Survey: Bandcamp vs Beatport

[Horizons]

Hello people and have a lovely year 2025 everyone!

Very straight-to-the-point kind of thread in here, I'd need you to please help me getting a (VERY LITTLE I know) idea of what the people really think of these 2 platforms.

Please vote and, above all, let me know what's your motivation. I'm planning to add a few changes while running my label and I'm trying to get as many opinions as possible across the web/main social channels; that would obviously include your opinion, as mainly Trance-nerds.

PS: This is not a fight about the CONS of the platforms, rather, I prefer readying the PROS from a user point of view, it doesn't matter if you are expert of the chosen platform or just a newbie of the Trance-related scene.

 

[SaltAcidFatHeatAcid]

Bandcamp is far superior in many ways. Biggest drawback is the lack of rigidity in tagging rules, and finding things. If they enforced better tagging they could leverage those tags to make searching and exploration better. It’s funny, even some of the TF.R releases @Hensmon put the ‘Artist - Track Name’ in the Track name tag. That shit takes me forever to fix and is annoying. Some labels put the label name in the track name too. But since bandcamp doesn’t enforce anything labels are free to do whatever they feel like which limits what the site can do. Beatport just sucks.

 

[Jetflag]

Band camp hands down

 

[Gijs]

This isn't even slightly a contest in my opinion. Bandcamp allows downloads in either the same or a higher file quality at lower prices, especially when it comes to lossless albums (god do I hate BP's stupid 75 cents per lossless track fee). I do use BeatPort to create a personal "front page" to see all the recent and upcoming releases of my favourite artists and labels, but only for knowing what to buy on other platforms.

So yeah, Bandcamp is my go-to together with Qobuz (basically iTunes but for audiophiles, which often features DJ mixes as well). If both don't have what I want I use Junodownload, with BeatPort only as an absolute last resort. It's pretty clear to me that the main purpose of that website is to milk any DJ's wallet as much as possible while offering less.

 

[Enlusion]

Beatport of course. Bandcamp's interface and search are horrendous, it's not a user-friendly resource at all. You can never find anything there, it's one large mess. There's no search, no adequate genre tags, no follower feed, no curation/editor teams, no playlists, no integration with DJ software, nothing.

 

[Hoplite]

Bandcamp, better Value for your purchase (especially if a label is doing a % off for its entire backlog) More interesting music too.

Depending on the label, you can also preview tracks fully, in good quality, before you purchase them, which is a billion times better than the shitty brief previews that Beatport offers, that all sound like they are played through a World War 2 radio.

In that sense, Beatport feels more like a "commercial product" to me

 

[Ar7]

I haven’t owned a computer or a laptop for 10+ years, as I get by with a phone and an ipad, and I am not as involved with music as I used to be. Thus, I use Spotify for all my needs and it is too much of a hassle to buy music and then deal with its storage and organization. I shudder as I remember the annoyance of doing so when I was young.

Back then we used to dream of a site where you could stream 95% of the world’s music so I am taking advantage of the opportunity

If it’s not on Spotify then I can’t be bothered to look it up elsewhere.

 

[Magdelayna]

For the consumer - Beatport....for the artist - Bandcamp.

As a producer,youll make far more revenue on Bandcamp than the pennies you get from a label releasing your track on Beatport. Plus,you can release your music in the quality it should be - WAV,and not compressed MP3.

But,if i hear a track i like on this forum,il go straight to Beatport and stick it in my basket. The site is easy to use and easy to search for a certain artist...i think Bandcamp needs to work a lot on that aspect.

 

[sszecret]

I've had a number of music store accounts over the years.

The ones that are still active to this day are for mainly physical releases: hhv, decks.de, and I guess you could include Discogs too. For the handful of digital purchases (and very occasional physical ones), I use Bandcamp. I closed my Beatport & Juno accounts in January of 2019 - and I'm somehow still alive.

