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Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

variety.com

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Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#141

Post by kixiQu »

skyfaller wrote: post #97
kixiQu wrote: post #76

Well, time to hope https://resonate.is/ picks up the independent artists and doesn't do a blockchain.

I'm not hopeful about this for a few reasons: - They used to be really into blockchain / smart contracts: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/may/25/resonate-spoti... - Looking at their forum now, they say that they are not currently using or planning to use blockchains, but it seems like their founders aren't actually opposed to it, so I'm not sure they'll be able to hold the line against it: https://community.re…

I don't really think a coop is a "complex financial structure" itself, but I am hoping that democratic control aspect can forestall the blockchainification. That might be naive.

> how they'd like to try to achieve the effects of NFTs without actually using blockchain tech, which, uh... feels like flirting with disaster to me

To be fair, the "you need to pay for a license to have your otherwise unassociated digital music file be legal" copyright situation is the bizarre NFT-like thing that we all take for granted.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#142

Post by pier25 »

siver_john wrote: post #22

This feels like a major blow, as someone who just semi recently (probably around pandemic start) started getting into purchasing flac music from indie artists, Bandcamp was a great source of music. I understand nothing will change in the short term, but long term I am very concerned. Especially as streaming becomes more dominant and companies are less willing to provide flac based music and physical discs (where I ca…

> That being said if anyone knows of any place to buy flacs of music with great selection would love to know

Bleep offers FLAC (even 24 bit WAV).

https://bleep.com/

It's mostly alternative and electronica stuff though. It was founded by Warp records (Aphex Twin, Autreche, Boards of Canada, etc) but it now sells stuff for other labels as well.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#143

Post by plorg »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #95
Jhsto wrote: post #18

Can't wait to show off my indie vinyl collection in Fortnite!

actually this is a good angle, people might not be giving credit to bandcamp's social aspect. every album has a list of people who purchased it, and you can go to each person and see what albums theyve collected. You can even curate/hide albums in your collection basically choosing what to recommend. I can see Epic building off the infrastructure there for games and in-game collectibles (of which your vinyls are now…

I find the social graph stuff frustrating, even though I generally like Bandcamp (fingers doubtfully crossed). Using the app or the online streaming requires an account that can't be opted out of the social graph, and this makes your Bandcamp profile publicly searchable by username, a thing that is completely unnecessary to both the use of the service and the goal of music discovery.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#144

Post by masklinn »

pl0x wrote: post #132
siver_john wrote: post #22

This feels like a major blow, as someone who just semi recently (probably around pandemic start) started getting into purchasing flac music from indie artists, Bandcamp was a great source of music. I understand nothing will change in the short term, but long term I am very concerned. Especially as streaming becomes more dominant and companies are less willing to provide flac based music and physical discs (where I ca…

Are you willing to fund Bandcamp?

Being a bandcamp customer, the answer seems quite obviously "yes" as I've literally done that.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#145

Post by antris »

plainnoodles wrote: post #77

This is absurdly sad to me. I like to own my media (in the most practical sense that current IP laws let me do so). I run a Plex server and use PlexAmp as my primary way of listening to music, and my criteria are always this: * FLAC or similar, I want this to be a lossless preservation of what was on the best-available source. * No DRM. No mandated player. Just let me download a dang file. * "Real" flac: this is tech…

> Now I'm not sure what to do.

Just FYI there's sites that take in What refugees

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#146

Post by jerrybender »

paxys wrote: post #28
g_sch wrote: post #13

I'm having a little trouble understanding the motivation for this move. Did Bandcamp have a poor revenue/profit outlook and were they looking to scale? Was this just an exit for founders? I was under the impression that they had a relatively stable and profitable business, and strongly valued their branding and positioning as independent.

Motivation for founders is a lot easier to understand than that of the acquiring company. What on earth is Epic going to do with Bandcamp?

Metaverse concerts and fighting against Apple

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#147

Post by shaggyfrog »

dymk wrote: post #102
ffpip wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also made the game free to play. https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/15/21438194/rocket-league-fr...

Which is a big middle finger to those who had purchased the game. And I can't think of a game that didn't have the quality of its player base (and so, gameplay) decline after going F2P (looking at you, TF2).

"Because I paid for the game, and despite the fact I was happy to pay for it and I enjoy playing it, I think everyone else should need to pay for it, too. Otherwise all that enjoyment I had will be undone."

c.f.: sunk cost fallacy

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#148

Post by siver_john »

pl0x wrote: post #132
siver_john wrote: post #22

This feels like a major blow, as someone who just semi recently (probably around pandemic start) started getting into purchasing flac music from indie artists, Bandcamp was a great source of music. I understand nothing will change in the short term, but long term I am very concerned. Especially as streaming becomes more dominant and companies are less willing to provide flac based music and physical discs (where I ca…

Are you willing to fund Bandcamp?

I do through my purchases and my general encouragement of traffic to the site, if I wasn't a broke graduate student and had the funds to invest in them, without a doubt in my mind I would.

However, even if I am unable to invest in them I see nothing wrong about my expressing discomfort over someone else buying them. I have seen nothing as well that they needed cash to continue operations.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#149

Post by masklinn »

Macha wrote: post #79
politelemon wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No dark patterns, lightweight site, free previews, good terms for indie artists I am with you. One of the biggest draws for me was these what you have described. Their website experience was straightforward and honest. They are now being acquired by a company that is the complete opposite. We won't have to wait long for Epic's dark patterns and policies to creep into a once great marketplace.

Or just flat out discontinuing the web store to put it in the windows-only Epic client.

I know you're right but did you really have to hurt me so much?

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#150

Post by pier25 »

prepend wrote: post #29
g_sch wrote: post #13

I'm having a little trouble understanding the motivation for this move. Did Bandcamp have a poor revenue/profit outlook and were they looking to scale? Was this just an exit for founders? I was under the impression that they had a relatively stable and profitable business, and strongly valued their branding and positioning as independent.

I assume it’s because Epic presented a ton of cash and a small but profitable company found it attractive. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to work for or be part of Epic, so that’s my assumption of gobs of cash.

But what's in it for Epic?
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