Play your Bandcamp purchases without the Bandcamp app
You bought the files outright. Download the FLAC or MP3, put it on your phone, and play it in whatever you like — no app, no account, no login.
When you buy on Bandcamp you get the actual files, in whatever format you choose, with no DRM and no strings. That is the whole point of buying there. So there is no reason your listening has to happen inside an app with a login — download the FLAC or MP3, put it on your phone, and play it wherever you like.
The short version
- Bandcamp downloads are DRM-free. They are yours to move.
- Pick MP3 320 for the phone, FLAC for the archive, or both.
- Bandcamp's files arrive properly tagged, with artwork. This is unusually good.
- Import to Refrain from Files, iCloud Drive, or by dragging onto a browser page over Wi-Fi.
- Keep the originals on a computer. Your purchase history is a receipt, not a backup plan.
Getting the files
From your Bandcamp collection on a desktop browser, choose the download for each purchase and pick a format. The options are worth thinking about once:
- MP3 320 — for the phone. Around 8–10 MB a track, transparent to almost everyone.
- FLAC — lossless, roughly 20–30 MB a track. The right archive format, and Refrain plays it directly if you would rather carry it.
- ALAC — Apple's lossless, if the rest of your setup is Apple.
You can download the same purchase again later in a different format, which means you do not have to get this right now.
Bandcamp gives you a ZIP per release. Unzip before doing anything else.
Onto the phone
Any of the usual routes — the full rundown — but two suit this case particularly.
Choose a folder. Put the unzipped albums into one Bandcamp folder on your Mac, then in Refrain use Add → Choose a folder. It imports everything not already in the library, so after your next purchase you run it again and only the new album comes in.
Wi-Fi transfer. In Refrain, Add → Receive over Wi-Fi, then open the address it shows in a browser on your Mac and drag the album folder onto the page. No cable.
The good news about tags
Bandcamp files arrive properly tagged. Title, artist, album, track number, year, and embedded cover art, because the artist filled them in when they uploaded.
This is worth appreciating, because it is unusual. Refrain reads those tags and the album appears correctly with its artwork and no work from you. Compare that with a folder of AI generations, where everything needs fixing.
Some albums also carry embedded lyrics, which Refrain reads. If an artist has included a
.lrc file in the download, drop it in alongside the track and it pairs by filename.
Why bother leaving the Bandcamp app
The app is fine. It streams your collection, it works, and if it suits you there is no reason to change.
Reasons people move anyway:
One library. Bandcamp purchases in one app, CD rips in another, your own recordings in a third, and nothing sits together. A local player holds all of it.
Actually offline. The Bandcamp app streams your collection with offline caching; a local player is playing a file. No account check, no expiry, no signal required. The distinction, spelled out.
No account. Refrain has no sign-in at all.
The platform question. Bandcamp has changed ownership twice since 2022. Your downloaded files are unaffected by any of that, which is precisely the argument for downloading them.
Do the downloads now, not later
The part of this article to act on.
Your Bandcamp collection page is a purchase record and a download service, and both depend on the company continuing to exist and continuing to offer them. The files on your own drive depend on nothing.
If you have bought a hundred albums and downloaded twelve, that is worth an evening. Work through the collection page, download each, unzip into one folder, back it up. Then import whatever you want on the phone.
What this doesn't do
Refrain has no Bandcamp integration. It will not log in, sync your collection, or fetch a purchase — it plays files you have downloaded yourself. That is the same position it takes with every service, and here it costs you nothing, because Bandcamp hands you the files anyway.
Nor does it modify them. Bandcamp's tags are good, so there is nothing to fix, but if you do change how something displays, the file itself is untouched.
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Last updated 7 August 2026