Epic Games Acquires Bandcamp

2022-03-02 by Worst User of All Time Agreed | 159 Comments
The music website Bandcamp has announced that they are now joining Epic Games. In CEO Ethan Diamond's post, he wrote, "Bandcamp will keep operating as a standalone marketplace and music community, and I will continue to lead our team".

The full announcement is linked below:

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

Tagged:

Comments:Add a Comment 
Shatterhand
March 2nd 2022
11 Comments


End of a era.

Minushuman24
March 2nd 2022
4987 Comments


ew

Snake.
March 2nd 2022
25101 Comments


not epic

Djang0
March 2nd 2022
849 Comments


??????

arf
March 2nd 2022
494 Comments


end of an era

YoYoMancuso
Staff Reviewer
March 2nd 2022
18739 Comments


brotha moment

GhandhiLion
March 2nd 2022
17398 Comments


this is bait

epic troll

arf
March 2nd 2022
494 Comments


time to learn how to use funkwhale y'all

Wildcardbitchesss
March 2nd 2022
10138 Comments


… I don’t know how I feel about this

RivalSkoomaDealer
March 2nd 2022
1645 Comments


I wonder how much this will fuck over artists on the platform?

TheSpirit
Emeritus
March 2nd 2022
30304 Comments


i literally just dropped $100 on bandcamp this morning..... hoping this doesn't impact the site too negatively

Cimnele
March 2nd 2022
2527 Comments


the instant i need an epic account to log in i am deleting all my uploads lol

DavidYowi
March 2nd 2022
3496 Comments


God this has like 97% chance of completely sucking, and even that number seems generous

nol
March 2nd 2022
11387 Comments


Pffffffffft looooo

nol
March 2nd 2022
11387 Comments


lmaolmaolmao rip “bandcamp is the morally superior option” gang

Feather
March 2nd 2022
9573 Comments


Don't know tons about Bandcamp tbh, do they currently have a solid app to play your music through? I feel like tech and reach wise this is a huge gain BUT the whole appeal of bandcamp being for the artist and independent is lost. RIP

nol
March 2nd 2022
11387 Comments


It’ll turn into a regurgitation of Spotify and Apple Music without a doubt.

Cimnele
March 2nd 2022
2527 Comments


i dont want reach i wanna not work for the dlc nft guys

nol
March 2nd 2022
11387 Comments


too bad!

SteakByrnes
March 2nd 2022
29234 Comments


truly no idea why they would do this

Hyperion1001
Emeritus
March 2nd 2022
25016 Comments


truly nothing is sacred anymore. rip.

dedex
Staff Reviewer
March 2nd 2022
12553 Comments


ugh y

Pooter9000
March 2nd 2022
25 Comments


Hello microtransactions lmao

OwMySnauze
March 2nd 2022
2501 Comments


Ah fiddlesticks 🤦🏻‍♂️

Josh D.
March 2nd 2022
17845 Comments


don't know what this means, oh well

arf
March 2nd 2022
494 Comments


"Hello microtransactions lmao"
bonus tracks as dlc released months after album

Clefairy
March 2nd 2022
248 Comments


"you can also support this artist by gifting them vbucks, happy fortniting!"

Senetrix666
March 2nd 2022
1534 Comments


fucking rip

nol
March 2nd 2022
11387 Comments


“truly no idea why they would do this“
let me introduce you to the concept of money

DungeonBoy
March 2nd 2022
9608 Comments


what is epic games and what is wrong with them?

cvlts
March 2nd 2022
9938 Comments


lolwhat?

keaton_86
March 2nd 2022
759 Comments


there is no way this will be a good thing.

