Photo Credit: Guillaume Payen/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Image
Bandcamp Artists and Fans are Spiraling in Response to Epic Games Acquisition
On Wednesday, Bandcamp CEO Ethan Diamond announced that the platform has been purchased by video game company Epic Games.
Bandcamp has come a long way. In an unexpected announcement on Wednesday, the music platform's CEO Ethan Diamond revealed that it's been purchased by Epic Games.
"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, insisting that core ideals and services for artists won't be compromised.“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,” Diamond added.
He added that Epic Games and Bandcamp will collaborate "behind the scenes" to push creative development through merchandising, payment options, mobile apps, and livestreaming.
In a separate statement on their blog, Epic Games wrote that 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.”
“Bandcamp has built an incredible community and business where up and coming artists can succeed thanks to the direct support of their fans, with one of the best revenue models and terms in music," said Steve Allison, Vice President and General Manager, Store at Epic Games. "This aligns closely with Epic’s approach to supporting creators across all media and enabling them to connect directly with their fans.”
Epic Games is the publisher of Fortnite which has amassed music fans during their virtual concert experiences including Travis Scott and Marshmello. The platform also created group video chat Houseparty, which ended in 2021 two years after its acquisition.
The announcement received a hostile reception on social media from indie artists who looked at Bandcamp as an adversary to the big tech streaming models like Spotify and Apple Music.
Read through responses to the acquisition below.
\u201cdeeply sceptical of bandcamp's sale to epic as well as the idea that a perfectly good - and presumably stable - product "has to grow" / "has to seek out exciting new avenues". sometimes the most artist friendly thing is doing one thing well and with stability\u201d— Jack de Quidt (@Jack de Quidt) 1646241595
\u201cepic games bought bandcamp? is shit finna get weird?\n\nuhhh buy my lathe, link in bio\u201d— Illingsworth (@Illingsworth) 1646240998
\u201cfor as much as the bandcamp epic merger represents the end of a sort of last bastion of marginally-less-corporately-entangled expression online, and for as much as im mourning that in real time, please dont hastily make calls to divest from the platform, as listeners or artists.\u201d— hazel (@hazel) 1646244215
\u201cWait Epic is 40% owned by Tencent who have stakes in\u2026 Spotify and the major labels. Did we just lose our independent digital record store\u201d— Damon K (@Damon K) 1646241497
From Your Site Articles
