Friday, March 29

Epic Games buys Bandcamp, an ‘iTunes indie’, in full legal battle against Apple

Epic Games has announced the acquisition of Bandcamp, an online music store specializing in the promotion of independent artists. The purchase falls outside the traditional line of business of Epic, a video game studio that has developed titles as popular as Fortnite. However, this occurs in the midst of the legal battle that Epic maintains against Apple, which it accuses of monopoly and of imposing abusive conditions in its application store.

“Bandcamp will play an important role in Epic’s vision of building a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music and much more,” the company explained. “Fair and open platforms are critical to the future of the creator economy. Epic and Bandcamp share a mission to build the most artist-friendly platform that allows creators to keep the most of their hard-earned money.” , Add.

The question of the commissions that Apple and Google take in their app stores is one of the central points of the legal dispute that Epic has opened. Apple charges 30% of the benefits that apps get on their devices, while on Bandcamp that commission is 12%. In addition, the apple brand did not allow developers to divert users to their own payment platforms.

The first instance judge who handled the case partially upheld Epic Games’ claim and forced Apple to allow the inclusion of “buttons, external links and other calls to action that direct consumers to other purchase mechanisms” outside the catwalk brand payment. Fearing this resolution, the brand had already reached a very similar agreement with the developers. However, it did not accept the App Store monopoly argument and allowed the company to continue to impose its application store as the only method of downloading programs on the iPhone or iPad. This has caused the two companies to appeal the decision.

The amount that Epic Games has paid for Bandcamp has not been disclosed. “In Epic we have found a partner who believes as deeply as we do that the future of music, and the art itself, depends on creating equitable and inclusive communities like the one our fans and artists have helped build. We are excited to join them.” work alongside the team at Epic,” said Bandcamp CEO Ethan Diamond.



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