all your band(camp) are belong to us
March 2, 2022 12:14 PM   Subscribe

It has been jointly announced that Fortnite creator Epic Games have acquired indie (as in independent from corporate control, not the genre) darling Bandcamp.

Popular artist-support initiative Bandcamp Friday is set to continue, and the editors of Bandcamp Daily—some of the best music writing on the web right now—vow that it's business as usual, but there are many dark mutterings (see for yourself).

Can Bandcamp survive this ~~~epic~~~vibe~~shift~~~???
posted by Ten Cold Hot Dogs (73 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Ugh. Terrible news.
posted by dobbs at 12:27 PM on March 2, 2022 [29 favorites]


I have very strong feelings about this and will be removing my catalogue from their platform as soon as I can get a store set up elsewhere - I don't want to facilitate any revenue, however small, going to a corporation like Epic.
posted by remembrancer at 12:31 PM on March 2, 2022 [7 favorites]


nnnnnOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
posted by The Minotaur at 12:31 PM on March 2, 2022 [14 favorites]


This seems like such a weird acquisition for Epic to make, but .. uh.. ok? I suppose it's to try and get access to better / easier / cheaper / etc music licensing for Unreal Engine?
posted by Kyol at 12:32 PM on March 2, 2022


This is how other people felt when the NYT got Wordle, I guess.
posted by Going To Maine at 12:32 PM on March 2, 2022 [35 favorites]


The shitty world of music content marketing just got even shittier.
posted by aeshnid at 12:41 PM on March 2, 2022 [8 favorites]


*sigh*

Very, very frustrating. Fingers crossed Epic doesn't fuck Bandcamp up.
posted by SansPoint at 12:55 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


Can't wait to see Kratos flossing at the top of my war metal records.
posted by TheKaijuCommuter at 12:58 PM on March 2, 2022 [7 favorites]


One alternative that I hope can grow to become a success, in whatever way they want to define it, is Resonate Coop: The community-owned music network.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 1:00 PM on March 2, 2022 [8 favorites]


Sigh. Everything turns to shit eventually but on the internet at ridiculous speed.

It'll take a lot of work to put my music on some new website next year.
posted by Kosmob0t at 1:02 PM on March 2, 2022 [9 favorites]


I have very strong feelings about this and will be removing my catalogue from their platform as soon as I can get a store set up elsewhere - I don't want to facilitate any revenue, however small, going to a corporation like Epic.

Please warn your subscribers before deleting - otherwise the albums will just disappear and they might not have had time to archive the music.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:05 PM on March 2, 2022 [20 favorites]


I don't want to be pessimistic before anything happens, but I'm pretty bummed right now.

Bandcamp is the only place left that lets me challenge myself, that wants me to get lost exploring all these musical warrens and fall in love with an entirely new genre I had no idea existed. Spotify just wants me to keep listening to the same stuff, and no algorithmic recommendation engine has ever accounted for my weird and diverse musical preferences. There are so many niches that have been revived and are now thriving largely due to bandcamp, underground black metal foremost in my mind. Without that platform, without artists being able to produce their own music and sell it themselves, we're losing yet another marketplace of weirdness. And that's what's happening all over the internet. It snuck up on us a little bit - we started using the big social networks more and more and before we knew it, the places we used to relate to each other and just be human and real online quietly went away, replaced by spotless, sanitized places that just want you to keep clicking while advertisers sell things to you. Bottom of the barrel, no sincere soul and no room for weirdness.

Maybe that's why so much of the internet feels like high school now. There's nowhere left to be weird and artistic and creative around other people. That aspect of the internet was such a lifeline when I was in high school surrounded by people who did not appreciate the zany creativity that burst out of me, but I saw places online that did, and that the world was so much bigger, more accepting, and more expressive than my immediate surroundings. And now expressing anything outside a tiny range of acceptable watered-down weirdness on Twitter will get you resoundingly mocked more than I ever was as a queer teen who put together baroque jokes, read offbeat magazines, and wore all kinds of outlandish styles.