Sharenge
March 2nd 2022
4572 Comments


Fortnite is good

seasofcheese
March 2nd 2022
72 Comments


they better not start fucking bandcamp up. these damn big companies

Avagantamos
March 2nd 2022
8742 Comments


what the fuck

AmericanFlagAsh
March 2nd 2022
12753 Comments


???????????????

nol
March 2nd 2022
11387 Comments


Epic Music

Ebola
March 2nd 2022
4485 Comments


oh boy

StillStream4242
March 2nd 2022
16 Comments


Epic Games killed Rocket League. They'll also kill Bandcamp.

JesperL
Staff Reviewer
March 2nd 2022
5221 Comments


bandcamp nfts yaas slay

zuzek
March 2nd 2022
922 Comments


Yikes forever

evilford
March 2nd 2022
62504 Comments


God dammit

Flugmorph
March 2nd 2022
32616 Comments


well thats fucked

hansoloshotfirst
March 2nd 2022
1580 Comments


oh, brother...

ToSmokMuzyki
March 2nd 2022
8406 Comments


bandcamp? i think u mean bandnite ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Ryus
March 2nd 2022
34783 Comments


LMAO bruh

SlothcoreSam
March 2nd 2022
5946 Comments


Band of Susans > Band of Horses > Band of Skulls

bloc
March 2nd 2022
69291 Comments


Holy fuck

evilford
March 2nd 2022
62504 Comments


Lol

Senetrix666
March 2nd 2022
1534 Comments


bend over for the corporate overlords

Trundle
March 2nd 2022
3855 Comments


This does not bode well.

nol
March 2nd 2022
11387 Comments


“We are pleased to announce that in as of January 24, 2024 we will be re-branding ourselves as Epic Music. We feel as if this change will better align with our internal goals and will make it easier for consumers to associate us with the broad range of services that Epic provides. We look forward to being your preferred music streaming platform for many years to come.

Cheers,
The Epic Music Team”

Purpl3Spartan
March 2nd 2022
7755 Comments


Fortnite battle pass needed for fugazi streaming

Trebor.
Emeritus
March 2nd 2022
59658 Comments


Epic plans to remove the Bandcamp shopping cart and then reintroduce it two years later

DreamAgain
March 2nd 2022
2451 Comments


china owns bandcamp lol.

Next year they are going to announce timed exclusivity releases smh

"what is epic games and what is wrong with them?"
Well they are owned by Tencent, one of the largest Chinese multinational conglomerates who also subsequently plays a big role in perpetuating what is essentially state-run media(CCP still maintains editorial oversight on all news ouetlets in China).
Specifically on Epic Games, they are responsible for in my opinion one of the biggest anti-consumer tactics in the gaming industry in recent years as they have purchased exclusivity rights to third party games on PC, making them the only store front to carry quite a few games. For example, when Hitman 3 was released on PC the only place you could purchase and play it was on Epic's store, forcing you to use their platform even though it sucks and offers no value. It's the mentality of "What you don't want to use our store? Fine we'll make you use it" that leaves a bad taste in people's mouths, as opposed to winning consumers over by offering a better product or service.

TheGreatQ
March 2nd 2022
3001 Comments


Disgusting

Teal
Contributing Reviewer
March 2nd 2022
582 Comments


Didn’t see this coming.

REANIMATED
March 2nd 2022
27 Comments


I have lived to see man-made horrors beyond my comprehension...

JohnnyoftheWell
Staff Reviewer
March 2nd 2022
58020 Comments


gonna give this two years max until it's completely gone to shit, followed by twoish more years of happy-anxious piracy until the Big Independent Platform of the future gains significant traction. RIP.

Dewinged
Staff Reviewer
March 2nd 2022
30905 Comments


This is the most random news I've read this year.

efp123
March 2nd 2022
136 Comments


ruh roh

Hyperion1001
Emeritus
March 2nd 2022
25016 Comments


"Well they are owned by Tencent"

god this is even worse than i thought.

i 100% guarantee within 2 years bandcamp will just be another streaming platform with only a slightly better pay scale than the competitors.

all i can say is hopefully co-op music platforms like resonate actually take off or independent music is going to suffer massively.


iambandersnatch
March 2nd 2022
1935 Comments


big yikes

Dewinged
Staff Reviewer
March 2nd 2022
30905 Comments


Yep. I can already see this is an alternative app to Spoti or Apple with maybe a slightly better income for musicians (not very difficult) but no matter what , everyone is royally fucked already because the cut it's gonna be beyond ridiculous.

