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Use Bandcamp Messaging to Keep Your Fans Engaged

Bandcamp's community tab emails every fan who bought or followed you. Here is how to send a message and sixteen messages worth sending.

If you're on Bandcamp, you must know about their community messaging feature. It's one of the best ways to promote your music and connect with fans, and most artists never touch it.

What community messaging is

On your community tab, you can drop a message that goes out to every one of your fans by email. "Fans" here means anyone who has bought from you or follows you on Bandcamp. You did not have to build the list; Bandcamp built it every time someone hit purchase or follow. That makes it the one mailing list every Bandcamp artist already owns, and it reaches people who have already proved they care enough to pay.

But don't just spam them with nonsense. You must keep it fresh and valuable so they don't tune you out. A message every week or two with something real in it works. A message every day about nothing gets you unfollowed.

How to send one

  1. Open your artist page and click the community tab.
  2. Write your post. Keep it short; it lands in an inbox next to bills and newsletters.
  3. Choose whether to send it to followers only or to everyone who has bought from you.
  4. Post it. Bandcamp emails it out and keeps a copy on your community tab.

Give your messages some personality. The fans on this list already like how you sound; write the way you talk on stage, not the way a press release talks. Stay on top of it by keeping your fans engaged with regular updates: behind-the-scenes clips, new song releases, or merch drops. The key is to stay relevant and keep your fans excited.

Sixteen messages worth sending

Here are the message ideas we keep coming back to, each with a line on when it works.

  • Release an exclusive track. "Available only on Bandcamp this weekend." Scarcity with a date on it gets opened; scarcity with no date gets ignored.
  • Announce a limited-time X% off coupon. Name the number and the end date in the first line.
  • Announce the limited-time X% off ends today. The reminder outsells the announcement. Send it in the morning of the last day.
  • Thank supporters for making the release popular on GetMusic or other services. Name what happened: "you claimed all 100 codes in four days."
  • Announce that free download codes are available. Use your GetMusic release link so each fan claims one code and nothing gets handed out twice. Our guide to Bandcamp download codes covers generating the batch.
  • Thank fans for the comments and feedback. Quote one or two. People love seeing their words in an artist's email.
  • Announce merch, releases, or tours for other artists you are friendly with. Your list trusts your taste. Sending them to a friend's record costs you nothing and usually comes back around.
  • Ask fans to follow you on social. Once, not every message, and say what they will get there that they do not get here.
  • New music posted on YouTube. A live take or a lyric video. Link straight to it.
  • Announce an upcoming release. Give the date, the pre-order link, and one sentence about what the record is.
  • New music added to your Bandcamp subscription. If you run a subscription, every addition is a message to non-subscribers about what they are missing.
  • New merch drops. A photo, a price, how many you made.
  • Announce tour dates. Filter by location if you can, or list the cities in the subject line so people can skip it fast.
  • Announce that you have reached X plays on Bandcamp or Spotify. Milestones are a reason to say thank you, and thank-you messages are the ones that get replies.
  • Thank fans for their support. No ask, no link. Once in a while, just that.
  • Post on Bandcamp Friday and the days leading up to it. Fans expect it and are primed to buy. One message two days before, one the morning of.

If you want a bigger pool to pull from, our 100 content ideas for musicians works as a message calendar too.

Pair it with a listening party

The best use of the community tab we have seen is the two-message combo around a Bandcamp listening party: one message a week out with the date and time, one message an hour before with the link. Then, in the chat, drop your GetMusic release link so everyone who stayed to the end can claim a download code.