I’ve been looking at 7Digital to round out my non-streaming collection. FLAC and 320 kps albums run roughly the same as CD/album costs.
Does anyone know if they or any other purchase sites pay royalties to the artists along the same lines as CD/album purchases?
Which site is fairest?
Bandcamp I would say. They keep a small fee on music, a larger fee on merch. There are “Bandcamp fridays” where artists keep all of the income. The artists set their own prices and there’s often a “name your price” option available. As for the different formats, it’s up to the artist too.
^^^ Bandcamp
Absolutely what they said.
Bandcamp every time.
Thanks for that but I’m aware of Bandcamp and have been purchasing from new artists on that site. I am also interested in rounding out my collection of older music: Funkadelic, Brian Eno, Stravinsky, Ravi Shankar, you name it.
I have gone to artists pages but very few of the older artists maintain their own catalogs.
I’m trying to find out which of the online sellers are treating royalty contracts with any respect: 7digital, Amazon, Apple, whoever.
It’s hard to find this out since the big retailer sites won’t (for whatever reasons, good or bad) state how they handle this.
Thanks!
…in fact there is ONLY bandcamp…anything else is just sparkles in the dust…
on bandcamp u set ur condotions and they do all the invoicing and payment backend for u…including merch sales…if u got some…
but ur the only promoter to promote ur music is there to find…
unless you’re buying direct from the artist or smaller independent labels there isn’t a lot to discuss. Especially regarding older stuff where the artist may not own the rights to their own music in physical or digital format. Ultimately there is no real service besides Bandcamp where a significant amount of the purchase price actually goes to the artist.
And if you’re buying physical copies of older out of print items, it’s likely the only place getting money is the establishment selling the media.
Streaming wise though I have heard tidal is supposed to pay their artist slightly better than other services.
Yeah, I’m starting to see how much it sucks. Sometimes it just makes me want to Torrent. 
In my younger days I used to buy a lot of used vinyl. I felt a little weird until a good friend who owned a new/used record shop told me that they made their rent and wages on used stuff. You couldn’t afford to only sell new unless you were one of the big shops.
So, Bandcamp it is when possible.
And if you know that Bandcamp is jointly owned by AQR Capital and Blackwater, please wait a few days before saying so. It’s been a really sad week already.
I use Tidal to listen and I make sure to buy a few albums from my favourite artists when I can afford it. I but direct from their label which is very often possible.
It does seem pretty crap and my understanding is that artists make the majority of their wages by touring.