Epic acquires music store and community Bandcamp

Epic Games has completed an unexpected deal, acquiring online music store and community Bandcamp. 

Bandcamp is best known as a platform that gives fans ways to support independent musicians directly while giving artists an average of 82 percent of every sale. And as part of this acquisition, both parties cited their shared goals in building artist-friendly platforms that enable creators to thrive. 

“Bandcamp has built an incredible community and business where up and coming artists can succeed thanks to the direct support of their fans, with one of the best revenue models and terms in music,” said Steve Allison, vice president and general manager of store at Epic. “This aligns closely with Epic’s approach to supporting creators across all media and enabling them to connect directly with their fans.” 

Following this deal, Bandcamp will continue to operate as a standalone marketplace and community, with co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond remaining with the team. This means no additional changes are being made to the platform’s operations, including Bandcamp Fridays and other creator promotions. 

The biggest changes will come behind the scenes. Diamond said this deal with Epic will help Bandcamp expand internationally and further develop aspects like mobile apps, merch tools, payment system, and search and discovery features. Vinyl pressing and livestreaming services were also mentioned. 

“Bandcamp’s mission is to help spread the healing power of music by building a community where artists thrive through the direct support of their fans,” Diamond said. “In Epic, we’ve found a partner who believes as deeply as we do that the future of music, and art itself, depends on the creation of equitable and inclusive communities like the one our fans and artists have helped to build. We’re excited to work alongside the Epic team to accelerate the realization of our mission and pursue our shared goal of empowering more creators in a fair and open way.”

This is the second move in a non-gaming space that Epic has made in the last year, previously acquiring artist and portfolio platform ArtStation last April. 

Bandcamp, according to Epic, will play an “important role” in the company’s vision to build a creator marketplace ecosystem for users across content, technology, games, art, music, and more.