Epic Games acquires Bandcamp to create 'fair' platforms for creators

AppleInsider

Epic Games is acquiring internet music company Bandcamp to support "fair, open platforms" for the creator economy, the two companies have announced.

Credit: Epic/Bandcamp

Bandcamp will remain an independent and standalone music marketplace with CEO and co-founder Ethan Diamond staying at the helm. However, it will leverage Epic Games resources to expand internationally and support development of both existing and new features.

"The products and services you depend on aren't going anywhere, we'll continue to build Bandcamp around our artists-first revenue model," Diamond wrote in the blog post. "You'll still have the same control over how you offer your music, Bandcamp Fridays will continue as planned, and the Daily will keep highlighting the diverse, amazing music on the site."

For Epic Games, Bandcamp will play "an important role in Epic's vision to build out a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music and more."

Behind the scenes, the two companies said they will work together to foster development of payment options, additional mobile apps, live-streaming, merchandising, and other creator-focused features.

Epic Games is the creator of the Unreal game engine and publisher of "Fortnite." It's currently embroiled in an ongoing legal battle with Apple over the Cupertino tech giant's App Store
commission and policies. The goal of creating "fair and open platforms" is itself a nod to its legal battles.

Although primarily a game publisher and developer, Epic Games has ventured into other territory in the past. In 2019, it acquired group video chat platform Houseparty before shutting it down in 2019. Epic has also held in-game music performance events in "Fortnite" -- an area in which Bandcamp could help the company expand.

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mcdave

.   .   .
another one bites the dust.

foregoneconclusion

Translation: Bandcamp users will need to pay really close attention to the fine print going forward.

bloggerblog

Watch them pull a YouTube and eek themselves into a 30/70 model

crowley

foregoneconclusion said:

Translation: Bandcamp users will need to pay really close attention to the fine print going forward.

Have Epic stiffed someone in the fine print before?

killroy

crowley said:

foregoneconclusion said:

Translation: Bandcamp users will need to pay really close attention to the fine print going forward.

Have Epic stiffed someone in the fine print before?

For a company that can't adhere to a contract and change the code in the back end to stiff paying fees, I'd say yes

Cesar Battistini Maziero

Terrible company.

mark fearing

Yes, buying companies and creating a single company platform seems pretty, pretty, pretty similar to some other companies we know.

tenthousandthings

This actually seems pretty coherent, surprisingly enough. Once you get past the disingenuous nature of the Epic PR campaign and lawsuit, and see what Epic really wants from it (hint: it’s got nothing to do with developers, it’s about platforms), then this acquisition makes perfect sense.

Wonder if this means the end of the Epic-Spotify alliance? Maybe the Bandcamp leadership can inspire Epic to be a more responsible steward for the cause of alternative platforms? That maybe being a contract-breaking asshole isn’t the best way to get what you want?

danox

Epic Crap……

genovelle

foregoneconclusion said:

Translation: Bandcamp users will need to pay really close attention to the fine print going forward.

This is really unfortunate as this has been a true supporter of the independent music industry. Loosing independence to a non music focused company only focused on Profits is not a good thing at all. Especially since they are 40% owned by a Chinese company that wants to compete with Spotify globally. They may end up just doing it to get access to their technology for the Chinese.