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Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

variety.com

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Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#91

Post by mdoms »

tombert wrote: post #86
AlexandrB wrote: post #3

> Bandcamp will keep operating as a standalone marketplace and music community... 40% of which will be owned by Tencent, possibly more in the future based on the whims of Tim Sweeney and the performance of Epic's primary business (Video Games). Really unfortunate to see an independent source for music become part of a huge conglomerate.

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.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#92

Post by throw_nbvc1234 »

fundamental wrote: post #54
HellDunkel wrote: post #37

Lots of disappointed comments here. Would you guys really prefer seeing bandcamp beeing bought by Apple?

Ideally I (and I'd assume other commenters) would have preferred to see bandcamp remain independent. It's not like there's a huge need to scale up quickly or provide large partnerships. Bandcamp was an effective way of paying small independent musicians with a good overall website which should have given bandcamp a reliable revenue source. Acquisition likely means the website will get worse, artists will be driven of…

> It's not like there's a huge need to scale up quickly or provide large partnerships

Is "good enough" compatible with "capitalism"? Even ignoring the money aspect of things; you mention the website getting worse but I'm not sure the website has fundamentally changed (for better or worse) in a decade. Their iOS app isn't even compatible with ipads, it's locked to a phone aspect ratio with massive black bars surrounding it. Yet one could make the argument that things were "good enough" tech wise. Bandcamp (in my opinion) was a product/company that was good enough. But there's doesn't seem to be societal incentives to keep companies like that around in today's world... or maybe you just don't hear about them lol

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#93

Post by fundamental »

HellDunkel wrote: post #80
fundamental wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideally I (and I'd assume other commenters) would have preferred to see bandcamp remain independent. It's not like there's a huge need to scale up quickly or provide large partnerships. Bandcamp was an effective way of paying small independent musicians with a good overall website which should have given bandcamp a reliable revenue source. Acquisition likely means the website will get worse, artists will be driven of…

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.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#94

Post by stjohnswarts »

Big Corporations always ruin the good stuff. It was a good site with good content and fair practices. Alas bandcamp we hardly knew ye. I hope the owners made out like bandits I guess, they put in a good effort for a long time.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#95

Post by jazzyjackson »

Jhsto wrote: post #18

Can't wait to show off my indie vinyl collection in Fortnite!

actually this is a good angle, people might not be giving credit to bandcamp's social aspect. every album has a list of people who purchased it, and you can go to each person and see what albums theyve collected. You can even curate/hide albums in your collection basically choosing what to recommend.

I can see Epic building off the infrastructure there for games and in-game collectibles (of which your vinyls are now a part)

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#96

Post by lghh »

HellDunkel wrote: post #80
fundamental wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideally I (and I'd assume other commenters) would have preferred to see bandcamp remain independent. It's not like there's a huge need to scale up quickly or provide large partnerships. Bandcamp was an effective way of paying small independent musicians with a good overall website which should have given bandcamp a reliable revenue source. Acquisition likely means the website will get worse, artists will be driven of…

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.

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

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#97

Post by skyfaller »

kixiQu wrote: post #76

Well, time to hope https://resonate.is/ picks up the independent artists and doesn't do a blockchain.

I'm not hopeful about this for a few reasons:

- They used to be really into blockchain / smart contracts: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/may/25/resonate-spoti...

- Looking at their forum now, they say that they are not currently using or planning to use blockchains, but it seems like their founders aren't actually opposed to it, so I'm not sure they'll be able to hold the line against it: https://community.resonate.is/t/the-unreasonable-ecological-...

They have a lot of discussion of how they'd like to try to achieve the effects of NFTs without actually using blockchain tech, which, uh... feels like flirting with disaster to me. Seems like they don't quite get the core issues and are in love with flashy technology and complex financial structures.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#98

Post by ffpip »

superkuh wrote: post #71
zippergz wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nothing will change in the short term" is the story of every acquisition, almost all of which end up with major changes for the worse at some point. (So yes, I agree with you.)

When Epic bought the game "Rocket League" they promised not to change anything. At that time it had Windows, Linux, Mac, xbox, and playstation clients. 6 months after they aquisition they killed off the linux client (even for people who bought in-game purchases). Epic lies. It is what they do. They are the epitome of a dangerous megacorp.

They also made the game free to play.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/15/21438194/rocket-league-fr...

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#99

Post by Dracophoenix »

eezurr wrote: post #20

https://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.

Given the Unity acquisition of WETA, I thought Epic Games's next acquisition would be to buy a movie or FX studio to compete - that is, if they aren't building their own. I think the end result of these acquisitions is that the line between making a game and a movie will no longer exist. Sometime in the future, everyone could build and render their own Star Wars in Unreal or Unity.

Re: Epic Games acquires Bandcamp

#100

Post by stjohnswarts »

QuikAccount wrote: post #60

Everyone here is really gloom and doom about this news but as much as I love Bandcamp, they have made some decisions that really made me not want to use the platform. For example, if an artist releases a free song as part of an album, it is not possible to add that song to your library without purchasing the whole album. This makes no sense when I only like and want to purchase say 2 or 3 songs off the album. This al…

I don't think Bandcamp's policies were ever going to work for everyone, but I appreciate them, and am a pretty active customer and user. I may have to reconsider that now if Epic starts "improving" the service.
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