The Bandcamp Bummer
a.k.a. What happens when the world’s biggest record store for independent music stops being independent?
Bandcamp got bought last week.
In his official announcement, CEO Ethan Diamond said that the company would be “joining” Epic Games, but make no mistake, this was an acquisition. (That fact was confirmed by an Epic spokesperson in Nitish Pahwa’s superb—and extensively link-filled—overview of the situation for Slate.)
Terms of the deal haven’t been revealed by either side, but given that Diamond’s statement also included the line, “over the years we’ve heard from other companies who wanted us to join them,” it’s safe to assume that Epic Games—which, thanks to the worldwide success of Fornite, has no shortage of capital—paid a significant price to acquire the online music platform.
Diamond not surprisingly framed the sale in optimistic terms, promising that the company would continue to operate independently, preserving its relationship with musicians while maintaining its editorial arm (Bandcamp Daily) and initiatives like Bandcamp Fridays, in which the platform foregoes its usual 10-15% of sales on the first Friday of each month. He also promised that the company will be 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.”
Those kinds of fixes and additions, if they do come to fruition, would be great. For all the goodwill (and revenue) that Bandcamp has generated over the past few years—the company was literally hailed as the “anti-Spotify” by the LA Times—there’s no denying that its interface is seriously lacking. And no, that doesn’t mean a slick design overhaul is necessary; simply improving basic things like the site’s mobile app and search functionality would constitute a major step forwards, and it’s truly baffling why Paypal continues to be the sole payment option for the entire platform.
Unfortunately for Bandcamp, the prospect of technical improvements doesn’t seem to be winning over many folks in the independent music world. (It definitely doesn’t help that 40% of Epic Games is owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, which also owns an approximate 9% stake of Spotify.) Over the past week, there’s been no shortage of people sharing their Bandcamp-related doubts, fears and critiques, and some of the most astute comments came from indie band Deerhoof, whose much-cited Twitter thread on the matter beautifully summed up the unease many artists (and fans) are feeling. The band also made this follow-up tweet, which cuts right to the heart of the matter:
Simply put, lots of Bandcamp users feel betrayed right now, and if the company didn’t anticipate that—or simply didn’t care—then it has quite possibly made a grave miscalculation.