity is.” Direct-2-Consumer remains the best path for artists serious about their craft.

[@phrelancelotmusic]

@ Curtissking ,Nefertiti Gold is making the same mistake 90% of artists make… under valuing our music; not thinking our music is worth a certain price point that can earn you a living! Yet I see said fans manage to find a way to buy high value concert tickets for emerging artists and merchs!!!🤔 this is how we got here, assuming that our fans are broke and not willing to support us! 😤

[@emonteadams]

Sounds like major labels tryna take over Bandcamp slowly

[@zerastarchild2849]

Curtiss your final thoughts at the end of this video are exactly why I follow you as an artist. Music is one of the most powerful forces for healing on this planet. And for too long this force has been controlled by people I believe do not wish the healing of humanity. Because unwell people are much easier to control. To be an independent artist you have to break free from the pack. Again I thank you for being a path cutter for those of us who must make art because that's just how the Creator made us. Thank you for showing us options besides being exploited by those who can't make the art they seek to control and profit from.

[@crnkmnky]

❤✊

[@SonicDruid1]

Amen!! Totally agree, you said it best 🙌🌈❤️

[@SonicDruid1]

Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou ❤❤❤ As an independent artist, this was so healing and encouraging to hear.

[@KawaiiSteez]

Dope! I am currently making my own cassettes with a tapedeck from 74 for a unique sound lol. A lot of work to make but so excited to have my first direct to consumer route done!

[@apollobreck]

What's ya Instagram? I want to witness this

[@SmokeeWhine]

I finally finished making my album into MP3's for direct to consumer!

[@Weissdigital]

@@SmokeeWhine wdym

[@sleepysleepy9913]

I honestly dont remember pirating something since limewire

[@NathanielHester-xw3ye]

Yo I just wanna give a big thank you cuz I watched you grow from all kind of different accounts 😂😂😂 & you do an amazing job bro 👍

[@chattow]

That tape player idea is sick.... What about record players? Old boom box style with dual tape deck and a CD player? Blue tooth and aux????? 🤔

[@arzabael]

“Character building experiences” are by far the most underrated under appreciated lessons we get in life, when simply practicing talking to adults is all you get out of the situation, and how that is so f valuable

[@secretarchivesofthevatican]

The reality is that people want to stream. It's the easiest for the music listener. The technology is not going away. The question is, of course, how the streaming economy can operate because the current business model cannot survive because of the incredible volume of music released daily. That is the question to explore. Direct to consumer is a side-quest for music fanatics, not the thing for most users or musicians.

[@brettantoni]

This has been the only thing on my mind. Getting mass adoption for a method that puts more work on the consumer’s end I believe is a farfetched idea. However, if there were a way to combine both of the positive sides of DTC and streaming, then that may solve a lot (not all of course) of the problems.

[@CraigScottFrost]

With that said, one of the biggest challenges is how to get your music into people’s playlists. If they are streaming and you are direct from Bandcamp or your own website, you will not be on the playlist. They can’t even add you to their personal playlists. That is the biggest hurdle.

[@we_rebel]

Every single day we work on this. We’re 50+ developers strong. Change is inevitable.

[@soussoul]

Incredible, love the outro portion, keep talking this type of shit, you are absolutely inspiring musicians to implement this type of thinking which is what will shape the future of the music industry. The more artists do this successfully, the more the idea will spread and the more this world of the new music industry will open up, providing more tools and more innovations to assist its growth

[@CandyAppleBlue]

Love you, Curtis! But Bandcamp is far from "direct to consumer." Make no mistake about it, they are middlemen and they take a cut. And just recently, they are now taking a cut of physical merchandise like CD sales. 😢

[@BenCaesar]

Good point but it’s unrealistic to expect a service with an audience for free. Every store front takes a cut to be fair

[@crnkmnky]

​@@BenCaesar Can you imagine how much all of these companies spend daily on data storage and high-speed network pipelines? Bandcamp, Spotify, KZbin… I don't see a way for any of them to stay in business without eventually turning into 💩

