Epic Games acquires Bandcamp as ‘Fortnite’ maker expands into music

Video game developer Epic Games announced that she had bought bandcampThe online music store and community geared towards indie musicians.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. “Fair and open platforms are essential to the future of the creator economy,” said Epic Games, best known as the company behind Battle-Royale “Fortnite”, in announcing the agreement. “Epic and Bandcamp share a mission to create the most artist-friendly platform that enables content creators to keep most of their hard-earned money.”

Bandcamp will play a “significant role in Epic’s vision to build an ecosystem for the creators’ marketplace for content, technology, games, art, music and more,” the games company said. According to Bandcamp, artists under its revenue model get an average of 82% from every sale.

Owned by Epic Games, Bandcamp will operate as an independent marketplace and music community, and will continue to be led by CEO and co-founder Ethan Diamond.

“We share a vision to build a more open and conducive ecosystem for the world’s artists, and together we will be able to create more opportunities for artists to get fair compensation for their work,” Diamond wrote in a blog post declaring the sale of Bandcamp.

Bandcamp is working with Epic to expand internationally and build on other fronts, including album pages, mobile apps, merchandise tools, the payment system, and search and discovery features, according to Diamond. Epic and Bandcamp are also working together on newer initiatives such as vinyl compression and Bandcamp streaming services.

Steve Allison, Vice President and General Manager, Epic Games Store: “We couldn’t be more excited to welcome the Bandcamp team to Epic Games.” “Bandcamp has built an incredible community and business where up-and-coming artists can succeed with direct support from their fans, with one of the best revenue models and music terms. This closely aligns with Epic’s approach to supporting creators across all media and enabling them to connect directly with their fans.”

Over the years, Bandcamp has been approached by others looking to take over the company, according to Diamond. However, “We’ve always felt that doing so would only be exciting if they believed strongly in our mission, aligned with our values, and not only wanted to follow Bandcamp but also wanted to provide the resources to bring more benefits to the artists, production companies, and fans who use the site.” It ticks all those boxes,” the Epic Games CEO wrote.

Oakland, California-based Bandcamp, founded in 2008, claims to have paid nearly $1 billion to artists and brands to date.