Epic Games, the makers of Fortnite and the company that got kicked out of Apple’s App Store, has just acquired Bandcamp, the number one online music store. You wouldn’t be wrong to think this would spell disaster for musicians and listeners, but it could actually be good for everyone.
Yes, our music is safe on Bandcamp and no, they won't use it for AI models.
When big companies buy small businesses, they might close them down and strip the assets (the Gordon Gecko approach). They might keep the business afloat with promises to change nothing and then change everything (the Facebook-Instagram approach), or they might just leave everything as is, risking forgetting they even own it (the Skype maneuver). But in the case of Bandcamp, the first question is: Why did a video game giant buy an indie music platform in the first place?
“The partnership between Epic Games and Bandcamp is an important step toward an artist-friendly, fair, and open platform where creators can keep a large portion of their revenue,” music writer and headphones reviewer Emma Williams told Lifewire via email.
Music and games go together. Ever since Grand Theft Auto III on the Playstation 2, which let you drive around Liberty City listening to the radio in a stolen car, music and video games have been like margaritas and hangovers: an unbreakable partnership. It seems Epic wants Bandcamp for its content, that awful term that reduces art and creativity to widgets on an assembly line.