[@samuelesalvel4033]

As an artist you are using a service that Bandcamp gives to you to run your business. Of course they want a cut, it's totally normal. Such as if you use a site building service. Yes you have 100% of revenues, but you must pay the service to keep the site up. Or you are capable to build your own site for free because you have that skill, good for you. But few of us have that skill

[@samuelesalvel4033]

Also Curtiss use Shopify for his site. Paying that monthly subscription is not maybe an "indirect cut" taken from your sellings? I think it is, if you think like an entrepreneur

[@crnkmnky]

@@samuelesalvel4033 Right. It's wise to question the necessity of expenses, but it's also wise to delegate responsibilities. Web design, e-commerce, payment processing, search engine optimization? Nothing is stopping an artist from setting up a store on their own website _and_ on Bandcamp. That might incentivize them to improve the website faster.

[@mirecmusic]

DTC is the answer to streaming as an old school musician this give me and a lot of artist the hope and the excitement of recording music and releasing it again.

[@tonymix2116]

This changes the business, competition!

[@vonlivetv8826]

Direct to consumer won’t reach as many as streaming will. However the benefit is artist will have a more viable way of seeing how much support they truly have. Only your true fans are going to do the work to actually purchase your music the old fashion way. Artist will have the autonomy to price their music how they see fit. I’d much rather a 1000 fans paying 10 for my album directly. Then a 100,000 giving me points on a penny that I will recoup over years 🤦🏾‍♂️

[@luvajay22]

Great info and insights!!! 💯💪🏾

[@joseph_wav]

Sometimes, piracy helps artists to achieve success.

[@ZennaTorro]

Damn Curtis.. I love you man. Thank you for all your work ❤

[@Truefaiththemessenger]

Seriously dope bro you are really talking my language I have already given up on streaming this is hopefully my next move appreciate it the info bro very dope 💯💯🎶

[@kingcheflos602]

This is a great!!! and so valuable!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@Studio22mix]

Continue grinding Curtis 🤟🏼

[@SleepyJames]

You got something smart going with that business card I been thinking about the next hard gen of music have you considered adding Bluetooth functionality to your business card that way consumers can listen right away either way you have an amazing idea and concept I wish you was a global name so you could bring that freshness and originality the rap game needs kudos brother

[@CED.Dweller]

I think the entire music world is running toward stability. SKYNET managed to scare most of the people who thought that EKE & Co had the all-encompassing answer to both the pirate and profit problems. They solved neither for the artist for long.

[@CED.Dweller]

@NIS_Official_Music If you want your music critiqued, please sign up here: curtiquemybeats.com ...and we'll hear it next Monday!

[@dcrossdope]

Good video bro. I agree.. with time your fans grow with you.. make dope art period.. it sells itself.. I watched the other sisters video and I wanted to comment so bad but it’s hard to get point across from the comments section without it being deemed as hating.

[@stestetsonmusic]

Our band use streaming as a loss leader to get people to shows, rock bands have been doing direct to consumer always selling records, CDs merch etc And in the UK I think rap struggles with this because there aren’t as many venues for rappers to perform

[@WeTalkMusicOnline]

We simply made our own DTC page with community and forums and what not. So people also get their own EPK/Blog profile. We don't believe bandcamp will stay independent with the last two sales of it. Making distributors access to the service just seems like the first step in making the platform something else.

[@bemci1975]

damnnnn...Asake is breaking barriers 🔥

[@ocleadinlady]

Thanks for providing unbiased angles

[@bigloucrew786]

Always the dopest content. Can you expand on why you think Bandcamp and Even are different?

[@Dre-1Beats]

gotta love that keygen music Lmfaaoo

[@crnkmnky]

🎶🎮

[@nhoomiteub]

I think Ohbliv is making a killing on Bandcamp and he's an Instrumental Hip Hop Producer out of Richmond Virginia and he has two or three pages he has a page by his real name....Bradford Thomas and a group called Pangeya most of his music is dope also check out Monday Night, Big Kahuna OG and Fly Anakin

[@iq2mixvh9]

love your voice!

