Music licensing platform Songtradr has bought Bandcamp from Epic Games. Epic Games purchased Bandcamp only 18 months ago, but it is now divesting from the company and marketing firm SuperAwesome, laying off 16% of its staff in the process. In 2019, Songtradr was the world’s biggest music licensing platform, according to The Music Network. The company is buying Bandcamp to help the company grow and allow its artists’ music to be easily licensed to content creators, game and app developers, and brands.
Songtradr intends to continue operating Bandcamp as a music community and marketplace with an artist-first revenue share. Paul Wiltshire, CEO of Songtradr, stated that “artistry and creativity have always been at the heart of Songtradr” and the purchase will help the company’s capabilities to help musicians. Steve Allison, the Vice President and General Manager of Store at Epic Games has said that “Songtradr shares Epic and Bandcamp’s values around ensuring artists are fairly compensated for their work”.
Bandcamp staff unionized in March 2023, and the editorial, design, support, and engineering employees requested for a fair and timely election as Bandcamp United. At the time, they stated that “a site such as Bandcamp that aims to offer an ethical and fair alternative to the streaming economy should reflect its mission internally”. Epic Games has also announced that SuperAwesome, a kids’ safe web service company that it acquired in 2020, will be divested, too.
Speaking at an Epic Games blog post titled “Layoffs at Epic”, CEO Tim Sweeney stated that the reason behind the divestitures of Bandcamp and SuperAwesome among others is cost cutting to allow the company to focus on its main businesses and its ambitious plans without breaking development
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