Keep Bandcamp weird. Please, I swear to God. Everything around me is so corporate-/family-friendly I'm going to scream and then lose myself in my job and forget about making friends as an adult because I can't see any kindred spirits my age anymore. Just let us have this one thing, please.
posted by scruffy-looking nerfherder at 1:08 PM on March 2, 2022 [72 favorites]


I'm the most casual of visitors to bandcamp but it was clearly such a great idea

I put this news on the same shelf of total bullshit like the purchase of Mountain Equipment Co-op (Canada) by some venture investment firm.. Predatory capitalism, from what I can see
posted by elkevelvet at 1:09 PM on March 2, 2022 [9 favorites]


I suppose it's to try and get access to better / easier / cheaper / etc music licensing for Unreal Engine?

It wouldn't shock me if this was set in motion after the big furore over Spotify not long ago. Epic probably saw people looking for new music platforms and decided to try and get on the ground floor somewhere so they can brand themselves as an all-round media company instead of just video games, like Microsoft.
posted by fight or flight at 1:10 PM on March 2, 2022 [4 favorites]


Huh. Just looked up Epic and... wait, this is still the person who made ZZT? ZZT bought Bandcamp? From that perspective I'm... kind of all right with this?
posted by phooky at 1:14 PM on March 2, 2022 [6 favorites]


These press releases lack the $$$ information and use greasy passive voice to make it seem like these two old buddies just met over a beer and decided to "join" forces to fight the power.

It would be good to know how much and who gets it.


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.

posted by chavenet at 1:17 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


Fortnite, or, an elaborate way of taking children's money in exchange for hats. Retch.
posted by wordless reply at 1:22 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


It's worth remembering that Tencent still has a 40% investor stake in Epic. I don't know what that might mean for the structure of Bandcamp, but I imagine it's a given that there will be some low key efforts to stop the free expression of views on the site from being quite so free.
posted by fight or flight at 1:30 PM on March 2, 2022 [14 favorites]


champions for a fair and open Internet

*vomit*
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:42 PM on March 2, 2022 [9 favorites]


This morning I saw Yasmin Williams's NPR concert linked here at MeFi, so I listened to it -- and five minutes in, I tracked down her album and bought it.

It was on Bandcamp, where I also bought two albums last week. Then I switched tabs to a news site and the first story I saw was this one. DAMMIT.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:47 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


Epic has, notably gown into a huge tiff with Apple about App Store compensation, and I *believe* is better about revenue splits with game devs than is Steam. I don’t really get this purchase, I don’t really like it, but as with most big money things it just feels beyond a simple good/bad axis. It just is.
posted by Going To Maine at 1:49 PM on March 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


This just makes me feel sad.

I have bought 140 albums on Bandcamp over the years and regularly listened to site features, read articles, wishlisted and commented, participated in Bandcamp Fridays, and generally loved having this last bastion for supporting music artists I like with a few bucks here and there, who won't see any royalties from Spotify and the like anyway.

Now this company is owned by a Epic (and Tencent, who in turn own some of Spotify, too), a company that had its share of sexual assault allegations, a company that partners with the military, and has openly expressed interest in NFTs.

Sigh.
posted by bigendian at 1:50 PM on March 2, 2022 [12 favorites]


This absolutely pisses me off. I hate Epic Games for their M.O. with their app store, and this smacks of it, too.

As both a music maker and lover, I have been trying to buy more through bandcamp, and had planned to release stuff through there when I had something ready for release, which... you know, was my goal this year.

Nope. And Benn Jordan is out there trying to push "decentralized blockchain based streaming" which is shite. I want to buy MP3s (or other high quality formats) I want to sell them to people who want it. I do not want streaming. I do not want blockchain.

At this point I'm just gonna load shit on my site and nobody will ever hear it. Whatever. This is just a shit sundae on this month. Is there anything that isn't just gonna be shit anymore? I literally went into a rage/sad nap for a couple hours over this.
posted by symbioid at 2:01 PM on March 2, 2022 [16 favorites]


Their goal is to merge it with Spotify. That is manifestly and obviously the only way the new buyers can make money off of their purchase. I don't see it written how much Epic paid for it, but the more they paid, the faster they'll attempt to transition.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 2:02 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


Fucking hell.

Often when there's a MeFi post about some tech giant being terrible, I'll chime in with something along the lines of "Well, at least we've still got Bandcamp. The dream lives!"

Fucking hell.
posted by gwint at 2:05 PM on March 2, 2022 [12 favorites]


Well..... fuck.
posted by Pendragon at 2:08 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


Already panicking and downloading over 10 years and more than 13 bands worth of content I've put up. So awful.
posted by tiny frying pan at 2:09 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


[The] Dolly Parton released an NFT and Cryptocurrancy today and now Epic / Tencent has bought Bandcamp.

