Epic Games is selling Bandcamp for an undisclosed sum, 18 months after acquiring the platform. Bandcamp’s new owner is the music marketing company Songtradr, which, according to its blog on the acquisition, will “continue to operate Bandcamp as a marketplace and music community with an artist-first revenue share.”
I never thought that Bandcamp was a good fit with Epic Games. 18 months later Bandcamp is sold to Songtradr. The name is terrible and ominous. Thousands of musicians buying the platform together would have been amazing. A coop. Perhaps musicians should start a new Bandcamp-like platform…
Instead Bandcamp is now owned by a company that will likely try to push everyone into licensing their music for pennies to everything from commercials to games.
Songtradr, which describes itself as a music licensing platform and marketplace company, framed the acquisition as an opportunity for Bandcamp artists to secure licensing deals, including with Epic Games itself, which will continue to collaborate with Bandcamp on projects like Fortnite Radio.
How long will it last? All of the huge Investment Fund purchases of artist catalogs are being sold again.
Back in 2021, investors spent more than $5 billion buying the rights to old songs. Never before in history had musicians over the age of 75 received such big paydays.
Give this Bandcamp owner three years?
Hm, somebody should talk to Neil Young et al… Bandcamp-like platform, legacy, future of music… :-)
I’m late to comment since I only get on occasionally.
Up front, I miss digging through albums and CDs. Finding artists and looking at album art, reading liner notes, all that.
Having to search an online site for music that I connect to or might find interesting, depending on algorithm to pull “like” artists, tends to lead me down holes in which I end up not hearing anything I was looking for. I’m already paying for Spotify, Tidal, Amazon, Sirius XM, adding another site just seems like throwing paper into the wind.
I hope that paying for the site equally distributes the pay per listen, but it seems that there’s no beneficial way to make things equal out. The corporate hold on creative outlets dampens so much of the enjoyment not only for me, as a listener, but the ability of the artist to create. I doubt there’s an answer to be found in a short exchange on a website, but let’s hope something evens out.
Thanks for letting me muse a rant; I dig your music. I hope there’s a way for the artist and listener to find mutually advantageous way to listen, find new music, and create.