Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite and Unreal Engine, has acquired Bandcamp. Bandcamp will remain a standalone platform, under the leadership of Epic Games co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond.
In a statement today (2nd March, 2022), by Ethan Diamond on the Bandcamp website, the news was announced by the digital music retail and media platform.
“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.”
An announcement about the acquisition was made by Epic Games on its own website, stating that:
“fair and open platforms are critical to the future of the creator economy.”
The announcement continues:
“Epic and Bandcamp share a mission of building the most artist friendly platform that enables creators to keep the majority of their hard-earned money. 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.”
Fortnite has dipped it’s toe into the music world over recent years. It has hosted concerts by Ariana Grand, Travis Scott, Dominic Fike, J Balvin and others within the Fortnite virtual world.
Last year, Radiohead released an online exhibition as part of their Kid A Mnesia reissue. Epic Games helped to create the “upside-down digital/analog universe” alongside NameTheMachine, and Arbitrarily Good Productions.