Bandcamp vs Patreon for Musicians: Fees and Best Use
Choose Bandcamp for one-time music and merch sales; choose Patreon for recurring memberships. Bandcamp takes 15% of digital sales and 10% of physical sales, plus typically 4% to 6% processing. Patreon's standard plan takes 10% plus payment processing. Run both only if you can sustain the membership while operating the store.
Lead visual
The useful number is net
Revenue
streams, merch, fans, grants
+
Costs
production, ads, team, tax
-
Net
what the project keeps
=
Revenue · Direct
Business model map
Use this for
Separate revenue, margin, cash timing, and ownership before calling something profitable.
Watch for
Top-line income can hide a model that does not leave enough money or time for the artist.
Check
Price, platform fees, fulfillment cost, tax, collaborator splits, and repeat-purchase behavior.
Result
A sharper view of which money path is worth building next.
Most of the artists I work with treat this as one decision when it's really two different businesses wearing the same hat. Bandcamp is a store. Patreon is a subscription. They both sit in the direct-to-fan revenue stack, where your superfans pay you straight instead of routing through a streaming platform, but they behave nothing alike once the money starts moving.
This page is the head-to-head: what each one costs, how fast you get paid, and the Canada-versus-US differences in payouts and tax forms that nobody puts on the pricing page. The wider picture of how much superfan income is realistic, and how to build a membership tier ladder, lives in the sibling guides linked at the bottom. Here I'm just comparing the two platforms so you can pick the right one, or run both.
Bandcamp revenue share on digital items (10% on physical goods)
Patreon flat platform fee for creators who started after Aug 4, 2025
Bandcamp payout window after a sale (PayPal only)
Patreon local bank-transfer payout fee in CAD
Key takeaways
- Bandcamp is one-time sales (music plus merch); Patreon is recurring monthly membership. That model difference drives everything else.
- Bandcamp's standard digital sale loses 15% revenue share plus typically 4% to 6% processing. The digital share drops to 10% after $5,000 USD in sales, subject to Bandcamp's rolling rule.
- A new Patreon page pays a 10% platform fee plus processing. On a $10 USD card pledge, the current 2.9% + $0.30 schedule leaves about $8.41 before payout, currency conversion, refunds, or tax.
- Bandcamp pays through PayPal, normally 24 to 48 hours after processing, with a monthly-payout option. Patreon supports several payout methods and charges a separate payout fee.
- Canadian Patreon reporting applies to reportable income from covered services or tangible goods, not automatically every dollar. Canadian GST/HST registration uses taxable supplies, not total self-employment income.
- Bandcamp deducts a collection society accrual on digital sales based on the buyer's location. Patreon has no direct equivalent.
Which one should I pick, Bandcamp or Patreon?
Start with the shape of your income, not the fees. Bandcamp pays you when something sells. You drop an album, run a vinyl pre-order, push a merch bundle, and the money lands per transaction. It's lumpy by nature: big on release week, quiet between drops. Patreon pays you the same amount every month from the same patrons whether you released anything or not. That's the real trade. Sales reward catalog and events. Membership rewards a steady relationship with people who want to keep funding you.
Here's how I'd decide. If your fans mostly want to own your music and merch, and you release regularly, Bandcamp is the cleaner fit. If you've got a core of superfans who'd happily pay every month for access, behind-the-scenes stuff, and being close to the work, Patreon turns that into predictable income. Plenty of artists run both: Bandcamp for the releases and the store, Patreon for the recurring base. The same fan can live on both platforms without any conflict.
The fast gut check
Do your fans want to buy a thing, or back a person? Buying a thing is Bandcamp. Backing a person every month is Patreon. Most working artists end up needing both, just at different points in a release cycle.
How much does each platform take?
Bandcamp takes 15% of digital sales and 10% of physical sales. Its digital share drops to 10% once the account reaches $5,000 USD in sales and stays there while the prior 12 months remain above that level. Payment processing is separate and typically runs 4% to 6%. That puts a standard digital sale near a 79% to 81% artist share before collection-society accruals or payout fees, and nearer 84% to 86% after the lower digital rate applies.
Patreon moved new creator pages published after August 4, 2025 to a standard 10% platform plan. Legacy pricing remains only while the older page keeps its eligibility. Standard USD card processing above $3 is 2.9% + $0.30; a $10 pledge therefore leaves about $8.41 before payout fees, currency conversion, refunds, chargebacks, or tax. CAD processing on a pledge above CA$3 is currently 3.2% + CA$0.35.
| Bandcamp | Patreon (new creator) | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | One-time sales: music and merch | Recurring monthly membership |
| Platform fee | 15% digital, 10% physical | 10% flat (post-Aug 4, 2025) |
| Processing fee | Typically 4% to 6% | USD card: 2.9% + $0.30 above $3 |
| $10 USD example | About $7.90 to $8.10 at the 15% digital share | About $8.41 before payout and other adjustments |
| Payout method | PayPal only | Bank transfer, wire, or PayPal |
| Payout timing | Normally 24 to 48h, or monthly option | Withdraw from available creator balance |
| Income predictability | Variable, tied to releases | Predictable monthly recurring |
The percentages are close enough that fees shouldn't be your deciding factor. A few points of platform cut matters far less than picking the model your fans will pay into. Patreon's flat 10% is a touch leaner than Bandcamp's 15% on digital, but Bandcamp has no monthly relationship to maintain, and on physical goods its 10% share is the same as Patreon's flat fee anyway.
When do I get paid, and how?
This is where they split hard, and it matters for cash flow. Bandcamp pays through a connected PayPal account. By default it sends a payout 24 to 48 hours after a sale is processed, and you can choose monthly payouts instead. Higher-value purchases can take up to 14 days for review. Bandcamp may also request valid tax information once the account reaches the current reporting threshold; if the information is missing, payouts can be blocked until it is supplied.
