Bandcamp raised over US$100K to fight transgender discrimination

Bandcamp donated its share of each sale on Friday to the Transgender Law Center that totalled more than US$100,000.

Total sales for the day topped US$700,000 on Friday. Using its average commission rate of 12%, Bandcamp’s donation was about US$84,000.  However, more than 200 artists and labels also pledged a percentage of their sales on the day, putting the total contribution at more than US$100,000.

In case you missed this story when it was first published, you can read it in full below.

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Bandcamp hasn’t taken kindly to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent announcement that he plans to prevent transgender people from serving in the country’s military for a variety of ridiculous reasons like medical costs, and the streaming platform is fighting back.

Today the company has announced that it will donate 100% of its profits this Friday August 4 to the Transgender Law Centre, in a similar fashion to its protest against Trump’s infamous ‘Muslim Ban’, which saw profits donated to the ACLU.

“Bandcamp is a platform for artistic expression, and all manner of variance in experience and identity, including gender and sexuality, is welcome here,” Bandcamp says. “We support our LGBT+ users and staff, and we stand against any person or group that would see them further marginalized.

“This includes the current U.S. administration, and its recent capricious declaration that transgender troops will no longer be able to serve in the military. That this announcement was motivated in part to help fund the border wall exposes it as part of the administration’s cynical, discriminatory agenda.”

Bandcamp revealed that the previous fundraiser saw over $1m of sales achieved across the 24hrs, with the company’s 12% share being donated, while the remaining 88% went to the labels and artists. Not a bad way at all to lend a helping hand.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.