Bandcamp, the self-styled “online record store and music community”, has been acquired by Epic Games, as part of what the Fortnite and Unreal Engine developer is calling its vision to build out a “creator marketplace ecosystem”.
In a statement shared on the Bandcamp blog, co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond explained the company will continue operating as a standalone marketplace and music community following the acquisition, and that he’ll continue in the role of CEO.
“The products and services you depend on aren’t going anywhere,” Diamond wrote. “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.”
Eurogamer Newscast: 24th February 2022.
While Bandcamp users aren’t likely to see any immediate changes post-acquisition, Diamond says the company will be working with Epic in the background to expand internationally and “push development forward” across its services, “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.”
In a separate statement announcing the news, Epic said the two companies “share a mission of building the most artist friendly platform that enables creators to keep the majority of their hard-earned money”. It added “Bandcamp will play an important role in Epic’s vision to build out a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music and more.”
Epic’s acquisition of Bandcamp marks its third purchase of a creator-focused platform in less than a year, with the company having previously acquired artist portfolio, job listing, and marketplace site ArtStation last April, and 3D models marketplace Sketchfab in July.
Bandcamp is the latest addition to a rapidly swelling list of companies under the Epic Games umbrella. Since 2018, Epic has, alongside ArtStation and Sketchfab, acquired the likes of Cloudgine, Quixel, SuperAwesome, Hyprsense, RAD Games Tools, Tonic Games Group – which includes Fall Guys developer Mediatonic and Fortitude Games – plus Rocket League studio Psyonix, and Rock Band developer Harmonix.
