what this means for indie music lovers.

On Wednesday, the independent digital music marketplace/publication/streaming service/former startup Bandcamp made a startling announcement: It was “joining” the video game company Epic Games, perhaps best known as the maker of Fortnite and plaintiff in an antitrust lawsuit against Apple’s app store and its dominance of virtual gaming. In a statement, Epic wrote that “Bandcamp will play an important role in Epic’s vision to build out a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music and more.” Bandcamp co-founder Ethan Diamond explained in a blog post that his company “will keep operating as a standalone marketplace and music community,” and this new venture with Epic would “provide the resources to bring a lot more benefit to the artists, labels, and fans who use” Bandcamp. (Diamond will also remain its CEO.) Ultimately, both companies say, this move is in service of “building the most open, artist-friendly ecosystem in the world.”

Immediate reactions to Bandcamp sidling up to Epic Games were mixed and often confused. Some observers on social media wondered whether this was a partnership between the two companies or a wholesale acquisition of Bandcamp. Epic spokesperson Elka Looks confirmed to Slate over email that “this was an acquisition of Bandcamp’s business,” though the company is “not disclosing terms of the deal/how it came about.” The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle suspected on Twitter that Epic wants access to Bandcamp’s data. The Future of Music Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for musicians, posted a cautiously skeptical Twitter thread about the deal: It explained that Epic has been a frustrating partner when it comes to song licensing, compounded by the 40 percent stake held by Chinese corporation Tencent, which also has a stake in Spotify. Music historian Ted Gioia wrote in his Substack about how his firsthand experiences with big business mergers and acquisitions left him feeling pessimistic: “In more than a few instances, the acquiring company destroyed the business it bought. Not immediately, but it happened sooner or later. … They often had the best intentions. But when forced to choose, they did what was best for the parent company, not the acquired business.” He further noted, “The chance of failure increases dramatically when the acquired company is in a different industry,” highlighting the eventual post-M&A failures of companies like RCA and Kodak.

What’s more, Bandcamp has often proclaimed independence as both its mission and ethos. It’s long had a glowing reputation as the rare—perhaps only—musician-friendly platform of the digital age. A 2020 Los Angeles Times profile referred to the service as the “anti-Spotify,” noting that Bandcamp was “owned primarily by” CEO Ethan Diamond, co-founder and CTO Shawn Grunberger, and employees. Some indie musicians called him their “last hope,” Diamond added, and they reportedly told him, “The world of right-minded musicians is depending on you. No pressure.” Bandcamp giving itself up now to a major corporation that’s already acquired a number of other creative companies could well be considered “a sell out move,” as one music business figure put it.

It’s worth looking at Bandcamp’s development and pedestal in the modern music economy—which, notably, is a far smaller one than Epic’s in the video game industry—to understand why skeptics are speaking out. Instead of partnering with the big three major labels to offer millions of songs for free or cheap, while compensating musicians with literal penny fractions in turn, Bandcamp made fair artist remuneration and close connection between creators and fans its M.O. from its 2008 launch. Though it was initially powered by one round of venture capital funding, the platform claims that it’s not only been independent of such investments since then, but also has been profitable since 2012, even while doubling down on a seemingly counterintuitive business strategy.

As free and low-priced subscription-based streaming ate up the once-hot MP3 market, Bandcamp kept selling high-quality digital files, taking only a 10–15 percent cut of revenue per sale while Apple made at least 30 percent of the money for each iTunes purchase. Other streamers use expensive exclusives from big stars as subscription incentives, but Bandcamp has kept its focus narrow: Over the years, it’s brought independent artists, label-free stars, and game score composers to its interface and cultivated small but loyal fan bases. As CD sales plunged from their ’90s peak in the mid- to late 2000s, the platform found success allowing artists to sell cassette tapes (yes), discs, and records, presaging the still-booming vinyl resurgence. When Spotify did away with its messaging services in 2017 and obscured liner notes…