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Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

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Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#331

Post by Forgeties79 »

aasasd wrote: post #310

Could I please get an overview of Epic's bad practices and decisions? Currently my frustration from this is rather unfocused—and mostly comes from Bandcamp being a couple heads above everyone else in terms of user-friendliness and having outstanding selection: from Gruuthaagy, Jungle Death and Mamaleek to big names.

My main gripe is their willingness to support systems that are functionally gambling directed at children. I also didn’t love their attempt to essentially “weaponize” their young teen fortnite audience when they got into that dispute with Apple a few years ago over in-game purchases transferring from their end to the iOS version.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#332

Post by micromacrofoot »

fundamental wrote: post #93
HellDunkel wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too would have prefered seeing bandcamp stay independent but they were a privately owned company so that would have required a huge amount of idealism (which eventually wanes) or ambitions to compete with spotify. You can‘t always get what you want.

Personally I don't buy that line of argument. The endgame for a business is not a binary choice between acquisition or taking over the entire market.

It kind of is now (and I hate it).

If you don't sell, it's likely the large companies trying to buy you will copy you and use their piles of money to undercut you out of business (and if they don't, any VC backed startup can try).

So you either survive as small and unnoticed, or become big enough to be interesting (and then bought or killed unless you achieve absurd growth).

Tech is kind of a dark forest now (https://thoughtcatalog.com/christine-stockton/2021/02/heres-...).

I've worked for 2 companies that didn't sell and were obliterated this way.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#333

Post by Forgeties79 »

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.

If epic wants to “fight” Apple they need a far better UX.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#334

Post by BaseballPhysics »

munificent wrote: post #299
BaseballPhysics wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, as far as I can tell, they took a seed round and a series A and have been profitable since... 2014? If memory serves? If you look at their staff growth, it's been very slow and very steady. At the time of acquisition they were sitting in the 100-150 headcount range, which is modest for a company that's almost 15 years old. Given their claim of 207M to artists last year and their touted 18% average rev share, we…

> a sustainable lifestyle business A company with 100 employee isn't a lifestyle business. The term we used to use for that before VC swallowed the world and decided that anything less than a billion is chump change was simply "business". A 100-person company with millions in revenue is a successful medium-sized business. The only reason it doesn't feel successful and stable today is because we live in a unprotected…

Yup, excellent points all around. Well put!

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#335

Post by tasha0663 »

rvense wrote: post #254
RodgerTheGreat wrote: post #19

This really sucks. Bandcamp has been my go-to store for buying music for a long time. No dark patterns, lightweight site, free previews, good terms for indie artists. I don't think I can ethically shop there anymore given Epic's ownership and business practices.

My favourite thing is that they have all sorts of social features so you can really engage with other fans and make lists and explore and do things... but you can also just ignore the hell out of that and buy some music that you like.

IIRC, this is what MySpace was supposed to be in the first place. They made the mistake of leaning into a more general social media audience while Facebook was on the rise, but it seems to me like Bandcamp excels at being what MySpace could have become.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#336

Post by AdmiralAsshat »

throwhauser wrote: post #85

I don't know anything about Epic Games, but as a huge fan of Bandcamp, this feels like a bit of a drag. There's something about Bandcamp that seems exactly right. It's an open, fair and creative way to discover and publish music, that is really distinct from the rest of the music business. I'm struggling to see how that fits into a gigantic video game company. If it has to pull in so much money that it "moves the nee…

If you think of Epic not as a videogame company but as any other multi-billion dollar company that exists to "Maximize return for our investors by any means necessary," It makes sense. Take a company that is making money and has a large user-base, then "increase profits" (usually to the detriment of everyone involved except the company).

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#338

Post by cauthon »

antris wrote: post #145
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

Would you mind sharing any names? I don’t mind whatever ratio limits exist for new accounts, but I deeply miss finding music through staff picks and the forums

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#339

Post by siquick »

mountainplus wrote: post #280

I am surprised slsk did not appear prominently in this discussion as alternative to share, own, collect lossless music. Is it due to its nature? It is certainly something of the past in terms of userbase but I can't imagine any of the services mentioned coming close to replacing bandcamp.

Because artists don't get paid when you download their music for free from Soulseek.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#340

Post by 22c »

antris wrote: post #145
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

I'm only really familiar with RED (I know there are others) but it didn't bounce back even close to What, unfortunately. Perhaps others did significantly better, but I think without a dump of the catalog, it's going to be next to impossible to ever get back everything that What had.

Also FTR I'm a heavy Bandcamp user and I'm disappointed by this acquisition.

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