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Artists earned $4.3 Million on Bandcamp last Friday, with almost 800,000 items sold through the platform, which had announced it would waive its fees for 24-hours in a bid to support musicians and labels during the coronavirus pandemic. 

According to Bandcamp, sales were more than 15 times the norm for a Friday, with peak demand seeing a staggering 11 items bought per second. Imprints such as Hyperdub also announced they would not be taking any cut from revenue, so 100% of cash would go directly to artists in those instances. 

The decision not to charge fees was made due to how badly the music industry has been hit by economic fallout following the outbreak of COVID-19, a disease caused by this new  coronavirus strain. Berlin’s club community has launched an emergency fund for those employed in nightlife, and last week Room 4 Resistance, a music collective in the German capital, released a lengthy document signposting people to organisations, services and trusted sources of information to help navigate the chaos.