[@goingglobalmusicgroup2555]

I know what it's like to sale out at in store concerts. Good Ole Days. Independent!

[@WILDTRIPTv]

I think when the product is good and the quality is there your fans will definitely pay for it.

[@joseph_wav]

The problem with platforms is that you rent the music and some people wanna buy to own the music

[@kxnganon9168]

"Spotify fixed the problem " but YT to MP3 sites are still prevalent today and producers are still having issues with ppl stealing there beats and releasing music without purchasing it 🤔🤔

[@asole100]

Yea, and risk getting malware

[@SchizoSkillz]

17:26 So you get the Cupacabra tape, and a matching cassette walk\man?!?! I never heard of this guy, but that's a dope package. I'd snag it just for that!

[@oddeoarttv]

Problem and Dj Quik

[@MrUpgradeMusic]

Bro you got to chill with the random techno Keygen installer music in the video. That damn near took me out and I'm on the road driving right now listening to this video😂

[@symonmungur9895]

thx bro

[@amajorthemusician]

Hi Curtiss, Firstly, I wanted to point out that my algorithms, whether TikTok or Instagram, have consistently capped me at a certain amount of views for my content despite experimenting with different ways of executing the content, but regardless, I have kind of discovered my content style now and continued to create despite constantly hitting a ceiling in the metrics. As far as streaming is concerned, Spotify and all that is out the picture for me now that I have left those platforms to just strictly go direct to consumer. As a creator who has been navigating through different genres, I have seen the most progress in House music, specifically doing remixes especially in the last year. If I am getting the best results I have ever gotten for simply my music on let’s say platforms like SoundCloud, especially for my remixes, with intentions of bringing visibility to my originals which are also on display, should I just focus more on there where I am getting the most traffic despite not really progressing as much with the content for my music on social media? Let me know your thoughts! Thanks!

[@ericgriffin120]

Now you have just become an honest broker. There are pros and cons and they need to be explored. I will be doing both but I need less back patting and more exploring this business model fully.

[@toddmaek5436]

Shout out to Dj QUIK!!!!!!

[@WesleyClouden]

Meet Gazi Via Uncle 40 in 2008 when had office Downtown Oakland when shared office space Kaz Kasha. & the Team when shoot music videos for them with my homie Damon Jamal

[@MellowBlues]

I am indie and proud. yes, it is challenging. But i won't change it. I have decided to remove all my songs from Spotify and etc. Lets work and good luck with your arts.

[@villagegirl3627]

Little known fact: TX and the Southwest was where music was broken…the labels and predators moved there to control that momentum and profit from these cats’ ingenuity.

[@kinoux09]

hey curtis what are the names of the 2 last beats at the end of the video?

[@MoKroosh]

21:19 😭

[@NametagAlexander]

More independent music artists should look into sync licensing.

[@roysway5669]

So when the fans buy digital do it automatically download into there music library like Apple and google store ?

[@crnkmnky]

Not automatically. There used to be ways to import your own files, but I haven't checked in years.

[@famousamosofficial]

Good video

[@nhoomiteub]

Bandcamps headquarters are here in downtown Oakland

[@KURO1.1]

Hey folks, please help someone please list physical merch manufactures websites for vinyl, CDs, and cassettes. I have been looking, cannot find one.🙏🏿🙏🏿

[@asole100]

Fourth Wall for the merch, and Curtis made a video on he gets his other stuff recently.

[@KURO1.1]

@@asole100 thank you

[@toddmaek5436]

The share protocol guy that you had on a lil bit ago using blockchain is still a bet tho

[@BigOTheRapper97]

Let's not forget about soundclick lol

[@drelovestats6715]

History repeats itself everytime

[@rustymixer2886]

This been common sense since bandcamp launched in 2009. This 2024...bit late?

[@georgewoolf6300]

Curtis, where do you get your USB busisness cards printed up?

[@SplashSisterscml]

Would you say doing CD baby and only allowing “downloads “only be similar to taking the BandCamp route ?

