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Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

variety.com

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Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#441

Post by krageon »

nluken wrote: post #235
arwhatever wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Makes me curious about the idea of a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to manage a platform that gives as much money as possible to artists. Perhaps that's a naïve vision, but I feel like a lot of artists would hop onboard if the interface worked, and that could overcome the network effect.

The people that handle the money can get away with taking more from themselves in this scenario, so they definitely will.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#442

Post by krageon »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #69
prox wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tidal pays better than most other streaming services afaik. It’s sad to see Bandcamp go. Because in tech an acquisition means loss of that independence.

As a chronic music pirate- I love Bandcamp. I've purchased more music through Bandcamp than anywhere else. I'm not going to let myself be bummed by this news until Bandcamp actually changes for the worse. Once again everybody is letting themselves be upset by some hypothetical scenario where the new owners drive the service into the ground.

> Once again everybody is letting themselves be upset by some hypothetical scenario where the new owners drive the service into the ground.

It's not hypothetical, it's evidence-based reasoning.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#443

Post by activitypea »

MattRix wrote: post #409
superkuh wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell it to "Rocket League" or look at what happened to PUBG when they used Epic's engine. Epic only makes those things "free", it only buys popular software, because it's goal is getting more people locked into it's walled garden Epic store. It is not because they are nice. As soon as they believe they have a critical mass of Epic store users you can damn well bet they'll treat Quixel, Sketchfab, and Artstation forum…

Tim Sweeney has been pretty crystal clear about his feelings disliking walled gardens and monopolies for at least a decade, since well before the Epic Games Store or Fortnite existed. He is very much a tech guy, not some super savvy cutthroat business guy (as is pretty clear when you look at their battle with apple, which made absolutely no financial sense)

This is a good counterargument only if you believe Tim Sweeney will outlive Epic Games. I don't think he will, and I have no reason to believe that Tim's successor will have his mindset or his values.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#444

Post by heleninboodler »

HellDunkel wrote: post #270
lghh wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did they have to compete with spotify? They are not a music streaming service (at their core) or a podcast publisher.

Because streaming makes more sense and provides far better metrics for artist compensation.

But strangely, better metrics for artist compensation somehow don't lead to better artist compensation. I've never heard a testimonial from a band about how much better the spotify compensation model is, but I've heard dozens of testimonials and articles about artists to whom spotify pays pennies while bandcamp pays their bills.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#445

Post by heleninboodler »

bananapub wrote: post #346

this will be my new goto example for why VC is a cancer for businesses that can and should be cash positive almost immediately and could instead just choose to be "run well at a reasonable growth rate" instead of betting everything on number 17.

I highly recommend waiting until something bad happens before you use this example.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#446

Post by tpxl »

MattRix wrote: post #409
superkuh wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell it to "Rocket League" or look at what happened to PUBG when they used Epic's engine. Epic only makes those things "free", it only buys popular software, because it's goal is getting more people locked into it's walled garden Epic store. It is not because they are nice. As soon as they believe they have a critical mass of Epic store users you can damn well bet they'll treat Quixel, Sketchfab, and Artstation forum…

Tim Sweeney has been pretty crystal clear about his feelings disliking walled gardens and monopolies for at least a decade, since well before the Epic Games Store or Fortnite existed. He is very much a tech guy, not some super savvy cutthroat business guy (as is pretty clear when you look at their battle with apple, which made absolutely no financial sense)

He dislikes monopolies and yet uses monopolies on distribution to expand the market share of Epic Games Store?

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#447

Post by heleninboodler »

readingnews wrote: post #39

Dang first Putin invades, then this? I am just not sure how much bad news I can take in one week.

I wonder if they are related. Maybe the Bandcamp founders are Putin supporters. Dead giveaway will be if they do a Bandcamp Friday Russia fundraiser.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#448

Post by cinntaile »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #388
ehnto wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But being a market, Bandcamp's user's are actually artists and listeners, so Bandcamp having freedom to do what they want doesn't mean they can suddenly start giving all their music out for free, unless they change to a Spotify style model of listens = payout. I wouldn't be surprised if the acquisition is to provide royalty free music to the games industry via Unreal Engine, as was the case for Quixel, but none of th…

"none of this is really good news for artists trying to make money unless Bandcamp plans to pay the artists out of their own pocket for a royalty free side." To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if that's Epic's endgoal. But the music industry is a gargantuan behemoth with paper thin profit margins, and Epic is already struggling enough battling the mobile market (a much more lucrative market where the fight makes s…

They might focus on streamers, they have quite a bit of issues using music. Their recorded streams tend to have large portions of the stream without sound and it definitely needs fixing. The music industry fees are simply too high for them to pay.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#449

Post by vintermann »

bb010g wrote: post #322
vintermann wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure it's just a front service for 7digital. All the big streaming services besides Spotify and Tidal are skeleton crew operations.

Qobuz is not associated with 7digital.

I'm not saying it's the same company, I'm saying Qobuz almost certainly buys backend/licensing services from 7digital. Most do. Even Spotify used to do it.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#450

Post by raxxorrax »

superkuh wrote: post #279
johnnyanmac wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically, Epic's aquisitions are given freedom to do whatever they were doing beforehand, so I wouldn't be worried. Quixel now just gives out tons of free materials and assets, Sketchfab is untouched, Artstation forums don't behave any differently, Hypersense's tech was likely leveraged and used in Metahuman. People concerned over the "Exclusivity deals" on the game store end aren't looking at the "Developer" acq…

Tell it to "Rocket League" or look at what happened to PUBG when they used Epic's engine. Epic only makes those things "free", it only buys popular software, because it's goal is getting more people locked into it's walled garden Epic store. It is not because they are nice. As soon as they believe they have a critical mass of Epic store users you can damn well bet they'll treat Quixel, Sketchfab, and Artstation forum…

Can I get a refund for it? I had it on Steam but don't really play it anymore. Is such a service degradation a reason for a refund even if I had a lot of fun and countless hours in it? I don't need the money, but I heavily dislike such practices and want them to at least feel that.
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