epic acquires bandcamp?

[yakfak]

Quote

Hi Zan-zan-zawa-veia,

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

 

guess i'll die? lol

[Lippeth]

I just got this email as well. I know that these types of buyouts are usually seen negatively, but hopefully this will make Bandcamp more accessible and mainstream while keeping the artist in control of how they sell their own music. I could just be naive.

[luke11685]

They want to buy everything,every company within as AAA corporate companies,studios(within CCP,People Can Fly,Tencent,Epic Games they don't deserve to never ever evolve it doesn't matter better later than never,but it should be rather sooner-earlier than later it matters a lot of contradictions) it's all wrong. They can't do whatever they want it doesn't make me any sort of digital hypocritical dictator of videogaming of development industry. It doesn't matter of what if Epic Games CEO and founder Tim Sweeney if Fortnite brand new indie game genre made him a billionaire or not.

Edited March 2, 2022 by luke11685

[esselfortium]

This gives me anxiety. Independent music is so reliant on Bandcamp at this point, I really hope they don't screw it up.

[kwc]

ffs

[MFG38]

Not sure how to feel about this. Guess I'll wait and see how things turn out.

[yakfak]

maybe they'll send me a challenge coin with a 13 on it, hope they hate my music so much they can't think of a radio station it'd suit in any of their games lol

[Redneckerz]

56 minutes ago, esselfortium said:

This gives me anxiety. Independent music is so reliant on Bandcamp at this point, I really hope they don't screw it up.

I'd say. A lot of Doom MIDI albums are on Bandcamp, like Jimmy's, Skillsaw's.

 

I'd still love to see all that on Spotify though. Dragonfly's work is on there and quality original midi music is surprisingly hard to find.

[Antkibo]

1 hour ago, esselfortium said:

This gives me anxiety. Independent music is so reliant on Bandcamp at this point, I really hope they don't screw it up.

Well, independent coding is so reliant on Github (Microsoft), so I guess that's the future.

[Ludi]

Everything is being fucking bought out nowadays. What even is independence anymore?

[BoxY]

Hopefully this doesn't mean the DRM hammer is coming down on everything, the main reason I like Bandcamp is that it's one of the few places where buying music gives you actual music files that aren't locked to any service or platform.

[Lemonzest]

I like (liked?) the fact I can download lossless game soundtracks for a reasonable price, guess I'll just wait and see.

[OpenRift]

Quote

champions for a fair and open Internet

I don't remember this being an Epic thing. Anyone know the context for this?

[OpenRift]

On the bright side, maybe we'll get official releases of the Unreal and Unreal Tournament soundtracks?

[Doomkid]

Corporation CONSUME! 

Corporation CONSUME!

ALL HAIL ECONOMOS!!

[BGreener]

17 minutes ago, OpenRift said:

On the bright side, maybe we'll get official releases of the Unreal and Unreal Tournament soundtracks?

I’d be blown away to get soundtrack releases for the Jazz Jackrabbit games, considering I can’t even get them through the Epic Store..!

[luke11685]

30 minutes ago, BGrieber said:

I’d be blown away to get soundtrack releases for the Jazz Jackrabbit games, considering I can’t even get them through the Epic Store..!

I think one of former Epic Games employees Alexander Brandon made a remix of Lab Rat from Jazz Jackrabbit 2.

It looks like Epic Games gonna behave such as Sega was in the past anti-consumer business practises.

[Daytime Waitress]

"This aligns closely with Epic’s approach to supporting creators across all media and enabling them to connect directly with their fans” - Some Suit Representing an Online Game Store That Doesn't Have Forums or Reviews.

 

At least the corporate dystopia we find ourselves in is still good for a laugh, 'ey?

[Killerratte]

Epic has the reverse touch of Midas. Say goodbye to Bandcamp.

[Astronomical]

What?  Why?  This would be like if The New York times bough the well regarded web browser game "Wordle", or if Nintendo bought into the baseball team "The Seattle Mariners". 

[Biodegradable]

32 minutes ago, Astronomical said:

This would be like if The New York Times bought "Wordle".

 

Boy, do I have news for you!

 

As for the topic at hand, Bandcamp users will have to wait and see. While it is pretty weird that Epic of all things bought it doesn't necessarily mean anything will drastically change. If the site does turn to shit, independent musicians will find plenty of other sites to host/distribute their tunes on. Time will tell, kids. I fully understand the cynicism, but don't hit the panic button just yet.

Edited March 2, 2022 by Biodegradable

[Varis Alpha]

from what i can tell, it doesn't sound like Bandcamp's operations are going to be affected in any major capacity by this buyout. which makes me question why Epic would do this buyout, maybe a late response to the Spotify debacle that happened a while ago?

 

in any case, as someone who's used the service for a while, i sincerely hope that it won't affect my situation much. i've been actively trying to get my music out onto my own Bandcamp page in hopes that i could one day make enough from it to live by, but if this should put a damper in that, then my current future might be kind of bleak.

[Kinsie]

 

[MFG38]

17 hours ago, OpenRift said:

On the bright side, maybe we'll get official releases of the Unreal and Unreal Tournament soundtracks?

 

I'm afraid corporate acquisitions don't work that way.

[OpenRift]

2 hours ago, MFG38 said:

 

I'm afraid corporate acquisitions don't work that way.

I was joking.

[luke11685]

Well they I mean Epic Games are also owning this Artstation as well.

[gwain]

this and the spyware audacity has become is why you need a tinfoil hat open bsd and a guitar and drumset you made yourself to be safe from the lizardmen

[luke11685]

It seems Tim Sweeney wants to own Metaverse/NFT as founder and CEO of Epic Games in the future Mark Zuckerberg one of creators of social media services named Facebook. 

[DrRock]

Fingers crossed that Epic is as far removed as possible from exercising any influence on the actual workings of Bandcamp. Best case scenario would be that this acquisition allows them to intigrate Bandcamp as an additional feature on their already exisiting service(s) and leave the site otherwise be. That's me being excessively hopeful though.

[luke11685]

Epic Games Digital Launcher Storefront doesn't need any videogames service. It doesn't have to be another Ready Player One thing for Hollywood film industry.

Anyway is it possible?

I don't need this anyway it's just cloging up my hard drive, that is, hard drive partitions.

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/EpicGamesSucks

Formerly,originally,initially,intended to be known as Fuck Epic Games Store.

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by luke11685