Estate planning as a Bandcamp account holder

Bandcamp is an independent music marketplace where fans buy music directly from artists. Two different accounts matter to an estate. A FAN account holds a collection of purchased albums, tracks, and merchandise; those downloads are licensed, not owned, under a "non-exclusive, non-sublicensable and non-transferable license" for personal, non-commercial use. An ARTIST or label account holds the catalog, fan community, sales history, and the sales proceeds Bandcamp has not yet paid out. Bandcamp takes 15% of digital sales (dropping to 10% after $5,000 in sales) and 10% of physical goods, with the revenue share applying only to the first $100 of an item. Bandcamp publishes no bereavement policy and its Terms of Use are silent on death. Because there is no subscription requirement and no documented automatic delisting, an artist catalog appears to stay listed and purchasable without any renewal payment. The operating entity named in the Terms is Bandcamp Ventures LLC; Bandcamp has been owned by Songtradr since 2023 (previously Epic Games, 2022-2023). Payouts are moving from PayPal to Stripe in a phased rollout; PayPal remains available through the end of 2026 and in countries Stripe does not support, after which it is removed as a payout option.

Bandcamp (Songtradr) reviews transfer requests for Bandcamp accounts on a case-by-case basis after the account holder's death. Approval is at the company's sole discretion, and documentation requirements must be met before any transfer is considered.

What happens at death

Bandcamp has no published bereavement or deceased-account-holder policy. The Terms of Use (Effective Date May 07, 2026) state: "These Terms of Use are personal to you, and are not assignable, transferable or sublicensable by you except with Company's prior written consent." No provision addresses death, succession, inheritance, or estate access. Purchased music is licensed rather than owned: Bandcamp grants each user "a worldwide, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable and non-transferable license to use, modify and reproduce the Content, solely for personal, non-commercial use," so a fan collection is a library of non-transferable licenses, not property that moves to a survivor by right. The Termination section states Bandcamp "may terminate your access to all or any part of the Service at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately, which may result in the forfeiture and destruction of all information associated with your membership." In practice, artist catalogs appear to remain listed and purchasable indefinitely because Bandcamp has no subscription requirement and no documented automatic delisting policy, and undisbursed sales proceeds continue to pay out to the linked payout method (Stripe or PayPal, depending on where the account sits in the payout transition). Any change to an account after a death is a discretionary request to Bandcamp support through the web form at bandcamp.com/contact, submitted with a death certificate and proof of executor or administrator authority. Bandcamp does not publish what it will or will not do with such a request.

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