Why was Epic even interested in Bandcamp in the first place??
This fucking blows. Start downloading all your music you’ve bought, you soon won’t be able to own anything online anymore.
I’m pretty sure they Epic bought Bandcamp for their battle with Apple and then did literally nothing with it.
I feel like back in March 2022 Epic did not really anticipate market conditions to continue to worsen. Big miscalculation on their part.
Why wouldn’t you plan for the worst?
I really don’t understand how on one hand all of these CEOs and investor types are geniuses and just built different but on the other hand they’re hiring people and firing people because they couldn’t predict the line on graph doesn’t always go up.
If I had to guess, it’s because of money. There was more incentive at the time to grow fast and try to maximize profit than to limit growth and potential profits in case of a market downturn. Tim slightly explains what happened.
Man, I wish Bandcamp would catch a break already, I actually like (liked?) the platform. I like supporting artists I like and I like supporting platforms that sell DRM-free music. If Bandcamp goes away and no other DRM-free alternative comes up, it’s back to piracy for me.
Fuck you Epic for many reasons, but for this one in particular
Sweeney and his supporters talking about how they give devs a better cut while also making devs work overtime and file for unemployment.
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Wow, I don’t think Epic ever did anything with Bandcamp. What a terrible way to end it. What will become of the artists who use it as their main platform? I source a significant amount of my music from these artist, from that site.
Why do you think this is the end?
My apologies, I mean a terrible way for Epic to end their ownership. I hope that Bandcamp will continue and thrive but this move doesn’t seem encouraging. Songtradr is monopolizing music at this point.
Could someone fill me in on why we’re panicking about it being sold? Epic never seemed to do anything to it and it seems Songtradr is keeping it’s the same, does Songtradr have a bad track record or something?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, I just feel out of the loop.
So far it looks like it’s just the internet’s usual doomspeak, with a side of anti-Epic circlejerking.
Since they were purchased by epic games last year, roughly half of the original staff were laid off. Being bought by a corporate entity that values profitability over all esle is devastating to a website like this where music (and culture) have thrived
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Epic Games has literally done nothing with Bandcamp, what are you talking about?
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Doubt you’ll get a reply because it is bullshit. I’m not a fan of Epic within the games space and they may not have improved things like the Bandcamp app but to say that it has “gone to shit” under them is just straight idiocy. More accurately they have done nothing to or with band camp really.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
One of the worst tech labor years ever continues with the news that roughly half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off.
Epic Games bought the indie music platform back in 2022 for an undisclosed amount before selling it barely a year later.
Late last month, Epic Games laid off 16 percent of its workforce, or 830 employees, due to what CEO Tim Sweeney described as overspending.
Epic also revealed that it would sell the Bandcamp business to California-based music licensing company Songtradr.
Employees who did not receive offers from Songtradr were notified today and will be eligible for severance.
In an email to The Verge, Songtradr confirmed that 50 percent of Bandcamp employees have been extended offers to join Songtradr and reaffirmed from a previous statement the company’s commitment to keeping the Bandcamp experience the same.
The original article contains 212 words, the summary contains 137 words. Saved 35%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
