Just so we’re clear, Bandcamp is a wonderful service. At the peak of the pandemic, when venues were shutting down across the world and bands couldn’t rely on touring anymore, Bandcamp came up with a way to help musicians that use their service by implementing “Bandcamp Friday” wherein Bandcamp waived their cut of sales and let the artist get all of the purse.
Fucking rad, no doubt.
Bandcamp Day came and went and was eventually reinstated indefinitely and now every first Friday of every month you can look forward to Bandcamp Day and throwing some change at your favorite musician knowing full well that they’ll receive all the bucks.
You can also look forward to the gazillion or so emails that start overwhelming your inbox the night before, reminding you that yes, tomorrow is, in fact Bandcamp Friday, and what they’ll have for offer.
If you’re anything like me, and have been supporting musicians through Bandcamp for any amount of time, you’ve been added to every single one of their mailing lists, and, if you’re also like me, and a good percentage of the music you support on there is metal/metal adjacent, you’ll receiving precisely 87,000 emails all featuring a new, long-sleeve, t-shirt design. Sometimes multiple.
Metal fans, or “Metal Heads,” if you will, fucking looooooooove these long-sleeve t-shirts. Doesn’t even matter what is on them, which is almost the same across the board: the bands latest album art on the front, then the bad logo printed multiple times down each sleeve, the long-sleeve t-shirt being the optimal piece of apparel for having as many band logos as possible.
And every band has them. Every. Single. One. Sometimes in black. Sometimes in white. Sometimes in green, but they have them.
And they just keep making more. There’s no satiating the crazed hunger for repetitive long-sleeve wear. You’ll know. Every first Friday, oh, you’ll know. Eventually you’ll be so inundated with emails containing long-sleeve t-shirts you’ll give in and buy one, or two, or three or a dozen, just in the hopes that the emails will stop. After all, what better fashion choice is there then cutting off the perfectly good sleeves of a denim jacket, and then wear a long-sleeve t-shirt under it?
But they won’t stop coming.
They will never stop.
Never.
But seriously, support music on Bandcamp. However you see fit.