Music platform Bandcamp has been bought by video game company Epic Games, which has promised to preserve its identity, the two parties announced today, without disclosing the amounts involved.
Co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond said in a message posted on the blog of the streaming platform, which is known for giving musicians a much higher revenue opportunity than other platforms in the industry, that Bandcamp will “continue to operate as an independent marketplace and music community” which, since its founding 14 years ago, has dedicated nearly From a billion dollars to artists.
“Products and services you trust are not going anywhere, we will continue to build Bandcamp around an ‘artists first’ model (where artists receive about 82% of every sale), you will continue to have the same control over how you present your music, Bandcamp Fridays and [blogue] Emphasizing that he will continue to lead the team, Diamond wrote, “He will continue daily to shine the spotlight on diverse and amazing music.”
However, “behind the scenes,” they will work with Epic “to expand internationally and drive development of the platform, from bases such as album pages, mobile ‘apps’, ‘goods’ tools, payment systems, and ways to explore and discover, to new initiatives such as vinyl publishing and streaming services.”
On the epic side, the company confirmed that it is partnering with Bandcamp “a mission to build a more artist-friendly platform that allows creators to keep most of their hard-earned money.”
Epic Games is the company responsible for titles like “Fortnite” and, according to information released in court in the context of a case against Apple in 2021, employs more than 3,000 people and generated more than five billion dollars in revenue in 2020.
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