Fifteen Per Cent

Bandcamp's "What are Bandcamp's fees?" opens: "Bandcamp takes a share of each sale: 15% on digital items and 10% on physical goods." The body repeats it — "For digital items, Bandcamp’s fee is 15%." — and adds the line the headline leaves out: "Payment processor fees are separate and vary by transaction size, but typically range between 4 and 6%." A second article prices them: for sales "For transactions greater than or equal to $8.07", "the transaction fee is 1.9% + $0.30 when your fan uses PayPal", "2.9% + $0.30 when paying with a gift card", or "2.2% + $0.30 when your fan uses a credit card".

One digital album at $10.00, paid by credit card, artist under the $5,000 threshold$10.00

Bandcamp's share, 15%−$1.50

Processing, 2.2% + $0.30−$0.52

Credited to the artist$7.98

PayPal payout fee, 1% — if this sale were the whole payout−$0.08

Arrives$7.90

$10.00 − $1.50 − $0.52 = $7.98, which is 79.80% of the price. The $10.00 is our illustration, not a typical or quoted price. We apply both percentages to the full price; neither page says on what base the processor's percentage is calculated, nor in what order. Payouts are batched, and the payout fee is described as "PayPal’s fee is 1% of the total payout amount, capped at $1" — so on any payout of $100 or more it is a dollar, not a percentage. No collection-society deduction, no tax, no currency conversion. US dollars; the processor article adds that "Fees may vary depending on geographic location or payment method."

Fifteen, then ten, then fifteen again

The rate falls with volume. "This rate drops to 10% as soon as you reach $5,000 USD in sales" — the same $10.00 album then returns $8.48. The summary at the top of the page stops there: "Once an artist reaches $5,000 in sales, the digital fee drops to 10%." The body sentence does not; it continues, "(and stays there, provided you’ve made at least $5,000 in the past 12 months)." The two sentences on the same page describe different rules. The body's is a rolling test, and an artist whose sales slow pays fifteen again.

What fifteen leaves out

The same sale, the other ways

Small sales cost more. "For smaller transactions (under $8.07)" Bandcamp switches to "the payment processor’s alternate rate of 5% + $0.05." A $1.00 track: $0.15 to Bandcamp, $0.10 to processing, $0.75 to the artist. A quarter of the price, against a fifth on the album. Past the $5,000 threshold, $0.80. That $0.10 is 10% of the price — outside the "4 and 6%" Bandcamp's fees article gives as the typical processor range. On the $10.00 album the processor rates do fall inside it: 5.2% by card, 4.9% by PayPal, 5.9% by gift card.

The threshold is PayPal's crossover, not the card one. 1.9% + $0.30 and 5% + $0.05 cost the same at $8.0645, so $8.07 is the first whole cent where PayPal's standard rate is cheaper. For a card the same crossover falls at $8.93 and for a gift card at $11.90 — those two are the crossover points rounded to the cent, not the first cent past them. Between $8.07 and $8.93 a card payment is charged the standard rate when the alternate would be lower — at $8.20, $0.48 instead of $0.46. Two cents. We print it because the rule is described as minimising the fee, and on these numbers it does so exactly for PayPal.

Expensive items cut the other way. "the revenue share applies to the first $100 of an item only (or the total when more than one of that item is purchased)". A $150 deluxe edition pays $15.00, not $22.50 — an effective 10%. Processing has no such cap on either page.

Tips are shared. Money a fan adds above the price "is considered a "tip" and is not taxed", but "Please note that Bandcamp still collects revenue share on the first $100 for additional contributions." A fan who pays $15 for the $10.00 album hands Bandcamp $2.25.

A third deduction with no number. "If your work is covered by a collection society, you will also see a fee attributed to the Collection Society Share." It is "a percentage of the sale price, determined by the location of the fan." The percentage is not on the page.

Two PayPal rates

The rates Bandcamp attributes to PayPal are not PayPal's public ones. PayPal's US merchant fees ("Last Updated: October 1, 2026") list "PayPal Checkout 3.49% + fixed fee", with a fixed fee of $0.49 for US dollars — $0.84 on a $10.00 sale, against the $0.49 Bandcamp's 1.9% + $0.30 produces. PayPal's public micropayment rate is 4.99% plus $0.09; Bandcamp cites 5% + $0.05. And for payouts PayPal's US row reads "2% of total transaction amount (not to exceed the maximum fee cap below)", where Bandcamp says 1%. PayPal's table caps that fee for US payouts at 1.00 USD — the same $1 cap Bandcamp states. PayPal's 2% reaches it at $50, Bandcamp's 1% at $100, so on any payout of $100 or more the two documents charge the same dollar; they differ only below $100, and by less than "2% against 1%" suggests. A platform's own agreement need not match a public rate card; we cannot tell from either page which applies to a given artist today. On the processing rates the two documents disagree, and Bandcamp's is the lower set.