[@YariBeatsMedia]

Bandcamp allows you to buy records without signing in. BTW, not too many people can wear as many hats as you.

[@LSD11]

My Man, how do i get one of these usb business cards!?

[@CurtissKingTV]

Amazon. They’re called USB business cards

[@LSD11]

@@CurtissKingTV Thnk you, King!

[@drakesmith3908]

Yup still use it

[@drakesmith3908]

U got A fire song bro

[@crazzylee]

Learn to live in a RV. You’ll have money at the end of the month. Trust me on this one. I did it and it was life changing. 💯

[@crnkmnky]

Vanlife ain't for everyone, but I want to try. But my executive dysfunction makes minimalism a serious challenge. But I think I'll get there! 🚌

[@kojoefante]

I’m actually surprised you bought into it .

[@AmagiriYoung]

Wow

[@2samarie2]

Empire wit the Bandcamp acquisition?

[@crnkmnky]

Not acquisition, _partnership._

[@rowanlajoie2996]

Article link is still up, but they seem to have taken the article down for whatever reason

[@CurtissKingTV]

I saw that this morning 🤨 wonder what happened

[@damienjurado6581]

The percentage that Bandcamp takes from artists? Nah bro. I don’t need Fridays. I’ll keep my 100% 24 / 7.

[@tooflessmusic]

​@@damienjurado6581that's fair lol

[@goingglobalmusicgroup2555]

All 5 in place and working

[@goingglobalmusicgroup2555]

@johngreasy

[@dm6607]

The Answer... Sell albums in Vinyl Form only, release singles and remixes through streaming and videos through KZbin. Hardware is the future. Albums sold direct to consumer. Billboard is a wrap. If piracy persist... then there should be a organization that goes after the source for facilitating the piracy of songs. That's job creation because there's a need for more pressing plants and a division put in place to fine or shut down the piracy sites at least domestically. The fans WILL follow the music. The change isn't hard to commit to and the down-scaling of the streaming sites server farms will reduce their overhead in energy cost therefore making it easy for them to make a profit and maintain keeping their doors open. Spotify, Tidal... etc etc need to start thinking about creating innovating hardware to appeal to the consumer market because the current status they hold is momentary. It will end or creators will alienate them all together. #piedpipershit

[@asole100]

Not everyone has a device to play that with.

[@Shades289]

Mr king about bandlab is it the same?

[@goingglobalmusicgroup2555]

Did consignment it worked though

[@KushNubit]

Naw she gaslighting people direct to consumers is best there will be ways where your music can be safe in my opinion

[@rbggwapo]

your own website

[@kojoefante]

Please .. They’re gonna ruin everyone .. just like Spotify did ..

[@crnkmnky]

🥺

[@detrockcity3]

Yeah, that solved pirating. Everyone just stopped doing it. Lmao.

[@Herbsus]

👀 Is it just me or did the Editor just Break the 4th Wall IRL? 👀

[@crnkmnky]

He be doin' that. I don't know how he does it without his teef though…

[@debodoyin]

Its pronounced Asakeeee not asakey he's Nigerian artist.

[@crnkmnky]

I was more irked by the Olámide pronunciation at 2:28 😸

[@thabangndlovu]

Piracy can actually help you gain more fans. Your music may not reach potential fans in some parts of the world, and piracy can help with that. It's inaccurate to say that Spotify or any streaming service has completely eliminated this problem, as piracy is likely to persist.

[@doyadirty3804]

Piracy is what keeps shit movin

[@bangout1643]

Sound like she’s whining to me. I aint tryna hear that shit.

[@crnkmnky]

😸

[@trustmebrobro]

This will never work. Yea hardcore fans will support no matter what. But as a consumer we have been spoiled with a one-stop shop. If people aren't hearing albums, they aren't going to show. Artists need to stop being greedy.

[@crnkmnky]

"This will never work," they said about most things that ever worked. 🥱

[@HempressBelle]

Problem to me is CD is plastic. Dot