(Not that we were selling enough records to make a living anyway but it sucks for those who did.)

Sinternet
March 3rd 2022
26346 Comments


ill hold out judgement, i don't see them fucking with the formula too much in what is already a successful platform for reasons that mainstream streaming sites don't/can't address

what most likely will happen is that the tech side of the website and app are beefed up a ton at the cost of some loss of the independent nature of the website - planted advertisements for artists and/or artists signing deals with some imprint with ties to epic

at this point it seems useless to speculate as it just happens, give it six months to notice changes and then come to a conclusion

Storm In A Teacup
March 3rd 2022
45014 Comments


The End of an Era is a song by hopesfall.

DreamAgain
March 3rd 2022
2451 Comments


"and champions for a fair and open Internet."

How do you even type that with a straight face. Good god.

Kompys2000
Staff Reviewer
March 3rd 2022
9132 Comments


Sint with the good takes

definitely a dicey development but we'll have to see how things shake out. I don't like the possibility of any kind of sweetheart deals or payola going on behind the scenes, but the ability to directly support artists and build a library of music you actually own is the main thing here that's really sacred to me, and god willing that aspect will remain intact for a while yet.

24gadjet
March 3rd 2022
302 Comments


Nightmare decade

Relinquished
March 3rd 2022
48523 Comments


wasn’t hard to see coming tbh

just sucks it was epic games

Eons
March 3rd 2022
3769 Comments


really out of the loop here, why would a gaming company buy a music streaming site

ConcubinaryCode
March 3rd 2022
7372 Comments


Strange acquisition. Also tencent does not own epic gtfo

suppatime
March 3rd 2022
1739 Comments


tencent doesn't outright own it but they own the 2nd largest stake at 40%

arf
March 3rd 2022
494 Comments


tencent "only" owns half of epic, that's correct

SandwichBubble
March 3rd 2022
13767 Comments


I wish I could be more outraged, but being mad at stuff like this has become so tiresome. At this point, it's an inevitability that everything good will be bought by a massive company, slowly hollowed out, and turned to a husk of its former self. Happens every week and I will never be loyal to any brand because of it.

Supercoolguy64
March 3rd 2022
11752 Comments


Do you guys think bandcamp will try to integrate fortnite “concerts” in the same way they did with live streaming

JAV
March 3rd 2022
3545 Comments


Omg why, while not the worst news of the year just waiting to see how they screw it up.

Sevengill
March 3rd 2022
11383 Comments


what is Epic and what have they messed up before?

ArsMoriendi
March 3rd 2022
40290 Comments


lame


Panzerchrist
March 3rd 2022
722 Comments


Fuck Epic

zaruyache
March 3rd 2022
26913 Comments


we just got offline downloads in-player and playlists, now they're getting bought out by the company that still hasn't added basic user review functionality to their video game website lol. maybe the bandcamp people will show them how to build a website, idk

Voivod
Staff Reviewer
March 3rd 2022
10472 Comments


> really out of the loop here, why would a gaming company buy a music streaming site

Probably because the music streaming site does not make enough money to hold its ground in an increasingly precarious world over time, and it made the pitch now that the numbers allow it to happen.

Or probably because parent company saw the popularity and sprawling userbase of the music streaming site and they wanted to buy it, only those things happened for a reason, and it will be interesting to see if the requisites that led the music streaming site to its current position, will be maintained over time.

Long story short, what Sinternet wrote, let’s wait and see what happens along the way, although the odds definitely don’t look good, given who owns/has shares of who.