For scale: Gumroad prints "Gumroad pricing: 10% + 50¢ direct, 30% via Discover". Whether processing is inside that or on top, the page does not say, so we do not put a Gumroad sale beside the Bandcamp one.

Confidence

15% digital, 10% physical, $5,000 threshold and 12-month condition, $100 cap, tips, collection society — Bandcamp, "What are Bandcamp's fees?", primary 1.9%, 2.9%, 2.2% + $0.30; $8.07; 5% + $0.05; payout 1% capped at $1 — Bandcamp, processor fees for digital sales, primary Every source above is the price-setter describing its own prices — primary, and self-published by the interested party; Bandcamp's "typically 4 and 6%" is its own characterisation, and its own rates exceed it on small sales PayPal 3.49%, $0.49, 4.99%, $0.09, payouts 2% capped at 1.00 USD — PayPal US merchant fees, primary for PayPal's public rates; not evidence of what Bandcamp pays Gumroad 10% + 50¢ — Gumroad pricing, primary, incomplete $1.50, $0.52, $7.98, 79.80%, $0.08, $7.90, $8.48, $0.75, $0.80, $8.0645, $8.93, $0.48, $0.46, $11.90, $15.00, $22.50, $2.25, $0.84, 5.2%, 4.9%, 5.9%, $50 — our arithmetic on the published rates The base and order of the processor's percentage — not stated; assumed to be the full price Which PayPal rate actually applies to Bandcamp sales — two primary documents disagree; not resolvable from either Collection Society Share percentage — no credible data on the page Rates outside the US — not stated; Bandcamp says they may vary

Didn't survive

"Below $8.07 the alternate rate applies whatever the fan pays with" Cut — our own error, carried from a summary — An automated summary of the processor article said this and the draft repeated it. The page says only that small transactions are switched to the alternate rate; it names no payment method. The narrower claim, that the threshold sits on PayPal's crossover, is our arithmetic and is labelled so.

"Bandcamp's fee falls to 10% after $5,000 in sales" Softened — true of the summary, not of the rule — It is what the top of Bandcamp's page says. The body attaches a rolling 12-month condition. The piece quotes both and says they differ.

"For payouts PayPal's US row reads 2%, where Bandcamp says 1%", left there Softened — our omission, caught by the verifier — Both rates are quoted correctly, but the draft left out PayPal's own 1.00 USD cap on US payouts, the same cap Bandcamp states. With it, the two documents disagree only on payouts under $100. The paragraph now says so.

Bandcamp's "typically range between 4 and 6%", quoted unchallenged Softened — our omission, caught by the verifier — The draft's own $1.00 ledger puts processing at 10% of the price and did not say that contradicts the quoted range. It now does.

The standfirst's $7.98, without its conditions Softened — scope missing from the sentence most readers keep — The ledger said the artist was under the $5,000 threshold and the figures were US dollars; the standfirst did not. It now does.

Bandcamp Friday, when the share is waived Cut — not published where we looked — The fees article does not mention it, and isitbandcampfriday.com, fetched for this piece, carried no fee statement and no dates in the text we received. What is waived, and on which days, rests on nothing we fetched.

PayPal's 1.50% international surcharge, applied to the ledger Cut — not knowable — It is on PayPal's public page. Whether it applies to Bandcamp's quoted rates is not, and the Bandcamp page already says the rates vary by location.

Gumroad's net on a $10.00 sale Cut — not computable — The pricing page does not say whether processing is included. Gumroad's help article on fees returned a title and no body to our fetch.

Etsy's fee schedule Cut — subject rejected before drafting — The first candidate. etsy.com/legal/fees returned HTTP 403 to our automated fetch. A page our checker cannot load is a page our reader cannot be shown we read.

bandcamp.com/pricing, as the citation Re-sourced — It is a permanent redirect to the help-centre article. We cite where it lands.

How this was checked

Drafted, then verified by an independent pass that re-derived every figure from primary sources rather than reviewing the draft's reasoning. No human read this before publication. Corrections run at the top of the next issue.