Epic Games Sells Bandcamp Amid Layoffs

[Peter McDermott]

Just seen this on Pitchfork:

https://pitchfork.com/news/epic-games-sells-bandcamp-amid-layoffs/

Concerns perhaps for bandcamp's future, as it stands?

 

[Dingbat]

And also this article gives some analysis:

5 observations on… Epic Games’ sale of Bandcamp to Songtradr - Music Business Worldwide

Here are five observations about what the deal means for Songtradr, Bandcamp, and other players in the music industry…

www.musicbusinessworldwide.com

I buy a lot of my music from Bandcamp. I don't stream, I download and then play direct. I tend to think Bandcamp is unique compared to all the other much more mass market stuff out there. It has its own niche. There's a lot of very small artists on it who would never get that wide an audience. There are the Indie bands which are perhaps somewhat Indie in their music, but have a lot of press, and make quite a bit of money, then there are the real Indies, which much tinier by comparison, and will never be rich. I love finding all these unique and interesting artists on Bandcamp.

I hope this bouncing around owners doesn't turned it into a severely compromised cash cow for some humungous big corporate. I work with Enterprise Applications software. I've seen some of the companies in this area get acquired, and then after acquisition, the great software they had is basically destroyed. The acquisition didn't make sense - at least in terms of maintaining the original application - and all the acquiring company were after was the customer base, or to destroy a competitor.

 

[TCar]

The latest sounds dire. https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/is-b...&utm_source=nl&utm_term=P4K_HotLinks_NewMusic

 

[Tony L]

Yikes, this is bad. Bandcamp is absolutely essential. The only real counterpoint to the corporate slave trade of streaming. The only place independent and minority interest music can survive.

 

[paulfromcamden]

This doesn't sound good at all...

I didn't realise it had already been sold once before. Now the reports of union-busting make more sense.

Selling records and downloads isn't desperately tricky tech so here's hoping something replaces it if it goes the way of Alta Vista and Myspace.

 

[pickwickpapers]

' enshittification ' indeed.
( from @ https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/is-b...&utm_source=nl&utm_term=P4K_HotLinks_NewMusic link)

 

[daytona600]

Told recently by manager of a band Bandcamp pays artists LP/CD 5/10 times as much as a sale via Amazon

 

[Tony L]

Told recently by manager of a band Bandcamp pays artists LP/CD 5/10 times as much as a sale via Amazon

That is the point. Bandcamp is just a front-end and hosting facility, you are buying direct from the artist. It is conceptually entirely different to Amazon, Spotify or any record shop. You can’t even view Bandcamp as a middleman, it is just a service, no different in theory to my paying a third party for a server to run pfm on.

PS If it does fall I sincerely hope it is rebuilt in an Open Source and distributed/federated manner. It could well work on a Mastodon type model. It shouldn’t need corporate investment.

 

[gustav_errata]

We're currently exploring using Artcore as an alternative. It looks like it's mostly electronic music at the moment and I'm not sure what the physical merch system is like, if it exists at all (we're still download-only at the moment).

 

[gavreid]

Why is Epic Games struggling so badly? They have some huge titles, e.g. Fortnite. I could see how Bandcamp might fit within their business model (perhaps not for the better) of a platform for the sale and distribution of games...

 

[paulfromcamden]

That is the point. Bandcamp is just a front-end and hosting facility, you are buying direct from the artist. It is conceptually entirely different to Amazon, Spotify or any record shop. You can’t even view Bandcamp as a middleman, it is just a service, no different in theory to my paying a third party for a server to run pfm on.

I think the difference is Bandcamp was a pretty effective shop front and their editorial content did a good job of making users aware of releases they might otherwise have missed. Releasing music now is pretty easy - it's getting noticed that's the hard part.

 

[Dingbat]

The latest sounds dire. https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/is-b...&utm_source=nl&utm_term=P4K_HotLinks_NewMusic

Groan. This looks exactly like what I've seen happen in the Enterprise Applications software space. The independent artists will always be there, but without Bandcamp, it's going to be harder to buy their stuff.

There must be a way to make this work.

 

[kensalriser]

And also this article gives some analysis:

5 observations on… Epic Games’ sale of Bandcamp to Songtradr - Music Business Worldwide

Here are five observations about what the deal means for Songtradr, Bandcamp, and other players in the music industry…

www.musicbusinessworldwide.com

I buy a lot of my music from Bandcamp. I don't stream, I download and then play direct. I tend to think Bandcamp is unique compared to all the other much more mass market stuff out there. It has its own niche. There's a lot of very small artists on it who would never get that wide an audience. There are the Indie bands which are perhaps somewhat Indie in their music, but have a lot of press, and make quite a bit of money, then there are the real Indies, which much tinier by comparison, and will never be rich. I love finding all these unique and interesting artists on Bandcamp.

I hope this bouncing around owners doesn't turned it into a severely compromised cash cow for some humungous big corporate. I work with Enterprise Applications software. I've seen some of the companies in this area get acquired, and then after acquisition, the great software they had is basically destroyed. The acquisition didn't make sense - at least in terms of maintaining the original application - and all the acquiring company were after was the customer base, or to destroy a competitor.

My brother in law works in film software and says much the same - his company, and others, are essentially always on the hunt to buy out promising start-ups to kill any nascent competition. It's a deliberate strategy.

 

[awkwardbydesign]

Nearly all my music now comes from Bandcamp. CDs if the postage isn't too high, otherwise downloads. I don't stream at all. Where else would I find, or even be aware of Catalan music, Polish and Ukrainian folk, and Bastarda; clarinet, cello and contrabass cello?

​

 

[Woodface]

I really like Bandcamp & it’s reduced my reliance on Amazon. I do love an instant download.

I find most record shops really depressing, just racks of overpriced crap vinyl & CDs I already have.

Going to Nottingham next week, hoping the Fopp is still open so I can have a rummage.

 

[AguycalledSimon]

words are failing me to share how disappointing this is - i have bought tons of music on BC, both downloads & vinyl, and have subscribed to both Dave Douglas and Jazz in Britain - its just a great source of hearing stuff that would otherwise pass you by - only this week I discovered James Brandon Lewis!
What I will miss most is that feeling of supporting & connecting with artists - one time i added some comments when I ordered a Florian Arbenz LP from Switzerland...and got back a signed and messaged copy with a postcard! try getting that kind of response anywherer else!

 

[farfromthesun]

It is a shame, particularly for the artists. As a music buyer (lots) I have found myself using BC less, mainly because of the vast amount of mis-tagged music (I don't want to have to click on heavy metal track in order to find out that it's not actually techno, which is what I searched for) and I've also had issues with "followers" buying absolutely everything that I do and putting it into their DJ sets before I have even had the chance to download it. As such, I find myself gravitating towards specialist record shops again.

 

[Dave H.]

That is the point. Bandcamp is just a front-end and hosting facility, you are buying direct from the artist. It is conceptually entirely different to Amazon, Spotify or any record shop. You can’t even view Bandcamp as a middleman, it is just a service, no different in theory to my paying a third party for a server to run pfm on.

This is not necessarily true.

Some artists use it, but so do some labels.

I have had lots of material available on bandcamp, but none of it is sold directly by me/us. Its is labels selling it and to some extent piggybacking on the perception that the whole platform is artist direct.