Today SUCKX
posted by Faintdreams at 2:10 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


Faintdreams: [The] Dolly Parton released an NFT and Cryptocurrancy today ...

Oh, Dolly, no.
posted by indexy at 2:24 PM on March 2, 2022 [5 favorites]


Dang. I have bought a lot of music from Bandcamp over the years, but before I discovered Bandcamp, I used Magnatune a lot – the selection is not nearly as wide as Bandcamp, but they are not evil (even if they have a disturbing mascot).
posted by bouvin at 2:28 PM on March 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


Welp.

I'm just about to release something Friday. I still plan to do so on Bandcamp, and buy a bunch of stuff on Bandcamp Friday (mostly from Ukrainian artists and labels this time), but... damn it.
posted by Foosnark at 2:29 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


Their goal is to merge it with Spotify

What does that mean? The majority (all?) of the artists that I’ve supported on Bandcamp are already available to stream on Spotify. Bandcamp by and large provides free streaming of everything, so that doesn’t really change anything.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:32 PM on March 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


(I suppose my own big fear here, aside from Bandcamp being sold for parts, is that the site becomes swamped with major label releases and it’s no longer easy for us to find all the sweet weird stuff that’s currently popular. But it would be good if more major labels moved towards Bandcamp-style compensation models, so even that bad case has a weird silver lining to it.)
posted by Going To Maine at 2:35 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


Bandcamp gives the option NOT to stream (for pro and label accounts, at least) - you can sell physical merchandise without any digital component at all, or downloads. Some of us don't like the Spotify model and don't want our work on streaming services.
posted by remembrancer at 2:42 PM on March 2, 2022 [10 favorites]


Has Tencent ever made one of the companies it's a minor shareholder in do something, or is this some China-related fear-mongering?
posted by No One Ever Does at 2:48 PM on March 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


Bandcamp gives the option NOT to stream (for pro and label accounts, at least) - you can sell physical merchandise without any digital component at all, or downloads

That’s true! The Excavated Shellac post from today is a perfect example of limited/no streaming. I’m kind of surprised that Spotify doesn’t provide a gateway of sorts for merch sales, but perhaps that’s the key thing: bandcamp is about providing a variety of services to artists, while Epic is about providing a single kind of storefront that developers can use. (A very rough metaphor.)
posted by Going To Maine at 2:50 PM on March 2, 2022


Epic is attempting to reposition itself as a “platform”, instead of a gaming company, so it can ultimately make money off questionable and/or stolen content without liability (Facebook). Same as Spotify.

Big tech is so boring and predictable.

And yes, this will ultimately mess up Bandcamp.
posted by hijinx at 3:18 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


Has Tencent ever made one of the companies it's a minor shareholder in do something, or is this some China-related fear-mongering?

Nothing to do with China, it's simply that so very often when a small company gets bought out by a bigger one and the bigger one pinky swears not to mess with it... they mess with it.
posted by Foosnark at 3:32 PM on March 2, 2022 [9 favorites]


Epic is attempting to reposition itself as a “platform”, instead of a gaming company, so it can ultimately make money off questionable and/or stolen content without liability (Facebook).

What does this mean? Epic is still a store front for games, and people must agree to sell things there. The only “stolen content” controversy I’m aware for Epic so far is their implementing dances in Fortnite without the consent of creators, but it sounds like we’re talking about something different and related to third party content in the bandcamp store. I don’t think Bandcamp is just going to start selling albums by bands without some kind of consent, for instance, but it wouldn’t be too hard for me right now to pose as a band and upload their content as my own. That problem might be exacerbated because this merger makes Bandcamp more well-known, but it wouldn’t be a fundamentally new attack.
posted by Going To Maine at 3:33 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


Nothing to do with China, it's simply that so very often when a small company gets bought out by a bigger one and the bigger one pinky swears not to mess with it… they mess with it.

The endgame is for Bandcamp to be acquired by tumblr.
posted by Going To Maine at 3:34 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


Nothing to do with China, it's simply that so very often when a small company gets bought out by a bigger one and the bigger one pinky swears not to mess with it... they mess with it.

I completely get concerns about what Epic will do with Bandcamp. It just feels weird how often Tencent comes up when Tim Sweeney has majority ownership of Epic.
posted by No One Ever Does at 3:51 PM on March 2, 2022


Nothing to do with China, it's simply that so very often when a small company gets bought out by a bigger one and the bigger one pinky swears not to mess with it... they mess with it.