Hyperion1001
Emeritus
March 3rd 2022
25016 Comments


i figure best case scenario is that a bunch of money gets pumped into the website/mobile app and maybe they go to bat against apple to get in-app purchases. as long as they maintain the core functionality of direct payments to artists without an obscene cut by the company i guess its fine.

i just really, really hope they dont turn it into another iteration of a traditional music streaming service.

nightbringer
March 3rd 2022
2694 Comments


"The End of an Era is a song by hopesfall."

Lol, Storm

GhandhiLion
March 3rd 2022
17398 Comments


They will never buy sputnikmusic

nightbringer
March 3rd 2022
2694 Comments


Sput should get into the e-store/streaming business, given Sput's track record of polished user experiences and all.

Ecnalzen
March 3rd 2022
12163 Comments


I hope this is a good fit cuz I love using bandcamp

Senetrix666
March 3rd 2022
1534 Comments


you're delusional if you think anything good is gonna come from of this

RockRetard
March 3rd 2022
3 Comments


China's grabbing it all up

DatsNotDaMetulz
March 3rd 2022
4288 Comments


I'm very apperhensive about this but all we can really do is wait and see what happens and hope nothing too drastic changes.

Can see the Epic Games Store having some promotions to tie in with the takeover at some point though, maybe vouchers for their users to get them to visit Bandcamp or something.

Bedex
March 3rd 2022
3124 Comments


last.fm all over again

YesMaMan11
March 3rd 2022
90 Comments


It's probably not going to be pretty

sizeofanocean
March 3rd 2022
3198 Comments


Fucking heartbreaking...

Jadmin
March 3rd 2022
64 Comments


what the fuck?

MuhNamesTyler
March 3rd 2022
6706 Comments


Haven’t fucked with Bandcamp since like 2018 so whatever but still fuck epic

Eons
March 3rd 2022
3769 Comments


I'd be really surprised if Bandcamp did not make decent money already. If they aren't, I can't understand why. Plenty of users and artists and from what I've seen, real support on there for artists and labels.

I mean I know people who spend like hundreds of dollars a month on bandcamp

DungeonBoy
March 3rd 2022
9608 Comments


they take like 15-20% on all sales, and they've paid out 890 million to artists since they started and 207 million in the past year alone, so you do the math. That's just on sales and doesn't account for label fees and other costs to use their platform.

Trifolium
March 3rd 2022
37887 Comments


Oh no that totally sucks. Why the hell did they do that...

Zero faith in this decision, it can only lead to disappointment.

JAV
March 4th 2022
3545 Comments


My understanding was that they have been in the black for a long time but maybe that changed.
https://blog.bandcamp.com/2016/05/19/bandcamp-downloads-streaming-and-the-inescapably-bright-future/

rzrbicks
March 4th 2022
3 Comments


Dudeee r.i.p. to all the independent artists now that like 50% of their revenue and sales will be swallowed by the creators of fucking fortnite

ToSmokMuzyki
March 4th 2022
8406 Comments


omfg its bicks pickles in person

evilford
March 4th 2022
62504 Comments


1 comments

garas
Contributing Reviewer
March 4th 2022
7855 Comments


Any bandcamp alternatives out there?

Cimnele
March 4th 2022
2527 Comments


re bandcamp alternatives i have been trying to understand resonate.is
got a cooperative feel to it but logging in and out is such a mess lol
and it has a slightly different focus, definitely not a 1 to 1 replacement of bandcamp or anything

Tunaboy45
March 4th 2022
18313 Comments


fuck this so much

Tunaboy45
March 4th 2022
18313 Comments


Fortnite Fridays

Pheromone
March 4th 2022
20758 Comments


oh man just saw this this fucking suuucks

Trifolium
March 4th 2022
37887 Comments


Yeah it totally mega sucks. Really disappointed.

tigersbrokefree
March 4th 2022
356 Comments


Bad capitalism, no cookie.

