At the risk of stating the obvious, some industries have been hammered more than others during the seemingly endless COVID-19 pandemic. Those employed by Netflix, Skip the Dishes, and any business in the business of making sofas have of course found that the best of times sometimes comes out of the worst of times. As for those who make their living running hot yoga salons, orgy rooms, or touring the world in a van playing club shows, the road has been a little rougher.

To its credit, Bandcamp continues to stop up to help those in the latter camp. The indie-oriented streaming platform announced today the return of Bandcamp Fridays starting in February. First launched in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic exploded into a worldwide thing, the initiative sees Bandcamp waive its normal cut of all purchases so that all sales proceeds go directly to artists.

After running throughout 2020, there were four Bandcamp Fridays in 2021. The just-announced reboot will run the first Friday of every month in 2022 until at least May.

Launched in 2008, Bandcamp lets both artists and labels upload their albums, EPs, singles, and merchandise to the service, and then set their own price. Users have the option of paying more if they really want to support an artists, with the company normally taking a 15 percent commission for each sale.

Bandcamp is where indie success stories like Car Seat Headrest first got traction, and where the likes of Peter Gabriel and Amanda Palmer turned to to post their work after souring on the major-label game. The appeal of the service is that anyone can post their music for free.

Bandcamp says past Bandcamp Fridays have served as an important lifeline for grassroots artists who’ve been unable to tour or play live shows during the past 24 months.

In a statement on bandcamp.com it notes that, since the launch of the initiative: “Fans paid artists and labels more than $70 million dollars, helping cover rents, mortgages, groceries, medications, and much more. If you’re among the nearly 800,000 fans who participated, thank you.”

During that period, orgy organizers and hot yoga studios meanwhile were forced to go it alone.
For more information on Bandcamp Fridays, go here.