Epic Games is selling Bandcamp, just 18 months after acquiring the company.
Bandcamp has changed hands for an undisclosed sum, with music licensing platform Songtradr set to be the company’s new owner. In a blog confirming the acquisition, Songtradr said it will "continue to operate Bandcamp as a marketplace and music community with an artist-first revenue share." It added that its ownership will provide artists and labels who use Bandcamp with greater opportunities to secure licensing deals, but has declined to comment on whether the change of ownership will affect artist revenue shares, user experience or Bandcamp’s in-house editorial platform Bandcamp Daily.
Epic Games’ sale of Bandcamp comes against a backdrop of layoffs, which has seen the former confirm that it is cutting its workforce by 16 percent. Steve Allison, vice president and general manager of the Epic Games store, said the sale to Songtradr would "make it easier for independent artists to connect with creators and developers looking to license their music and enable Epic to focus on its core metaverse, games and tools efforts."
Earlier this year, Bandcamp’s staff – covering areas such as editorial, engineering, design and support – unionised as Bandcamp United. The union is yet to release an official statement on the change of ownership.
Epic Games acquired Bandcamp in March 2022. "We’re working with Epic to expand internationally and push development forward across Bandcamp," said Bandcamp co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond at the time.
