Epic Games Acquires Bandcamp In Surprising Move That Leaves Music Community Trepidatious

Yesterday, Bandcamp, a music distribution platform that is the preferred streaming service of many DIY artists, announced that it had been bought by Epic Games, the gaming company best known for being the publishers of Fortnite and other massive hits. At the moment, nobody seems to know what to do with this information or what it means for users on the platform.

Bandcamp is joining Epic Games! Read more here: https://t.co/dvLEhURZYG pic.twitter.com/4t1MRvugmG

— bandcamp (@Bandcamp) March 2, 2022

Bandcamp announced the acquisition in a very enthusiastic letter to its fanbase yesterday afternoon.

"I’m excited to announce that Bandcamp is joining Epic Games, who you may know as the makers of Fortnite and Unreal Engine, and champions for a fair and open Internet," Bandcamp CEO Ethan Diamond wrote. "While over the years we’ve heard from other companies who wanted us to join them, we’ve always felt that doing so would only be exciting if they strongly believed in our mission, were aligned with our values, and not only wanted to see Bandcamp continue, but also wanted to provide the resources to bring a lot more benefit to the artists, labels, and fans who use the site. Epic ticks all those boxes. We share a vision of building the most open, artist-friendly ecosystem in the world, and together we’ll be able to create even more opportunities for artists to be compensated fairly for their work."

At the moment, it's unclear what the impact of the sale will be for artists on Bandcamp or how the service will be integrated into Epic's vision. Ars Technica theorized that Epic may want Bandcamp's user-friendly backend, which would be a vast improvement over the clunky Epic Games Store. They also pointed to Epic's press release on the purchase, which featured a line about Epic's "vision to build out a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music and more."

From Bandcamp's side, the company seems keen to let its userbase know nothing will change. Ethan Diamond emphasized, "Bandcamp will keep operating as a standalone marketplace and music community, and I will continue to lead our team." J. Edward Keyes, Bandcamp's Editorial Director, also emphasized that the site's editorial staff "weren't going anywhere" on Twitter.

Hi everyone. I just want to reassure you: Bandcamp Daily is not going anywhere. Bandcamp Daily's editorial staff isn't going anywhere. Bandcamp Daily's writing staff isn't going anywhere. We're going to keep doing what we do, and we're looking forward to doing it.

— J. Edward Keyes (@keyescore) March 2, 2022

One of Bandcamp's major selling points for artists is that, unlike Spotify, Bandcamp allows artists to sell their work directly to consumers and take over 80 percent of the proceeds. On "Bandcamp Fridays," Bandcamp waives their fee and allows artists to take 100 percent of the proceeds. This has given it a reputation as an "artist-friendly" platform, which is a boon for musicians who receive significantly less money by having their money on streaming services. Despite the assurances from Bandcamp management, artists were extremely wary about the future of the company.

You know, I would really prefer not to move my discography off Bandcamp to another platform, but you're making it nearly impossible for me to justify that at this point. What the fuck are you doing. https://t.co/NEC4f5qJPt

— Vektroid (@Vektroid) March 2, 2022

tbh I think the thing bumming everyone out about Bandcamp is that we're being reminded that there's no room in the current way of the world for a modest, sustainable success that generally benefits everyone opting into it. the sane option just never stays on the table very long.

— Mike Sugarman (@sug_online) March 2, 2022

Bandcamp was the only platform I was comfortable buying music from because it seemed to really put artists first.

Now it's owned by Epic Games, which is majority owned by Tencent, an evil megacorporation that's slowly devouring the games industry.

Cool. https://t.co/ufYsvon7UQ

— Arlo (@ArloStuff) March 2, 2022

I wish every bandcamp exec a very remember that we only use your platform because it's the most equitable major platform for musicians. we have no loyalty to your brand and the second you stop performing your function we will happily jump ship https://t.co/N1S3FJK9Yy

— Cicadae Sillick (@OuTbREaKRT) March 2, 2022

all other music services: we fucking suck ass and you're forced to use us

bandcamp: we're not like that at all

tim sweeny: would you like to be?

bandcamp: god, yes

— Jeremy Blake (@jjbbllkk) March 2, 2022

Along with the trepidation felt by artists, many also stressed that users should continue to use the platform, as it still provides one of the best models to help artists receive compensation for their work.

for as much as the bandcamp epic merger represents the end of a sort of last bastion of marginally-less-corporately-entangled expression online, and for as much as im mourning that in real time, please dont hastily make calls to divest from the platform, as listeners or artists.

— hazel (@afewbruises) March 2, 2022