Guess who has two thumbs, has an employer that got “significant investment” from a bigger company that promised not to mess with things, saw things rapidly change as soon as bigger company figured out the ropes, and is suddenly without a job?

The answer is me and the 5 or 6 other people who built the engineering team and culture that made the company worth investing in in the first place.

On the good side, I find myself with a lot of free time to listen to new music and I was getting tired of Spotify. Thanks for reminding me of Bandcamp. 15 minutes in and I already have two new favorite bands.
posted by Dr. Curare at 3:59 PM on March 2, 2022 [8 favorites]


Epic has been buying various other web infrastructure companies with the long term goal of creating a metaverse (not the currently marketed one built on shitty NFT art) and this is part of that. This move is similar to the acquisition of ArtStation which is a popular portfolio site for visual artists. Nothing has really changed with ArtStation over the last year, and I wouldn't expect any big changes to Bandcamp within the next 1-3 years.

After that? I have absolutely no idea what they're going to do with Bandcamp and it could certainly go lots of places. But I don't think it makes sense to abandon the platform right now and if you buy on Bandcamp Friday the money won't go to Epic anyway as it all goes to the artists. Personally I think if they stop doing Bandcamp Fridays then that would definitely be a bad sign.
posted by JZig at 4:03 PM on March 2, 2022 [6 favorites]


people are a little psychotic about how much they hate epic, this is in the 'wait and see' camp for me.
posted by Sebmojo at 4:20 PM on March 2, 2022 [4 favorites]


The game company that made ZZT and Jill of the Jungle and stuff, and offers a more developer-friendly revenue split than any other game store except itch.io, and gives away its flagship engine for free, is now going to make sure Bandcamp doesn't want for money for the foreseeable future... and this is supposed to be bad news?
posted by one for the books at 4:43 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


For those of us who don't want to support gigantic entertainment conglomerates, yes, bad news. And for that matter, I don't want any of my artist or label revenue, small though it may be, going to any sort of gaming company.
posted by remembrancer at 4:48 PM on March 2, 2022 [6 favorites]


It's already disturbing how much Bandcamp takes for revenue share, and they are the best on offer.
posted by tiny frying pan at 4:50 PM on March 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


I don't have a beef with Epic per se. It has to do with the fact that I thought Bandcamp had found a model that was profitable for both the company and the content creators, a company that put musicians and their fans first, a company with a singular vision and mission that centered around music. And I thought that was enough. Now it has been purchased by a random big company that focuses on videogames and maybe I guess the "metaverse"? The times in which a large tech company purchased a smaller one with a loyal community of creators just... rarely works out in the long term.
posted by gwint at 4:51 PM on March 2, 2022 [25 favorites]


The only “stolen content” controversy I’m aware for Epic so far is their implementing dances in Fortnite without the consent of creators

Eh. They put out a pretty blatant ripoff of Among Us via Fortnite. Epic also kicks a fuss about paying fees paid to all software publishers on consoles, and they have put out dishonest marketing to try to get out of that. Epic is not run by honest people and they sour most of everything they touch, with Bandcamp being the next victim.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:52 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


It’s already disturbing how much Bandcamp takes for revenue share, and they are the best on offer.

Isn’t it 10%? What is the ideal? If it’s significantly less, it seems like there’s a real opportunity to build a better bandcamp.
posted by Going To Maine at 5:08 PM on March 2, 2022 [7 favorites]


Most of us musicians on bandcamp aren't getting featured or have 1,000s of fans. Many of us offer "whatever you want to pay" models, and 10% of whatever people want to kick to you can be brutal at times. But the alternative is often nothing so, thems the breaks. To think of even that nice transaction, the sharing and the wanting to download fan, being mucked with does worry me. I have been using it so long I am at a loss as to where to go if it becomes a strange land.
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:15 PM on March 2, 2022 [4 favorites]


What does this mean?

There’s a terribly clear pattern of big tech companies (Facebook, Spotify, Twitter) actively positioning themselves as “platforms” in lieu of products in order to reap the benefits of a more positive perception, although they will ultimately still make morally questionable decisions.

