I really hope this is just one bad move and doesn’t point to a larger, inherent flaw in the business models of smaller, indie companies. With Bandcamp now gone, there’s one less case study of truly free consumption and ownership in an increasingly rented/“streaming”/subscribing world.
Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
61–70 of 485 posts
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#62Too bad. It was one of the few good independent websites left. As always, the CEO said they'll remain independent and blah blah blah in the email, but we know how that goes. Good tip for people on the music side, and something to suggest to them: 1. Set up but do not publish your Bandcamp Subscriptions 2. Add all your music to it 3. Now it's all downloadable in your own user-side Bandcamp library. Check the format: F…
I look forward to not being able to download my purchases :(
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Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#63This is a little heartbreaking. The world just got a shade darker so that a few people could become a lot richer (I assume).
If so, did those people not build (and thus own) this platform? Is it not their right to sell it to others? I am not asking this so much to challenge your statement, as I agree that it's darker, but to demonstrate that clearly the platform delivered value to music consumers like myself, and perhaps we as music consumers should be willing to compensate the folks who build "glue" like Bandcamp more in order to provide such a great service in the future.
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#64https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Games#Acquisitions This appears to be the first company they are acquiring that is outside of the video game industry. This may start a new era for Epic Games. I wonder what direction they are going to take? I'd guess a new player in the multi-media field, but I really dont know.
Or just helping set up ways to license music for games made with Unreal as part of their asset store/offerings.
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#65I'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?
Create a market for music licensing that Unreal engine developers can use?
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#66I'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.
You must have missed the recent news about Simon Peyton Jones leaving Microsoft for Epic Games[0], then.
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#67This seems like an odd move for a gaming company. But I wonder about its implication for streamers who deal with DMCA takedowns for playing copyrighted music. Perhaps a scheme where partnered streamers are granted limited license to play music from across Bandcamp while they stream games from the Epic Store.
They are also a gaming tools company.
I think of them as primarily a gaming tools company.
Fortnite and other games are really just Unreal Engine advertisement vessels that got successful in their own right and now serve that purpose plus making lots of money on their own.
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#68I am glad I only made physical purchases through bandcamp now. I don't really get what Epic Games isn't going to do with the company besides make it more hostile to artists.
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
HDTracks for purchasing and downloading. Deezer and Tidal provide high fidelity streaming.
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.
Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp
#70So... Epic's iTunes? eTunes.