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Bandcamp bought by....Epic Games??

I'm surprised this hasn't attracted more discussion. Bandcamp is practically the last viable bastion of independent music and it just got bought out by a large company from another industry.

The usual promises of continuing with business as usual have been made but forgive me if I'm sceptical of such promises by now.
 
They're talking about keeping Bandcamp Friday and ensuring that artists will still get a decent percentage of the sales. This has to be tested, so give them time. If bands start to suffer, we'll soon hear about it.
 
They also said in the pr that other companies have offered to buy them but they've declined because they didn't have the same goals. So we have to assume they mean what they say.
 
Of course, there is some good that can come out of this: their app could certainly stand to be improved and their search function needs to be 100% overhauled, for example.

But if they move away at all from the "stream a couple times for free but then you have to buy" model, I think it will be a serious blow.
 
For perspective, I've had two sales of my music on Bandcamp since May 2021, netting me $11. In the same period of time, I've had 859 streams across numerous services, and my total streaming income is $1.31, which I can't actually claim until I've earned at least $15 (or was it $25?). I'm not in it for the money as it's just a hobby. But for anyone who's really trying to make it, Bandcamp is such an essential conduit to their fans.
 
I would imagine the some are alarmed by the possibility of a non-fungible token model, i.e. no actual physical product in the future. As I said, we'll have to wait and see.
 
I hope it turns out alright; I buy a lot of stuff from Bandcamp and it's a great way of artists getting their stuff out there. It's not just selling music, it's a platform where you can put all kinds of information about how you make your music, where you come from etc. Add to that, you can hear most of the music before you buy it! Fingers crossed that it doesn't change too much.
 
gustav_errata said:
For perspective, I've had two sales of my music on Bandcamp since May 2021, netting me $11. In the same period of time, I've had 859 streams across numerous services, and my total streaming income is $1.31, which I can't actually claim until I've earned at least $15 (or was it $25?). I'm not in it for the money as it's just a hobby. But for anyone who's really trying to make it, Bandcamp is such an essential conduit to their fans.
Click to expand...
Hi Gustav, give us a plug of your music.
 
gustav_errata said:
Here's an odd one. What does Epic Games want with Bandcamp? Such a weird match-up.

https://twitter.com/bandcamp/status/1499068917947510788
Click to expand...

Reading the comments on the original tweet, as ever, reveals perhaps some pretty severe over-reactions. The most interesting tidbit that has come up, though, is that China's Tencent is a 40% shareholder of Epic, in addition to having minor holdings in Spotify and some major labels. Whether that will actually mean anything for Bandcamp is dubious, but it's still something.
 
Epic are as much a digital storefront company as they are a game company. Their Steam platform is more or less the PC games buying equivalent of Google in its field, ie ubiquitous and near-synonymous with its function. So it makes a deal more sense than it might appear.

No idea what the effects will be, but it’s hard to believe that artists benefitting will be among them.
 
Perhaps an opportunity for a musicians' collective to set up their own bandcamp2 type operation?
 
Hopefully, Epic Games will leave the fees artists pay the same and their profits come by getting a bigger market share, which will benefit artists and Epic. And if they don't then #molee's idea would be a good way forward for musicians and music buyers.
 
TBH, I like Bandcamp so much that I can't imagine life without it! It's a whole lot better than Myspace, which is all we had before.
 
Any Epic Games customers here? I know nothing beyond Unreal in the late ‘90s, so no idea how they are as a business now. I really hope they don’t screw Bandcamp up, it is absolutely essential for the modern music scene IMO.
 
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