Frequently asked...

Independent music is too important for one single platform (we're talking about Bandcamp) to dominate everything, especially after being sold twice in two years. Besides, they've been around for a long time and haven't made any major upgrades in a very long time. It's time for some new energy.

But we're not at all interested in just being a Bandcamp clone. We have different ideas about what a music platform should be. We lay out a lot of reasons in our mission so read that for the full story.
Artists on Ampwall make more per transaction. Our fees are lower and our checkout process gives buyers the opportunity to help cover those low fees, which they do 75% of the time. Buying from Ampwall gets more money to the people you want to support.

Ampwall is a public benefit company owned by a team of artists and DIY lifers; Bandcamp has been sold twice to large corporations with unknown motivations.

Bandcamp is an e-commerce platform so all paths lead back to selling things. Ampwall's goal is to go beyond e-commerce, investing in tools that bring joy and build thriving music communities, even if people aren't selling. We believe in the dignity of independent music scenes.
Ampwall is independently funded with no outside investors and built by a team that essentially works for free. Our subscription approach asks everyone adding music to pay to cover their costs and help us keep the lights on.

Crucially, subscriptions help us minimize transaction fees. As a result we can send more money to artists who choose to sell. Our vision extends beyond just e-commerce; we want to build things that nurture communities and bring joy for its own sake, and minimizing our dependency on transaction fees lets us prioritize things beyond sales.
Yes! If you're just building a library, supporting artists, and want to get involved with your community, there is no subscription to use Ampwall. Of course, you're still welcome to subscribe if you want to support our mission.

You can create an account for yourself at any time for free. Once you've made one purchase of any amount, you'll be able to join our incredible Discord community, where you'll get to meet other music maniacs. You'll also have direct access to Ampwall's development team and the ability to weigh in on future changes to the platform.
Ampwall is under heavy development and some areas are more polished than others. This means that sometimes there are quirks or spots where we want to add some something so a feature can feel "more complete". Our happiest users are in our Discord server and enjoy being involved in the process, sharing experiences, making suggestions, and trying new stuff as it becomes available.

But make no mistake: there are more than 100 bands and artists using, sharing, and selling their work through Ampwall. We stand behind our work all the way and will do everything we can to make sure you're happy and confident with the platform.
Ampwall was founded by Chris Grigg, a NYC-based software engineer and musician. Chris has been working on Ampwall full-time since fall of 2023. Our team now includes a handful of other software engineers, designers, and product people, all of whom have backgrounds as performers, visual artists, journalists, show promoters, and lifelong independent music fans.
There are a lot of great reasons why you'd use Ampwall. Our favorites are:

  • Artists make more. Our fees are lower so when you buy from Ampwall, you're getting more to the band.
  • DIY musician owned and operated. Unlike so many other music platforms that were founded by people who've never actually lived it, Ampwall came straight out of the underground, built to solve the real problems that our first users were having.
  • More than e-commerce. We think that the music platform that prioritizes sales above everything else will eventually focus only on the people who drive sales, which is always a minority of users. By pushing transaction fees as low as possible, we'll have flexibility to build things that make people happy, even if they don't directly generate sales revenue. This is better for bands, fans, and all the other people who live music but don't necessarily have things to sell.
  • More inclusive. Isn't it weird that most music platforms only see music scenes as a combination of people who make sounds and people who buy things? We know that this excludes so many people who are crucial to making this happen. We're building a space for everyone. Stay tuned...
Absolutely not! No more than Bandcamp is only for bands and sleeping bags and Soundcloud is only for... idk, sound waves and water vapor? (I didn't think that through...) Ampwall came from people involved in underground metal and our earliest users were drawn from those networks. But we have a growing number of users who don't even use guitars, let alone play metal, and we're eager to increase that number.
Maybe. We have a lot of label-friendly features and do have some labels involved but we don't have the killer label experience in place yet. This is a high priority and we're working on it for a late 2024/early 2025 launch. If you'd like to get involved and help us plan and test our label features, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out to Chris at [email protected].
Read about our mission.