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Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

variety.com

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Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#411

Post by merlincorey »

efficax wrote: post #372
merlincorey wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you suggesting the primary reason SPJ moved to Epic Games is because they offered him more money than Microsoft? Reading the message from SPJ[0] seems to indicate he is excited for the people and projects he will be working on as well as being given the freedom to continue working on education, functional programming research, and continuing to work in the Haskell ecosystem. Of course large amounts of money are i…

That's what I mean by insulation. Bagging a "famous" engineer is a political and PR move and they get a lot of freedom to define the role, something that most of us can't do

Every one of us can negotiate and hold out for what is important to us -- sure, SPJ may have more leverage than most of us, but it's not required to be at that level to be able to find a place with freedom if that's what you are looking for.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#412

Post by samirsd »

drcongo wrote: post #286
samirsd wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://mixtape.ai big new release coming this month with artist-side album drafting and merch features

Is that website supposed to be almost entirely empty with just an App Store button?

yea it’s for mobile

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#413

Post by wly_cdgr »

BaseballPhysics wrote: post #168
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?

> And yet so many modern day startups have no viable exit strategy beyond acquisition Bandcamp was already profitable and has been for years. The pandemic dramatically increased their sales. They were doing fine. Why did they need an exit ? That is the real flaw of SV thinking: that simply being a profitable, going concern is somehow inadequate. The result is monopoly accretion as small companies are repeatedly swall…

I think the most likely explanation is that the founders just got bored with the project as they got older and aged out of their own primary target demographic. You have kids, you start getting regular colonoscopies...all the trials and tribulations of teen and twentysomething indie musicians start feeling less urgent and relevant.

That, and/or they were not interested in running a company that is finally getting too large to feel like a family / tight-knit community. The kind of person who likes running a 20 person outfit is very plausibly someone who gets no joy out of running a 200 person one or even actively hates the idea.

So they sold to someone they liked well enough, or in any case someone they distrust less than others to have the expertise and values to scale the business in a way that doesn't COMPLETELY destroy what made it special

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#414

Post by joveian »

gen220 wrote: post #324
inasmuch wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone wants to build an alternative/replacement/FOSS tool—whatever kind of remedy for this tragedy—I would eagerly partner up and design it (can't code well, sorry).

It'd be reasonable to structure the development company as a non-profit, to prevent an outcome like Bandcamp's. I think it may be possible to build the marketplace in a purely FOSS-y way, but it would be illegal to operate it with the wrong configuration values. I'm thinking in particular about the accounting functions, such as earmarking x% of each sale for royalties, and ensuring they go to/from the correct bank ac…

indiehd.com mentioned elsewhere doesn't look like it is nonprofit but does have an at least mostly open source store:

https://indiehd.com

https://github.com/indiehd

They have 277 albums listed, almost nothing, and it doesn't sound like they are really ready to be a full Bandcamp replacement but maybe they will be able to turn into something artists want to use.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#415

Post by [deleted] »

mdoms wrote: post #91
tombert wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive a bit of ignorance on my end...what has Tencent actually done? I know they own stake in Epic and I've heard there's controversy, but I don't know what it is.

There hasn't been any evidence that Tencent has influenced Epic, or have the power to do so. Sweeney has defended the rights of players and publishers on Epic to speak out against China and the CCP.

[deleted]

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#416

Post by Something1234 »

officeplant wrote: post #306
pier25 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Major problem with bleep is I can't redownload purchases years later if my storage/backups were to be destroyed. I've got a pile of old Autechre purchases I can't get access to anymore which is frustrating, but not the end of the world. Bandcamp has no cap on redownloading my library, and a decent mobile app for the stuff I don't keep stored on my devices. Bandcamp isn't a perfect platform (they finally added a volum…

And what's the problem with having a system level mixer instead of every app having their own volume slider in software?

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#417

Post by heleninboodler »

MisterTea wrote: post #118

Not good in my book. I've been a huge fan and proponent of the platform since 2017 and have made over 600 purchases since. Mostly digital but also plenty of shirts, patches, an even physicals of select albums. My only gripe was the somewhat wanting android client which has just been fixed up (playlists and queuing). I like it because its a simple and focused hub for artists and fans. The social interaction of the sit…

IMO Epic has already brought something good: not getting bought by Apple or Google. Whether they can refrain from bringing something bad remains to be seen.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#418

Post by samplatt »

nemothekid wrote: post #277
KerrAvon wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given almost literally all of recorded corporate history in the United States, the onus is very much on the other side to continually demonstrate a lack of influence/bias. Edited to add: I find the blind faith people place in billionaire CEOs insane. Maybe save the empathy for people who need it and treat the obscenely wealthy with healthy skepticism?

There are many American companies that capitulate to Chinese political pressure without even being owned by the Chinese. Tencent owns 2 of the top 5 biggest gaming platforms in the US, but the one that got accused of being too close to the Chinese is now owned by Microsoft. I think the question is why is there an expectation that Tencent is somehow more nefarious than any other billion dollar conglomerate?

Because in a very literal sense every large Chinese company is not only "in bed with", but a direct extension of the Chinese government, which uses its other tentacles to attack foreign companies it does not control via market manipulation and hacking.

America as one of the largest economies does all these things but in a much more disparate fashion, with the corporations fighting each other and local law just as much as foreign influences, weakening overall effectiveness.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#420

Post by fire »

My immediate thought on this was that we could see in-engine asset stores promoting music from artists and potentially even having predefined contracts for easy of integration? Like, this could be a pretty good thing if it's handled properly
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