Epic isn’t the game company that has a store and a couple of blockbuster titles. They are set up to control and absorb creative content, from the tools all the way thru to selling things. Bandcamp just gives them a foothold in the music space - one that is highly ownable because of the lack of major labels. Spotify is doing the same thing with podcasts. It’s truly the same story.

I could easily see them doing more acquisitions of this nature and then talking up an “open” web or “creative marketplace” while getting big enough to monopolize said thing, get acquired, or both.

So yeah. Unchecked growth without strong consumer laws isn’t something I’m a big fan of.

Must have been a hell of a money truck, though.
posted by hijinx at 5:30 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


😱😭 prove us cynics wrong, giant (shady) mega corp that primarily exists to increase shareholder value. please 🙏🏽
posted by nikoniko at 6:03 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


The metaverse is a very stupid and fuzzy concept, but a silo’d Facebook metaverse, Valve metaverse, and Epic metaverse would be right out of Snow Crash.
posted by Going To Maine at 6:06 PM on March 2, 2022 [4 favorites]


Also...damn. I have been stopped from downloading my own music. This is not a new policy, I'm sure. But it will put a huge crimp in my ability to archive my own work from what I've released on bandcamp.

Download Credits

Your Bandcamp account comes with 200 downloads per month of tracks or albums that you’re giving away (meaning you’ve set them to free, or let-fan-name-price with no minimum and the fan enters zero). Once each month, we look at your download credits, and if you have less than 200 remaining, we bump you back up to 200. Your next bump is on 4/2/22.

If your download credits drop to zero, your music will still be available, but your free tracks and albums will automatically switch to paid. You can avoid this by either a) buying more download credits for a modest fee by clicking “get more” below, or b) selling music (we add 1,000 credits for every $500 USD in sales).

You have zero download credits remaining. Get more.

posted by tiny frying pan at 6:36 PM on March 2, 2022 [4 favorites]


I can't deal with this - I'm still not over the mismanagement of mp3.com in 2000 and its subsequent closure! (Seriously, mp3.com in its late 90s heyday was fantastic and a lot like Bandcamp. I still have and listen to music I either got for free or purchased from there and still follow artists I originally discovered there.)
posted by ElKevbo at 7:15 PM on March 2, 2022 [6 favorites]


So, given Epic's on-the-record staunch opposition to online store commission fees, that means this is great news for artists, right? Everyday will be Bandcamp Friday. Right?
posted by 3j0hn at 7:32 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


So, given Epic's on-the-record staunch opposition to online store commission fees, that means this is great news for artists, right?

The track record isn't bad: https://9to5mac.com/2021/05/03/epic-games-artstation-commissions/
posted by No One Ever Does at 7:41 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


I've long been a fan of Bandcamp and I'm pretty bummed about this, and will be backing up all my FLACs and looking for alternatives.

That said, the fact that it's Epic is pretty interesting and I don't have a hard time believing this could be good in some ways. I'm not a huge fan of how they've made their billions in Fortnite (I don't think anybody predicted the size of the digital goods market and artificially scarce digital goods certainly don't feel like a great way to allocate so many resources), but I don't fault them for them for trying to transition to a platform and their impact on the games industry so far has been far from unambiguously bad. It's brought new competition into the game platform space and has seemed healthy from a indie development standpoint. Basically, they spend lots of their Fortnite money paying for Epic store exclusive game content (which is annoying for some people, but presumably is a good deal for the studios and I have a hard time feeling like anyone besides other storefronts are actually harmed) and giving away free games (which benefits me). I realize this is a long-term play to get storefront market share from Valve etc but they're doing in a way that seems like a net positive for the games industry -- they still make the biggest game engine, after all.

All this is to say, Bandcamp is great at what it does but I don't think Epic is necessarily going to be a worse steward for musicians or fans. Tim Sweeney can be a bit disingenuous but he's far from a ghoul. I mean, yes, I'm skeptical this will ultimately end well, but who knows. 400 million players is a lot of exposure, for example.
posted by ropeladder at 7:45 PM on March 2, 2022


That's really interesting No One Ever Does, the fact that Epic more than halved their cut on ArtStation (30% -> 12%) means maybe they are not hypocritical about store-fees and they really think 30% commissions are bad for everyone and not just bad when that is what Apple is charging Epic. That gives me some hope that the rate at Bandcamp will stay 10% going forward, and it will still be a pretty good option for musicians.
posted by 3j0hn at 8:23 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


Next up Means.tv gets acquired by Raytheon
posted by signsofrain at 8:32 PM on March 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


Epic will absolutely be a worse steward, they are not a musical or artistic enterprise but an entertainment service. A good option for musicians is not giving any percentage of their income to large, shareholder-value driven corporations, or devaluing music in itself by making it just another form of streaming entertainment content, a dire state of affairs in which Spotify is already the worst contender. The all-you-can-eat buffet is an absolutely toxic model for any artform and represents the absolute victory of breadth over depth.
posted by remembrancer at 6:19 AM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]


Came late to this discussion, only noticing now there was already a post.

