So you want to donate to the extent you can, and you want assurance of how much of your donation converts to proceeds.

You may also wonder how to increase proceeds for the same donation amount you make, (yes, that is possible). Read on.

Proceeds vs. costs detail:
- Bandcamp website: 15% of each purchase amount.
- eTransaction (PayPal): 2.9% plus 30-cents for each purchase.
- Federal and MD income tax: 20%. MD internet sales tax: 6%.
- Royalties (length 5-minutes or less): 9.1-cents per song.
- Royalties (>5:00): adds 1.75-cents for each minute/partial > 5-min.
- Song License fee: one-time $15 per song (not shown here)
- Web-streaming fees are hopefully not applicable.

How To Increase Proceeds for the same purchase amount:

1) Consider donating more than the asking price. Proceeds do go to a good cause.

2) Please use the site’s "Wishlist" to make a single purchase of more than one song/album at a time.
- You can see the Bandcamp (15%) and e-Transaction fees (2.9% + 30-cents) are large for each purchase "transaction" made.
- Reducing the quantity of "transactions" converts costs into proceeds.
- If you cannot afford to buy all the songs/albums that you want in one shot, all the more reason to set up the Wishlist up and purchase what you can, when you can, and save the rest for later.

3) "Batch " Downloads:
- The Bandcamp site is not exclusive and accepts that purchases can occur via other methods (e.g. other websites, direct sales, etc).
- Set-up a "Wishlist" and contact me (use the “contact FMS” button).
- Expenses of both Bandcamp & e-Transaction (~18% + 30-cents), will be converted directly into proceeds.

Royalty and Licensing Fees:
I hope that you appreciate and agree with the reasoning and appropriateness of royalties and licensing fees for the songs.
- Royalty rates are 9.1-cents "per copy" for songs under 5 minutes and an additional 1.75-cents for every minute or fraction > 5 minutes.
- Reduction of royalty fees require specific permissions with the writer and publisher, otherwise, standard "mechanical" rates apply.
- A licensing fee of $15 per song establishes the permissions to sell the song. This fee is not calculated or shown here, yet, so;
** buy early and often (like you're voting in Chicago).
** single transactions and/or Batch Downloads are really helpful to go towards cover the licensing fee.

Refunds/exchanges:
- I cannot offer refunds or exchanges since expenses are taken out automatically for any transaction. But if you contact me using the "contact FMS" button", I can try to make it right for you.
- This site is “iTunes-like” with some differences;
** it lets you stream the "entire" song versus a 20-second portion.
** it limits how many times you can stream, unless you purchase.
** it cannot provide a “.. complete my album ..” price if you initially bought a couple songs and then later on buy the remaining songs.

Bandcamp account:
- I have no visibility or access to any of your Bandcamp account information, log-in, passwords, etc.
- Please use the Bandcamp help and contact for site and account administration support.

Security:
- Bandcamp is a secure and reputable site and PayPal is very common e-Transaction account.
- While federal laws limits your fraud exposure to $50 on a credit card (provided you dispute transactions in a timely manner), you could set-up an "internet-only credit card", which is not a bad idea if you buy stuff on the internet.

Thank you and I hope you appreciate the site, enjoy some good performances and recordings, and will donate to a good cause.