Epic Games Acquires Bandcamp

We’re living in a year of acquisitions. Microsoft is in the process of buying Activision Blizzard, Sony scooped up Bungie, Take-Two acquired Zynga, and now Epic Games has purchased…Bandcamp?

Yes, the music streaming platform is now under the umbrella of the maker of Fortnite and Unreal Engine. Why? That’s anyone’s guess. The move does harken to the publisher’s purchase of Rock Band and Fuser developer Harmonix last November with the intent of creating more music-focused content for Fortnite. It doesn’t feel like Bandcamp would figure into these plans in any obvious way but stranger things have happened. 

If you’re a Bandcamp subscriber wondering how this will affect your service, the company’s co-founder/CEO Ethan Diamond issued a statement promising things will essentially remain the same and that Epic will help expand Bandcamp’s features and availability while allowing them to continue properly compensating music artists. You can read part of his post below:

Bandcamp will keep operating as a standalone marketplace and music community, and I will continue to lead our team. The products and services you depend on aren’t going anywhere, we’ll continue to build Bandcamp around our artists-first revenue model (where artists net an average of 82% of every sale), you’ll still have the same control over how you offer your music, Bandcamp Fridays will continue as planned, and the Daily will keep highlighting the diverse, amazing music on the site. However, behind the scenes we’re working with Epic to expand internationally and push development forward across Bandcamp, from basics like our album pages, mobile apps, merch tools, payment system, and search and discovery features, to newer initiatives like our vinyl pressing and live streaming services.

So there it is. Though not quite as purchasing a giant shopping mall, when you’re printing money like Epic, this move falls under the category of “why not?” It’ll be interesting to see what if Epic uses Bandcamp for anything video game-related or just want to call Bandcamp its own. 

What do you think of this acquisition? Let us know in the comments!

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