My reaction is a big :/

Maybe bandcamp will stay the same, but I'll certainly be much more restrained about promoting it in the future.
posted by Alex404 at 6:59 AM on March 3, 2022


it's so lovely when a bunch of white dudes make $$$ out of providing an okay service that only slightly exploits their fairly diverse userbase that they then sell to a company guaranteed to exploit their fairly diverse userbase for all of their worth
posted by paimapi at 8:02 AM on March 3, 2022


really hoping that music supporters can continue to have a somewhat pure path in order to access and listen to music without the cultural contamination (ads) that occurs with so many others (spotify, youtube, etc.) (without having to pay to get around it, that is) ... that's one thing that bandcamp provided that was the closest digital equivalent to the "pay once, own (in every way) forever" model that many of us grew up with .... and on that note, any impulses to finally unload the ol' cd and vinyl collection are now on hold .... just in case
posted by clandestiny's child at 8:11 AM on March 3, 2022


providing an okay service that only slightly exploits their fairly diverse userbase

Yeah, not really a fair assessment.

Hilariously, I googled "bandcamp stock options" and of course, of course, the first hit is a noise rock band named Stock Options.
posted by gwint at 10:26 AM on March 3, 2022 [3 favorites]


Also...damn. I have been stopped from downloading my own music
You still can, it's just not very intuitive. You can change the price of your album or track to "free" then download it, then change it back.

I was super sad about this news yesterday. I finally managed to get all my stuff off of Spotify then this.
posted by chococat at 10:39 AM on March 3, 2022


No, that's not true. There is a limit on total downloads, even if you're logged in, even if your albums are free. I posted the message you get above. Wait a month for more free downloads, or pony up money for the ability to download your own albums.
posted by tiny frying pan at 12:10 PM on March 3, 2022


Matthew Isamel Ruiz at Pitchfork: “What Bandcamp’s Acquisition by Epic Games Means for Music Fans and Artists”
The [Epic Games] store [has] been plagued by clunky digital rights management and a buggy interface, and their tactic of luring developers with exclusive deals has largely backfired, garnering ill will and accusations of bribery from gamers. Bandcamp, with its ease of use and patina of goodwill, is everything the Epic Games Store is not.… As far as tech overlords go, you could do much worse than an acquisition by Epic, whose founder seems to espouse the same principles that came to define Bandcamp.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:47 PM on March 3, 2022


Two truisms of (internet) business: acquisitions always ruin the acquired, and "platform" is a synonym for "a monopoly, we hope."

Bandcamp came up onto my radar back when I was, hmm, maybe 30% done building a similar concept (without funding, natch). The Bandcamp guys really seemed like they were coming from the right place and were trying to do most of the things I thought should be done with bands on the internet. I don't follow them too closely, since one of my personal quirks is that I can't like anybody who's doing the same thing as me, so they might have some business weirdness as I saw implied further upthread, but all in all I thought they had it solved. Due to rule #1 up there, now I get to learn what mistakes they have been making as people find reasons to leave, with the upshot that maybe I should restart work on what I stopped doing 10 years ago.

Ironically, I only created an account with them a couple weeks ago because I belatedly realized I was losing touch with a lot of artists that I already liked and who had set up shop there. "Yes you're damned right I want to be on your mailing list!" is a rare-ass thing.
posted by rhizome at 4:51 PM on March 3, 2022 [6 favorites]


If anyone is still reading this thread on March 4th: It's Bandcamp Friday-- Bandcamp waives their cut and all proceeds go to artists (minus transaction fees)
posted by gwint at 11:26 AM on March 4, 2022




Another round up of musician opinions by Henry Ivry at Resident Advisor: “‘You want to protect something you love’: What does Epic Games buying Bandcamp mean for DIY music?”
posted by Going To Maine at 11:09 AM on March 16, 2022


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