What happens to Bandcamp accounts when the owner dies

Contact Bandcamp (Songtradr) to request a transfer of accounts after an account holder dies

Bandcamp (Songtradr)

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Bandcamp Support

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Bandcamp Support

Timeline

Bandcamp publishes no timeline for estate requests and no estate process, so there is no committed response window. Ordinary payouts run daily, weekly, or monthly depending on the account's payout setting, and Bandcamp's support page notes response times can run slower than usual during high volume. Nothing in Bandcamp's terms commits it to act on an estate request at all.

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(General customer service)

Verified Jul 2026

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.

How to request a transfer

Here is the process for transferring Bandcamp accounts after the account holder dies:

Contact Bandcamp support through the web form at https://bandcamp.com/contact. This is the only published intake: Bandcamp publishes no support phone number, no direct support email, and no estates or bereavement channel. There is no formal estate process, so the request is handled case by case. Identify in the request:

•Whether the account is a fan account (a collection of purchased music), an artist or label account (a catalog with sales proceeds), or both
•The account holder's name, the email address on the account, and the Bandcamp page URL if it is an artist or label account
•What the estate is asking Bandcamp to do

Enclose documentation with the request. Bandcamp does not publish its documentation requirements, so send what any custodian would expect:

•A copy of the death certificate
•Proof of your authority to act for the estate (Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration)
•Your own government-issued photo identification

For an artist or label account, ask Bandcamp to direct any undisbursed sales proceeds to the estate and to update the payout method. Payouts run to a linked Stripe or PayPal account depending on where the account sits in Bandcamp's payout transition (https://bandcamp.com/bandcamp_payments), so state which one the account uses if you can identify it.

For a fan account, ask for the purchase and download history so the estate can inventory what was bought. Purchased downloads are licensed for personal, non-commercial use and are not transferable by right, so any move of a collection to a survivor is a discretionary request under the Terms' written-consent clause.

Ask Bandcamp not to close, purge, or delist the account while the request is reviewed. Bandcamp's termination clause lets it terminate access "with or without cause, with or without notice," with possible "forfeiture and destruction of all information associated with your membership," so this is a courtesy request rather than a hold the estate can rely on.

Decide whether the estate wants to keep an artist catalog live. Bandcamp charges no subscription or listing fee and publishes no automatic delisting policy, so a catalog can stay listed and purchasable without a renewal payment.

Handle physical merchandise. The estate must fulfill outstanding vinyl and merchandise orders or issue refunds. Delist physical items if the estate cannot fulfill new orders.

Note the Bandcamp Friday dates if the estate is keeping a catalog live. On these dates Bandcamp waives its revenue share, so sales made that day carry no Bandcamp commission (payment processor fees still apply). 2026 dates: February 6, March 6, May 1, August 7, September 4, October 2, November 6, and December 4.

Required Documents

Not published by Bandcamp -- no documentation requirements appear on the support or terms pages
Expect to supply: a copy of the death certificate
Expect to supply: proof of executor or administrator authority (Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration)
Expect to supply: your own government-issued photo identification
Account identifiers: the account holder's name, the email address on the account, and the artist or label page URL. Never the account password.

Timeline

Download instructions for the whole estate

Frequently asked questions

Bandcamp publishes no deceased-account-holder policy, and its Terms of Use do not mention death. Nothing in Bandcamp's published terms removes a catalog when an artist dies: there is no subscription to lapse and no documented automatic delisting, so a page can stay listed and purchasable without a renewal payment. The estate contacts Bandcamp support through the web form at bandcamp.com/contact, with a death certificate and proof of executor authority, to ask about the payout method and control of the account. Bandcamp decides what to do at its discretion.

Not as a right. The Terms of Use 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." A survivor can ask Bandcamp for that consent through the support form, enclosing a death certificate and proof of executor or administrator authority, but Bandcamp publishes no estate process and no criteria for granting it. The music itself is different: Bandcamp takes no ownership of an artist's music, so the copyright passes to heirs through normal inheritance regardless of what happens to the account.

Contact Bandcamp through the web form at bandcamp.com/contact with a death certificate and proof of executor or administrator authority, and ask Bandcamp to release any sales proceeds it has not yet paid out and to update the payout method to an estate-controlled account. Bandcamp pays out daily, weekly, or monthly to a linked Stripe or PayPal payout account, so proceeds from recent sales may still be sitting undisbursed. Identify which payout method the account uses; Bandcamp is retiring PayPal as a payout option at the end of 2026. Do not attempt to log in as the deceased account holder -- the Terms make the account personal to the holder, and the estate's path is the documented request to support.

Nothing in Bandcamp's published terms requires a page to come down when an artist dies, and because there is no subscription there is no renewal payment to miss. An estate that obtains control of the account through Bandcamp support can keep the catalog listed, fulfill physical merchandise orders, and have payouts directed to an estate account. Bandcamp takes no ownership of the music, so the estate holds the copyright and can also distribute the recordings elsewhere. Whether Bandcamp grants the estate control of the account is Bandcamp's decision.

A purchased Bandcamp collection is a set of licenses, not owned property. The Terms of Use grant 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 the collection does not pass to a survivor by right and cannot be moved to another Bandcamp account without Bandcamp's written consent. An estate can ask Bandcamp for the purchase history to inventory what was bought, and can ask -- as a discretionary request -- that access be given to a named survivor. Files the account holder already downloaded and saved are physically in the estate's hands regardless.

Once transferred, accounts are subject to the program's standard terms. Having the deceased account holder's details documented in advance makes the transfer process significantly easier for the family.