Aux adds Direct, a print-on-demand Bandcamp Direct to Fan alternative

Music creation app Aux is broadening its offering with Direct. This direct-to-fan service joins a growing list of startups adding direct-to-fan commerce since the coatic acquisition of Bandcamp by Songtrader last Fall.

Along with RealCount, Aux was named the winner of the 2023 Swimming with Narwhals Startup Pitch Competition at the recent Music Tectonics Conference.

To launch Direct later this month, Aux acquired online music merch sales startups DizzyJam and Coton Cart to aid in creating a more robust offering. “This is not just a rebrand; we’ve completely reworked the platform to allow for a range of new features coming later in 2024 and beyond,” stresses Aux founder Ben Bowler.

At launch, Direct will focus on improved print-on-demand merch sales, including:

• Faster printing and delivery – up to 3 days faster – thanks to our new automatic distribution system
• A bulk product creator so that you can create multiple products rapidly from a single design
• Sixty-six new product colors across every product

Within three months, Direct is promising to add:

• Back printing – “The most requested feature we’ve had ever.”
• New product types including high quality, organic base shirts
• Auto-address filling and saved cards for your customers

But the real expansion of Aux and Direct will happen with the planned addition of:

• Downloads to sell music and creative work directly to fans under a pay-what-you-want or fixed-price model
• Memberships to offer “members only” downloads and merch

Learn more about Direct here.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.