Fuck Epic and fuck Tim whatever his name is.

tigersbrokefree
March 4th 2022
356 Comments


> really out of the loop here, why would a gaming company buy a music streaming site

capitalism

Tunaboy45
March 4th 2022
18313 Comments


Give it a year it'll be another shite streaming service claiming to be "artist first" because they give an extra £0.00001 per stream over Spotify.

bloc
March 7th 2022
69291 Comments


Hey now £0.00001 converted to Canadian dollars is a lot

JayEnder
March 7th 2022
18378 Comments


lmfao is this for real

seasofcheese
March 7th 2022
72 Comments


Epic Games will start taking cuts of artists pay, like lets say an artists album is 8 bucks or something, they'll take out a chunk of that and a bigger chunk in merch sales. That's what troubles me, because Bandcamp is giving independent artists a platform to share for free and take donations. If Epic starts their strategy, Bandcamp will lose a lot of users.

DungeonBoy
March 7th 2022
9608 Comments


lol Bandcamp already does that m8

seasofcheese
March 7th 2022
72 Comments


Or, even worse, they make artists pay for unlimited releases. Or start making the songs automatically unlistenable (by this i mean, if you have been on the site, you will see you can individually listen to the songs without paying if the artist release allows this.) Or pulling an iTunes and only giving song "samples." Either way, this is definitely a concern.

seasofcheese
March 7th 2022
72 Comments


DungeonBoy my bad lol. I'm just saying they'll make it probably worse. Capitalism sucks.

Trifolium
March 7th 2022
37887 Comments


Totally sucks bleh bleh BLEH.

seasofcheese
March 7th 2022
72 Comments


Hopefully this goes right, and that Epic doesn't screw Bandcamp over somehow

nol
March 7th 2022
11387 Comments


They’re gonna lose half their clientele regardless if they make changes or not. Independent artists and Epic is like oil and water.

Just look at how many people are turning their noses up to the announcement itt before any changes of note have actually occured.

seasofcheese
March 7th 2022
72 Comments


indie company joins big company... discredits the "indie company" aspect a bit. nol is right, they will lose a lot of clients. I could see why artists will probably move. If Epic makes the revenue of 82% per artist sale down to, let's say, 70% and below (which they probably won't, but with big companies who knows,) Bandcamp will lose a LOT of artists. Also, they better not make this shit associated within the epicgames website OR on their shitty desktop application.

TD;LR: If Epic fucks up the artist revenue per sale rate, Bandcamp is probably screwed.

seasofcheese
March 7th 2022
72 Comments


Epic Games also needs to know how to stay in their own lane.

zaruyache
March 8th 2022
26913 Comments


tbf epic's whole thing to beat steam in the first place was their paying devs a higher percentage, so it seems unlikely they'd try to gouge the artists here since it goes against their established brand. but who knows, corps be corp'in

JAV
March 8th 2022
3545 Comments


Well they screwed that up with the PC exclusives nonsense, a garbage store front and throwing their money around.

zaruyache
March 9th 2022
26913 Comments


eh the exclusives I'm not too peeved about if they're just delayed to Steam and not restricted from it entirely, as long as they pay for it. if epic wants to rile up business by undercutting steam then good for them I guess. the storefront issue is still pretty funny tho, they've been at this for years now and people still have to come onto Steam to see if a game is good or not bc there are no user reviews on Epic yet lol.

ToSmokMuzyki
March 9th 2022
8406 Comments


such a good decision i love fortnite

zaruyache
March 9th 2022
26913 Comments


Fort,

Knight

Purpl3Spartan
March 9th 2022
7755 Comments


19 dollar fortnite card

JAV
March 10th 2022
3545 Comments


@zaruyache The gaming community has always been whiny, if they can't have it immediately the crying never stops. I'll wait for things to hit half price most of the time. Still just as fun.