Patreon puts processed membership revenue into a creator balance and offers local bank transfer, Payoneer, and PayPal in supported markets. For a Canadian creator paying out in CAD, the current local bank-transfer fee is CA$0.75 per payout; Payoneer and PayPal cost more. Compare the payout currency with the currency your fans use, because conversion can cost more than the transfer itself.
Bandcamp is PayPal-only
If you don't have or don't want a PayPal account, Bandcamp is a non-starter for getting paid. There's no direct bank transfer option. Worth confirming you can actually receive PayPal in your country before you build a store on it.
What should Canadian artists know about payouts and tax reporting?
Bandcamp says it must collect valid tax information from sellers in every location once the applicable US marketplace-reporting threshold is reached. Its current help article still describes the $5,000 USD threshold that applied to 2024 sales and warns that payments can be blocked when required information is missing. Because federal reporting thresholds have changed more than once, follow the request in your Bandcamp account instead of hard-coding an old 1099-K or withholding rule into your forecast.
Patreon reports Canadian-resident creators under Canada's Platform Economy Reporting Regime when they earn reportable income from covered services or tangible goods. Patreon explicitly says the rule does not make every type of creator income reportable. It sends the applicable prior-year information each January, so reconcile the amount it reports with your own statements and books.
| Bandcamp | Patreon | |
|---|---|---|
| Canadian payout | PayPal | CAD bank transfer, Payoneer, or PayPal |
| Platform tax information | Required when Bandcamp requests it | Taxpayer information for covered reporting |
| CRA platform reporting | Do not assume none; confirm current treatment | Covered services and tangible goods can be reported |
| Your GST/HST test | Worldwide taxable supplies across businesses | Same business-level test |
One rule sits above either platform: Canada's small-supplier threshold measures worldwide taxable supplies from all your businesses and associated businesses. You can cease to be a small supplier after exceeding $30,000 in one calendar quarter or across four consecutive quarters. That is a gross taxable-supplies test, not a simple annual self-employment-income test, and the timing of registration depends on how the threshold is crossed.
The collection society accrual on Bandcamp digital sales
Bandcamp has a line item that surprises people, and Patreon has no real equivalent. On digital music sales (and merch items that include a digital download), Bandcamp collects and remits publishing royalties based on the buyer's location. It shows up on your payout statement as a collection society accrual, and Bandcamp pays the applicable society directly. For a sale to a Canadian buyer, that's SOCAN; for other territories, the local society. It's a deduction from your payout, but it's money flowing to the publishing side that's owed anyway.
Two details worth knowing. The accrual does not apply to physical-only formats: CD, vinyl, cassette, minidisc are exempt. And when a digital item is bundled with merch, the accrual only hits the digital portion's imputed value, not the whole bundle. The mechanics of who collects those publishing royalties and how you make sure they reach you is covered in the direct-to-fan pillar and the royalty side of the broader catalog.
What the income looks like at each
Numbers make the model difference concrete. At the current standard USD schedule, 500 Patreon members paying $10 gross $5,000. A simple fee model subtracts $500 in platform fees and about $295 in card processing, leaving roughly $4,205 before payout fees, currency conversion, refunds, chargebacks, or tax. The recurring value is not a magical margin; it is a more forecastable starting base.
Bandcamp is per-sale, so you're counting units instead of members. A $12 digital album at the 15% revenue share and a 5% processing assumption nets about $9.60 before any collection-society accrual or payout fee. At the lower 10% digital share, the same assumption nets about $10.20. Use the current statement to replace the processing assumption, because transaction size and buyer location move it.
The deeper version of this math, including how superfan spending compounds across sales, merch, and membership at once, is in the superfan income guide.
Which current fee and tax sources should I use?
Frequently asked questions
Can I run both Bandcamp and Patreon at the same time?+
Yes, and a lot of working artists do. Bandcamp handles releases, vinyl, and merch as one-time sales; Patreon handles the recurring base of superfans who want ongoing access. The main cost is your time: maintaining a membership you actually deliver on is real ongoing work, while a Bandcamp store mostly runs itself between drops.
Does Bandcamp still do Bandcamp Fridays where they waive their fee?+
Bandcamp has run fee-free days historically, where its revenue share is waived for 24 hours (payment processing fees still apply). I can't promise the schedule continues unchanged, especially after the ownership changes. Epic Games bought Bandcamp in March 2022 and sold it to Songtradr in September 2023, and the marketplace has kept its artist-first revenue share since. Check Bandcamp's own announcements for current fee-free dates rather than assuming.
Is Patreon or Bandcamp better for selling vinyl and physical merch?+
Bandcamp. It's built for selling physical goods, takes a lower 10% share on physical items, and the collection society accrual doesn't touch physical-only formats. Patreon can ship merch as a tier perk, but it's a membership platform, not a store. If physical sales are central to what you do, that's a Bandcamp job.
What happens to my Patreon income if patrons cancel?+
That's churn, and it's the built-in risk of the recurring model. Patrons can cancel, downgrade, or have payments fail, so monthly recurring revenue is not guaranteed. Annual memberships can move cash forward and reduce monthly renewal decisions, but use your own retention and fulfilment capacity to set the offer instead of relying on a generic upgrade-rate claim.
Do I need a registered business to sell on either platform?+
You can generally start as an individual, but that does not remove tax obligations. In Canada, the GST/HST small-supplier test looks at worldwide taxable supplies from all associated businesses: $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or across four consecutive quarters. That is not the same as total self-employment income, so check the CRA rules or an accountant for your mix of sales.
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