Santa Monica-based Songtradr Inc. is buying online audio distribution platform Bandcamp for an undisclosed amount from Epic Games. Bandcamp has long been popular among independent musicians as a place where artists can upload and sell their music and merchandise.
Songtradr is a business-to-business platform that facilitates music-licensing management for brands, content creators and artists. Artists can upload their music to be distributed on streaming services and set their own licensing fees, opening up their work to be used in advertising, movies or television.
Unlike Spotify, which pays artists based on the number of streams a track receives, Bandcamp allows artists to sell their music directly to listeners as well as sell physical media like vinyl or cassette tapes. Songtradr said that it will continue to operate Bandcamp with an artists-first revenue share.
“The acquisition of Bandcamp will help Songtradr continue to grow its suite of services for artists,” Songtradr Chief Executive Paul Wiltshire said in a statement. “I’m a passionate musician myself, and artistry and creativity have always been at the heart of Songtradr. Bandcamp will join a team of music-industry veterans and artists who have deep expertise in music licensing, composition, rights management and distribution.”
Songtradr wrote on its blog that, through its acquisition of Bandcamp, independent artists will be able to license their music more easily to brands, content creators, games and app developers. Artists such as Radiohead, Bjork and Peter Gabriel have published their discographies on Bandcamp, and, through a service called Bandcamp for Labels, independent labels like Sub Pop and Relapse Records have their own Bandcamp pages.
“This acquisition will help Bandcamp continue to grow within a music-first company and enable Songtradr to expand its capabilities to support the artist community,” Songtradr said. “This will enable artists to continue to own and control their music rights and increase their earning capacity from Songtradr’s global licensing network.”
Epic Games took ownership of Bandcamp 18 months ago and, in tandem with the sale announcement, said it will be laying off 16% of Epic Games’ team, or about 870 employees. While owned by Epic Games, members of Bandcamp’s U.S. editorial, design, support and engineering teams formed a union. The union, called Bandcamp United, stated online that it is currently in negotiations with Epic Games and that talks would continue this week.
“Bandcamp United is looking forward to bargaining with Songtradr in the near future regarding wages, working conditions and benefits,” Bandcamp United said. “It’s our hope that Songtradr honors our existing progress, including union security and preserving our artist-first mission in our collective bargaining agreement, that we’ve already made at the bargaining table.”
