{"id":65088,"date":"2022-03-17T12:26:22","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T16:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/2022\/03\/17\/bandcamp-absorbee-par-epic-games-pur-capitalisme-de-base\/"},"modified":"2023-10-02T14:44:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T18:44:57","slug":"bandcamp-absorbee-par-epic-games-pur-capitalisme-de-base-2","status":"publish","type":"chroniques","link":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/chroniques-360\/bandcamp-absorbee-par-epic-games-pur-capitalisme-de-base-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Bandcamp absorbed by Epic Games: a new capitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On March 2nd, news broke that California-based Bandcamp, which runs the ultimate online sales and listening platform for global independent production, was being absorbed by Epic Games, a North Carolina-based company that has seen exponential profitability in recent years, particularly with its online game <em>Fortnite<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet Epic Games reportedly still believes in the need for creators to have &#8220;fair and open&#8221; platforms and allow them &#8220;to keep the majority of their hard-earned money.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Founded in 2008, the Bandcamp platform had supplanted MySpace as the site to discover and consume the world&#8217;s independent production. The business model was established by the formula of prices set by the artists themselves, and by taking a 15% commission on album sales, which is much more advantageous for the artists than what the web giants offer, i.e. commissions that can go up to 95% of the revenues, in the worst cases. Bandcamp thus became profitable in 2012. According to the company (not very worn on public statistics), 5 million albums were purchased on Bandcamp in 2019. This is an example of this success but also of its limits, because the revenue from streaming is non-existent, and therefore the main mode of consumption of music makes nothing via Bandcamp. What will happen from now on? We&#8217;ll talk about it in a few months or years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s 2022 and Bandcamp is definitely the most powerful and fair alternative to the web giants and their infinite content platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gamers have probably been aware of this for a long time, but music fans are learning that the video game community also has its Bandcamp. Since 1991, Epic Games has been charging a 12% commission to creators, while Apple would charge 30%. The success of a Bandcamp cousin model is bound to be economically more formidable, since the video game industry is much more profitable than the music industry. And that&#8217;s why Epic Games has gotten considerably richer after launching its famous <em>Fortnite<\/em> and other free-to-play games; there&#8217;s talk of a meteoric rise in the markets. The company is now worth US$ 28 billion&#8230; which is not exactly a marginal phenomenon anymore! It&#8217;s worth noting that the company is 40% owned by the Chinese gaming multinational Tencent. Extremely rich, Epic Games can count on a community of 160 million users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the official version, the advantage of Epic Games&#8217; acquisition of Bandcamp lies in its ability to implement cutting-edge technologies, much more powerful than those currently used by Bandcamp, in order to maximize referencing and user consumption patterns. What&#8217;s more, the company&#8217;s strong interest in the metaverse, which is the deployment of a vast 3D universe based on a web of interconnected spaces, requires investments that Bandcamp could not assume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Needless to say, the usual logic of the market generally leads successful companies to go public in the best case, or to be absorbed by more powerful companies. A basic principle of capitalism&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By posing as managers of the vast community of independent music, these companies position themselves intelligently in front of the Web giants whose propensity for non-sharing of revenues is now archaic. In the case of these online companies, however, this perception of community is misleading. Even if they offer services to creators with a better return on investment (from download sales and not from streaming), Bandcamp and Epic Games remain for-profit companies, certainly innovative but purely capitalist. Their founders had noble intentions at the beginning, but their ultimate goal was to make their businesses profitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Should we expect this revenue-sharing mentality to continue in the long term?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We&#8217;ll have to rely on that, for lack of global alternatives&#8230; since no one in the creative world devotes the energy necessary to organize distribution networks that can reach such a scale and distribute the revenues equitably. Imagine if Epic Games&#8217; US$ 28 billion belonged to the artists who are the raw material of this phenomenal profitability, we could then talk about a real community that could eventually compete with the Web giants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One can dream&#8230; but the reality is quite different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once again, the acquisition of Bandcamp by Epic Games is a cruel reminder that the creative world does not have this culture of self-organization. Most of the time, artists focus on their works, ensure their survival and don&#8217;t think about these considerations, with the distressing results we know: disposable products after use, meager incomes, short-lived careers, abandonment of the profession&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When you can&#8217;t get organized, you get organized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>SOURCES:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/marker.medium.com\/bandcamps-attempt-to-take-on-spotify-by-the-numbers-3504203ea1fc#:~:text=But%20being%20beloved%20by%20indie,has%20130%20million%20paying%20subscribers.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Los Angeles Times: Bandcamp\u2019s Attempt to Take on Spotify, by the Numbers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2022\/mar\/07\/bandcamp-sells-to-epic-can-a-video-game-company-save-independent-music\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Guardian: Bandcamp sells to Epic: can a video game company save independent music?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/thepitch\/bandcamp-epic-games-acquisition\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pitchfork: What Bandcamp\u2019s Acquisition by Epic Games Means for Music Fans and Artists<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On March 2nd, news broke that California-based Bandcamp, which runs the ultimate online sales and listening platform for global independent production, was being absorbed by Epic Games, a North Carolina-based company that has seen exponential profitability in recent years, particularly with its online game Fortnite. Yet Epic Games reportedly still believes in the need for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":64844,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categories":[2778],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65088","chroniques","type-chroniques","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bandcamp absorbed by Epic Games: a new capitalism - PAN M 360<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/chroniques-360\/bandcamp-absorbee-par-epic-games-pur-capitalisme-de-base-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bandcamp absorbed by Epic Games: a new capitalism - PAN M 360\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On March 2nd, news broke that California-based Bandcamp, which runs the ultimate online sales and listening platform for global independent production, was being absorbed by Epic Games, a North Carolina-based company that has seen exponential profitability in recent years, particularly with its online game Fortnite. 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