Bandcamp is joining Epic Games: ‘This could become epic!’
Major news from Bandcamp. Ethan Diamond, Bandcamp co-founder and CEO has just announced that Bandcamp is joining Epic Games, who you may know as the makers of Fortnite and Unreal Engine, and as it happens also champions for a fair and open Internet as you might have noticed in recent press coverage.
In a message sent out roughly 20 minutes ago Diamond says that Bandcamp will keep operating as a standalone marketplace and music community, and he will continue to lead the team.
Diamond: “The products and services you depend on aren’t going anywhere, we’ll continue to build Bandcamp around our artists-first revenue model, 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.”
Since their founding in 2008 Bandcamp has paid artists and labels close to $1 billion USD.
What does the future bring?
Diamond wants a collaboration to also offer a lot more benefit to the artists, labels, and fans who use the site: “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.”
Our chief editor Bernard Van Isacker also received the press message and we quickly pinged him for a first reaction: “There a few things which I think of that could well become part of Bandcamp in the near future. I would not be surprised they embrace cryptocurrencies in the near future. Epic Games is not currently using the tech or cryptocurrencies in its own games, but I wouldn’t be surprised they will implement it sooner or later. Epic Games has already confirmed it is open to selling video games that use blockchain and NFTs through its store. It could become a big revolution in how music is paid for especially with a volatile currency like cryptocurrency. I know the demand to pay or get paid with cryptocurrencies is big, just do a query on Google and you’ll notice that a lot of people want to use cryptocurrencies on Bandcamp.”
And what about the music itself? Bernard: “I could and would imagine they will also try to use the vaste Bandcamp catalogue to use in their games as well, for instance it would be cool you could choose or buy tracks from the Bandcamp catalogue to play whilst gaming. And that is just the start of what could be happening. Who knows they might also become a full blown aggregator. There is a lot of symbiosis possible when you get two companies like Bandcamp and Epic Games together. It could become epic alright.”
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