Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

Post by KerrAvon » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 7:58 PM UTC

mdoms wrote: post #154

AlexandrB wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's naive to think that the opinion of a 40% shareholder has no influence on the CEO. Even if that just presents as a bias in their decision making. > Although I completely agree with you that it's a shame to see yet another indie source get swallowed up by a big corporation. For the record, I don't think that Tencent is any more evil than Disney, Sony, or Microsoft in this regard.

> I think it's naive to think that the opinion of a 40% shareholder has no influence on the CEO. Even if that just presents as a bias in their decision making. I'm more than willing to accept that I'm being naive. All I ask is some actual evidence of this influence/bias.

Post by lostgame » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 7:59 PM UTC

Post by qbasic_forever » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 8:02 PM UTC

arwhatever wrote: post #176

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…

Would Bandcamp the business model + Bandcamp the website necessarily be difficult to reproduce, particularly in an environment in which the Bandcamp niche just became no longer fulfilled due to changing practices on the part of Original Bandcamp?

Post by ryantgtg » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 8:04 PM UTC

heleninboodler wrote: post #44

hemloc_io wrote: post #10

Here's a thought. Maybe Epic's strategy is to fight Apple/Steam (Marketplace monopolies more generally)? They're already fighting Apple/Steam w/ gaming, maybe they're looking to have a music store already. I think undercutting fees charged by either could be a big win in their eyes.

I think it's interesting to note that Bandcamp has the same quarrel with Apple that Epic does. Doesn't (or didn't) their app have a brief explanatory note about why they have to send you to the browser to make a music purchase that was a subtle complaint about Apple's shitty policies?

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 02, 2022, 8:06 PM UTC

feoren wrote: post #198

Apocryphon wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet so many modern day startups have no viable exit strategy beyond acquisition- what does that say about the state of the industry, and of founders' commitments towards building a sustainable product?

The very term "exit strategy" answers your own question: if you're committed to building a sustainable product, with long-term sustainable profits, caring for your employees and your customers, without any explicit plans to sell off your company to random megacorp, where it will be scrapped for parts, then you're a dumb loser trying to build a lifestyle business and you deserve to be shamed out of Silicon Valley! How…