I want to buy movies and music and actually support the artists

May 17, 2023 7:10 AM

I want to buy a documentary to watch and an album to listen to. Doing this through which providers/services will give the biggest amount of my money to the artists?

I'm looking at Google Movies, Amazon, Youtube, Vimeo, and Bandcamp, Spotify.

I've found this breakdown for streaming, but I'm interested in buying the media, not just streaming it or renting it.

posted by gakiko to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Best answer: I don't know of anything for music that gives the artist a greater share than Bandcamp. If you wait until one of their Bandcamp Fridays to buy, the artist will get 100% of the price. And you can always pay more than what they ask for.
posted by jonathanhughes at 7:23 AM on May 17, 2023 [4 favorites]

Best answer: the absolute highest returns for a band's cd/lp are at the concert merch table. second, the band's official site.

any streaming is a pitiful fraction of the returns on media (mechanical royalties).
posted by j_curiouser at 7:24 AM on May 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Wrt music, I buy vinyl and CDs. It is my guess at how to best pay and honor the artist(s).

Wrt movies, I guess it matters who the artist(s) is/are. Is it the director? The actors? The screenwriter? What is the contract they have with the producer? Salary? Salary plus points? Etc. It is very hard to determine the best way. If I am buying a movie, I either buy the dvd or pay my cable provider (VZ), the $20 or so dollars they charge. The issue to me with the latter is that you really are only buying it for as long as you are with that cable provider. DVD is portable
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:26 AM on May 17, 2023

Best answer: Buying physical media, ideally directly from the distributor, is the best way to do what you want to do.
posted by cakelite at 8:23 AM on May 17, 2023

Best answer: Bandcamp is basically the most straightforward way to give artists the most money, particularly on Bandcamp Fridays as mentioned above. On Bandcamp you can also set your own price above the minimum price the artist has set so in that way you can give as much as you feel it is worth and not be constrained by the market price.

My approach is that I buy digital versions of albums I listen to a lot but aren't "essentials" for me - from Bandcamp on Bandcamp Fridays - and physical versions of my essentials/faves, usually directly from the artists or who the artist recommends, but sometimes also from Bandcamp if there's a special version. I don't want the stuff that buying a physical copy of everything would entail.

Physical media is nice, but it's cheaper to produce and distribute digital versions because they can basically do it infinitely from a centralized location that they determine and don't have to pay for the production and physical distribution (including carting it to their shows) of an object beyond the original recording and mastering, so digital albums allow for more profit by the artists if they're purchased from the source that benefits the artists most. Sometimes they even have them on their own websites for purchase but it's hard to keep track of your digital holdings that way. Bandcamp also keeps all your music on their servers for your easy future access and download as you need, which is great.

In addition to these purchases, I actually stream the albums I own via Spotify rather than listening to the digital versions I bought because that also gives money to artists, even if it is pennies per listen, it still adds up. It's kind of like I'm paying them residuals on the purchase of the digital or physical media and it costs Spotify money, which is good.

Finally, consider contributing to your favourite artists on Patreon if they have one. It's an underrecognized income stream for artists in an age where everyone is eating most of their pie and leaving them with a pittance for their creative contribution.
posted by urbanlenny at 8:43 AM on May 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: In addition to these purchases, I actually stream the albums I own via Spotify rather than listening to the digital versions I bought because that also gives money to artists, even if it is pennies per listen, it still adds up. It's kind of like I'm paying them residuals on the purchase of the digital or physical media and it costs Spotify money, which is good.

I would note that doing this is an added benefit to the songwriters too. This way, the songwriters get a public performance royalty as well as a mechanical royalty (they would only get a mechanical royalty if you just purchased CDs/digital downloads).
posted by odin53 at 10:23 AM on May 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

Just to clarify, I am making a distinction between the recording artist and the songwriter(s), who are very often different.
posted by odin53 at 10:25 AM on May 17, 2023

Other folks have mentioned Bandcamp Fridays, and I just wanted to clarify that that happens the first Friday of every month. I have bought much vinyl on Bandcamp Friday.
posted by pdb at 4:47 PM on May 17, 2023