GhandhiLion
March 10th 2022
17398 Comments


I still cant believe this is real

GhandhiLion
March 10th 2022
17398 Comments


I wonder if there's potential in blockchain for music streaming. Does anyone have any thoughts on Audius? etc

Kompys2000
Staff Reviewer
March 10th 2022
9132 Comments


There's potential in that it's a potential new market of people to scam and a potential new way to scam them

Storm In A Teacup
March 4th 2023
45014 Comments


I have like 200 songs I could put on bandcamp is this the perfect time to cash in?

Voivod
Staff Reviewer
April 8th 2023
10472 Comments


Old article, but potentially relevant in the long run…

http://musictechpolicy.com/2022/03/08/another-one-bites-the-dust-bandcamp-acquired-by-tencents-epic-games-and-still-no-fairness-for-session-musicians/

Purpl3Spartan
April 8th 2023
7755 Comments


I hate Tencent so much man. Awful company

robertsona
Staff Reviewer
April 8th 2023
26886 Comments


This is the first time I’ve been like especially compelled to retweet unionization efforts lol, no fucking brainer here

Supercoolguy64
April 10th 2023
11752 Comments


https://www.bandcampunited.org/

neat website

SlothcoreSam
September 28th 2023
5946 Comments


Well that didn't last long

SandwichBubble
September 28th 2023
13767 Comments


https://youtu.be/GYGhmJD9LKc?t=7s

Jasdevi087
September 28th 2023
8070 Comments


this really do be saying something about the material conditions

Kompys2000
Staff Reviewer
September 28th 2023
9132 Comments


Poggers

someone
September 28th 2023
6108 Comments


Guess all those after game giveaways put a dent in their pocket.

someone
September 28th 2023
6108 Comments


But seriously, all those companies nearly going bankrupt and laying off fucktonne of workforce because of a little bit of net worth slowdown sure makes one think whether the whole system is worth keeping on life support at all. Almost as if going bankrupt because you wanted to run an inherently by-design unprofitable project is your own dumb fault...

zaruyache
September 29th 2023
26913 Comments


bandcamp runs at a profit, just not enough of a profit to satisfy the capitalist ouroboros

Trebor.
Emeritus
September 29th 2023
59658 Comments


Epic Games should acquire bankruptcy

SlothcoreSam
October 18th 2023
5946 Comments


https://www.instagram.com/p/CyereebvuQM/

Sevengill
October 18th 2023
11383 Comments


predictable but no less sad

ToSmokMuzyki
October 18th 2023
8406 Comments


but can they acquire deez nutz

someone
October 18th 2023
6108 Comments


Could they acquire themselves to go fuck off and die and leave perfectly functioning platforms alone?

Or do shitstain big corpos just see a smaller company run an ethically good, profitable model and just go "absolutely not"?

Spec
October 18th 2023
38567 Comments


We had a good run.

ramon.
October 18th 2023
4158 Comments


fucking devastating lmao, these suits are so used to seeing big numbers they can't comprehend the value in something only withstanding half of independent music on its back

Snake.
October 18th 2023
25101 Comments


another epic win for free market capitalism

Sevengill
October 18th 2023
11383 Comments


big corpos just see a smaller company run an ethically good, profitable model and just go "absolutely not" [2]

GhandhiLion
October 18th 2023
17398 Comments


Blame the CEO

Tunaboy45
October 18th 2023
18313 Comments


this is just unbelievably shit, it gets worse and worse

everyone involved should be ashamed, artists lose a platform where they can actually make a living through digital music and the staff lose their living

billion dollar companies will bleed the platform dry and it'll be defunct in a couple of years

Hyperion1001
Emeritus
October 18th 2023
25016 Comments


capitalism must be destroyed agreed

pizzamachine
October 18th 2023
25497 Comments


This is undoubtedly bad

SlothcoreSam
October 20th 2023
5946 Comments


It gets worse yet.


https://www.404media.co/bandcamps-entire-union-bargaining-team-was-laid-off/

someone
October 20th 2023
6108 Comments


figures, a big new corpo comes in, of course they'll terminate the unions first



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