But as streaming has become the dominant format for music, artists are starting to complain loudly that they aren’t getting their fair share of the bounty. According to industry estimates, Spotify pays record labels, music publishers and other rights holders about a third of a cent for every click on a song; what portion of that money ends up in a musician’s pocket is determined by their deals with those labels and publishers.
On Bandcamp, on the other hand, artists can upload their own work and set the pricing rules for downloading their own work – pay-what-you-wish prices are common. During the pandemic, Bandcamp has waived its fees on “Bandcamp Fridays” once a month, generating a wave of goodwill for the company. Even more surprising, Bandcamp says it has been profitable since 2012. (Last year, Spotify had $10.7 billion in revenue and lost about $276 million, according to company reports.)
Epic Games, which is based in Cary, NC, and privately owned, said little about its plans for music, and a company spokeswoman declined to answer further questions about the deal. But Epic’s statement on Wednesday indicated it was interested in Bandcamp as a direct-to-consumer marketplace. “Epic and Bandcamp share a mission to build the most artist-friendly platform that allows creators to keep most of their hard-earned cash,” the company wrote.
Fortnite, Epic’s flagship product, was one of the most innovative outlets for music in video games, allowing artists to appear virtually, often in elaborately produced segments. In April 2020, rapper Travis Scott made what was widely seen as a breakthrough, signing 28 million players for his virtual performance. For Halloween that year, Latin pop star J Balvin gave a campy concert dressed as a green-haired Frankenstein monster, supported by dancers in costume as ghosts and zombie Cyclops.
Epic has also been at the center of one of the most high-profile debates in current technology policy. The company sued Apple in 2020, saying the terms of its App Store — which charges payment commissions of up to 30 percent — were unfair. Epic also fought the public relations battle surrounding that lawsuit with slick, meme-ready content like “Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite,” a parody of Apple’s famous TV ad “1984” introducing his Mac computer as a joyful disruptor of gray technology monopolies.
