On Friday, February 3rd, Bandcamp pledged to donate their portion (~12%) of any music sales to the ACLU. There were some artists and labels that also donated their proceeds as well (not always to the ACLU), but that was on a strictly volunteer basis.
Bandcamp has been an infinite goldmine of hiddem gems, and has been a great way for independent bands to stream and distribute their music. I generally don't like to purchase music off of Bandcamp simply because I prefer physical formats, and there's almost never a way to get free shipping. Every so often I will come across something that is only available through Bandcamp, so I'm forced to pay the shipping costs.
Despite the fact that I would be dumping a lot into the shipping costs, I opened my wallet up bigtime for a cause that I can get on board with. My original approach was to make a shopping list ahead of time, and stick to it. Once i was done adding everything to my cart, my shipping cost was a third of my entire order! I had to take a different appoach.
To reduce shipping costs, I bundled as many albums from the same artist or label as I could. My first priority was to support local Bay Area bands. Anything I already had in my cart from a local band, I dug into their back catalog as much as possible. If they belonged to a label, I would browse their catalog to see if there's anything else I wanted. For anything on my original list that was a "must have," I took the same approach and picked up albums from the same artist or label.
By the end of it, I did save a lot on shipping costs, but boy oh boy did I spend way more on shipping than I ever do. The proceeds are going to a good cause and I am supporting smaller bands that I love, so this is a net win. I just hope that my contribution will help during this political firestorm.
Here's my entire Bandcamp haul:
- Lycus - Chasms
- Myrkur - Mausoleum
- Howls of Ebb - Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows
- Howls of Ebb - The Marrow Veil
- Howls of Ebb - Vigils of the 3rd Eye
- Worm Ouroboros - What Graceless Dawn
- Subrosa - For This We Fought the Battle of Ages
- Chthe'ilist - Le Dernier Crépuscule
- Vhol - Deeper Than Sky
- Mondo Drag - s/t
- Mondo Drag - The Occultation of Light
- Enigma - Stars Misaligned
- Slugdge - The Cosmic Cornucopia
- Mithras - On Strange Loops
- Sarpanitum - Blessed Be My Brothers
- Rïcïnn - Lïan
- Dan Terminus - The Wrath of Code
- Dynatron - Aeternus
- A Sense of Gravity - Atrament
- Pryapisme - Diabolicus Felinae Pandemonium
- öOoOoOoOoOo - Samen
- Orakle - Eclats
- AtroruM - Structurae
- Hardcore Anal Hydrogen - The Talas of Satan