“Fortnite” game developer Epic Games Inc. — which filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc. AAPL for antitrust practices — is now facing similar allegations over its acquisition of online music store Bandcamp.
What Happened: Epic Games announced the acquisition on Wednesday, saying it shares a mission with Bandcamp of building the most artist-friendly platform that enables creators to keep the majority of their hard-earned money.
Bandcamp, founded in 2008, allows artists to sell their music and merchandise on its website and takes a 15% commission on sales made from the website.
Fans have paid artists and their labels $891 million using Bandcamp, the company said on its website.
Why It Matters: Epic had filed a lawsuit against Apple and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG GOOGL Google in 2020 after its “Fortnite” game was removed from the App Store. Epic had alleged anti-competitive practices by technology companies.
Epic’s purchase of Bandcamp is now facing similar criticism.
Ron Knox, a Bandcamp customer and writer for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, said on Twitter that he was concerned about the independence as well as finances of artists and their labels following the deal.
2. As always, my primary concern here is with the independence and finances of artists and their labels. Bandcamp isn't perfect, but so far it has been a noble and sometimes successful attempt at recreating the brick and mortar record store online. It's too important to lose.
— ron knox (@ronmknox) March 2, 2022
Tom Gray of the British Band Gomez requested Epic to think “seriously and long” about the Bandcamp acquisition.
This is clearly big and exciting news for @bandcamp.
— Tom Gray #BrokenRecord (@MrTomGray) March 2, 2022
But hey, heads up @EpicGames, please think seriously and long about whatever you do with the one place independent artists can always rely on for direct income from recorded music.#BrokenRecord https://t.co/UG6pmxA7lW
YouTuber Arlo said that Bandcamp was the only platform he was comfortable buying music from, while it is now owned by Epic Games — itself majority-owned by Chinese technology company Tencent Holdings Limited TCEHY.
Bandcamp was the only platform I was comfortable buying music from because it seemed to really put artists first.
— Arlo (@ArloStuff) March 2, 2022
Now it's owned by Epic Games, which is majority owned by Tencent, an evil megacorporation that's slowly devouring the games industry.
Cool. https://t.co/ufYsvon7UQ
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