I prefer Bandcamp, and this is why:

A. Access to multiple audio formats with one purchase:

Having dealt with DRM fuckery and at times entirely moronic activation limits and paywalling in games, the last thing I need is for the same nonsense to be happening with my purchased music too.

The fact that Bandcamp chooses to not nickel-and-dime you over MP3 vs other formats is by far and away its biggest selling point to me. Perhaps ironically, it's one of the reasons why I sometimes choose to pay over "sticker price" (so to speak) for tracks / albums.


B. Obscure releases: Here you could include both those from smaller artists (self releases) / labels, and game OSTs. For the latter, there are distributors selling physical copies (such as Black Screen Records for those in Europe), but that can quickly get pretty expensive. On the digital front, stuff like the soundtrack for Hob you just won't find on Beatport.

Yes, Bandcamp's UI is a bit...medieval at times, so that's definitely an area that needs improvement. But I'd still pick it over Beatport any day of the week. (even at night )

 

[Progrez]

Bandcamp sometimes uploads terrible quality/samples on their website where it sounds super compressed. So I have to resort to other stores.

 

[Dyon]

I use Bandcamp occasionally to buy (exclusive) vinyl. Never bought digital music in my life(except for the first Enigma State EP on bandcamp) as Spotify and buying physical music does the job better personally

 

[LostLegend]

Beatport is definitely more user friendly, I still think their site sucks though!

If Bandcamp had a better interface and more labels put their music on there as well, it would be no contest.

 

[Quethas]

When I buy stuff, I will first try to find it from Bandcamp.

UX for both is torrid though. Beatport slightly better, but it is often slooooow.

 

[Recharge]

Unfortunately, I will have to go with beatport for music in general and maybe bandcamp for smaller labels and artists. Bandcamp just looses when it comes to quantity of releases.

 

[BlueSoho]

Bandcamp.

We collected around 6000 followers there and have already started to make a continuous income that puts Beatport revenue in shame.

 

[Sleepy Robot]

Bandcamp is my main platform. Most of my "music" money is spend there and next up is actually Juno Downloads. Only when i can't find it on either platform but Beatport then i shop there. Between BP en JD there is not much difference, BP has become more friendly when it comes to searching but i also use Google the search. I think Bandcamp is in many cases also a bit cheaper when one buys a whole release (either EP or Album). Beatport and JD are a bit expensive imo for that because your still paying for every single track.

I do agree with @SaltAcidFatHeatAcid when it comes to the tagging on Bandcamp. Not sure who's fault it is (platform or uploader) but it's usualy awful.

 

[Ruya]

I would never search on Bandcamp. Always use google with the word Bandcamp affixed on the end if I need find something, but that’s usually if I know what I am looking for anyway.

I would never use Bandcamp for discovery anyway, that’s what SoundCloud and this forum is for. Would never use Beatport for discovery either, because of the tiny shit sounding samples and the fact that too much underground music is missing. Beatport is the last place to go to discovery and buy music.

 

[Horizons]

Bandcamp is my main platform. Most of my "music" money is spend there and next up is actually Juno Downloads. Only when i can't find it on either platform but Beatport then i shop there. Between BP en JD there is not much difference, BP has become more friendly when it comes to searching but i also use Google the search. I think Bandcamp is in many cases also a bit cheaper when one buys a whole release (either EP or Album). Beatport and JD are a bit expensive imo for that because your still paying for every single track.

I do agree with @SaltAcidFatHeatAcid when it comes to the tagging on Bandcamp. Not sure who's fault it is (platform or uploader) but it's usualy awful.

Btw, Let me take this chance to thank you for the incredible support given man, hero!

Thank you all guys for the feedback, looking really good to see so many opinions and seeing there's not a

 

[TwinSilo]

It has to be Bandcamp. If they fix the search then it is the perfect music platform. Full length previews, wav downloads, fair pricing and a listener base that clearly values meaningful music over marketing fads. If you love music you buy music, hence why the underground scene is thriving year on year there.

 

[ChurRuy]

If you love music you buy music

... I may have selected that last option. Spotify is the only money I spend.