"A big company never buys a smaller company without changing it to maximize profit, and nothing good survives being changed to maximize profit. Nothing lasts forever, I guess."

https://blog.bandcamp.com/2022/03/02/bandcamp-is-joining-epic/

"I’m excited to announce that Bandcamp is joining Epic Games, who you may know as the makers of Fortnite and Unreal Engine, and champions for a fair and open Internet.

Bandcamp will keep operating as a standalone marketplace and music community, and I will continue to lead our team. The products and services you depend on aren’t going anywhere, we’ll continue to build Bandcamp around our artists-first revenue model (where artists net an average of 82% of every sale), 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. However, behind the scenes we’re working with Epic to expand internationally and push development forward across Bandcamp, from basics like our album pages, mobile apps, merch tools, payment system, and search and discovery features, to newer initiatives like our vinyl pressing and live streaming services.

Since our founding in 2008, we’ve been motivated by the pursuit of our mission, which is to help spread the healing power of music by building a community where artists thrive through the direct support of their fans. That simple idea has worked well, with payments to artists and labels closing in on $1 billion USD. And while over the years we’ve heard from other companies who wanted us to join them, we’ve always felt that doing so would only be exciting if they strongly believed in our mission, were aligned with our values, and not only wanted to see Bandcamp continue, but also wanted to provide the resources to bring a lot more benefit to the artists, labels, and fans who use the site. Epic ticks all those boxes. We share a vision of building the most open, artist-friendly ecosystem in the world, and together we’ll be able to create even more opportunities for artists to be compensated fairly for their work.

Whether you joined Bandcamp recently or have been with us since the beginning 14 years ago, thank you for being a part of this incredible community, and we look forward to serving you for many years to come!

Ethan Diamond
Bandcamp co-founder and CEO"

To people like US, a record is a piece of history. A moment in time.
Most people don't get it.

But I am definitely huge side eye to this acquisition.
Hope for the best, expect the worst.

--

"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

They own Fortnite, right?

What's their story?

I was reading some article and they were talking about how
Epic games ruined this thing called Houseparty or something.

https://digife.com

It's a confusing acquisition -- not sure how it fits in with Epic's current holdings. From Bandcamp's perspective, it makes at least some sense: more resources, more stability. But it's strange for sure.

I 100% get that this probably means big, unfortunate changes later down the line, but I'll hold out hope that the folks on Bandcamp's end put some structure into the deal to keep its heart and soul.

More than anything, I hope they keep their writers/curators. They do a great job with the Daily, the monthly lists, etc -- it would be real bummer to see that change much.

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

epic games makes billions of dollars per year off fortnite (you may have heard of it) and licensing unreal engine. unreal engine is video game software that epic creates and supports. video game developers buy a license for it (or let epic take a cut of the sales) and create their games with it. it's used widely in the video game development ecosystem from giant big budget franchises like mass effect to smaller indie titles to solo developers and game design schools. they will even waive the licensing fee until the sales reach a certain threshhold. esssentially it's free to use and if the game made with it is successful they want a cut since their was software used in the development. additionally they offer the largest profit margin for game developers on their own pc gaming storefront, epic games store: an 88/12 split in favor of the developers. this is pretty significant as apple games and steam (the largest and oldest PC games storefront) both charge a 30% commission, google play charges 15%, and the microsoft store changed their fee from 30% to 12% to match epic games store. my opinion is that epic games is pretty progressive and developer-friendly

i doubt they are buying bandcamp in order to squeeze money out of it. they don't really need it as a revenue stream. my best guess is that they like the platform and want to use their vast resources to make it the best version of bandcamp it can be

I was hoping they could help Bandcamp on the back end,
helping them provide more services, apps, etc.

https://digife.com

Thanks for giving us some perspective.

--

"You can't beat white people. You can only knock them out."

____________
Twitter & IG: @rulerofmyself
SC: rulerofmyself17

Yes! She's on the drugs. (c) BoHagon

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/bandcamp-epic-games-acquisition/

I know pitchfork isn't the most popular outlet around here, but this was informative.

If it doesn't work out somehow, no matter how much they want it to, like maybe it turns out to be a financial drain, Epic will sell it to someone else for the best price they can get, and all bets are off.

I'm biased from personal experience of companies I've been involved in, but I feel like these things often go south, even if everyone is on the same page at the beginning.

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I check for: Serengeti, Zeroh, Open Mike Eagle, Jeremiah Jae, Moka Only.