Music marketplace Bandcamp has been sold by Epic Games to music marketing company Songtradr just 18 months after it was acquired.

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Bandcamp was acquired by Epic Games, the makers of Fortnite, in March 2023, with the shared vision of “building the most open, artist-friendly ecosystem in the world”. Now, however, Epic Games’ stepped back from Bandcamp, having now sold the site to Songtradr for an undisclosed sum.

Songtradr, a music licensing and marketplace company, says it will “continue to operate Bandcamp as a marketplace and music community with an artist-first revenue share.”

According to Songtradr, it will work with Bandcamp to give artists opportunities to secure licensing deals. This includes deals with Fortnite itself, as it will continue to collaborate with Bandcamp for projects such as Fortnite Radio, says Epic Games.

The news comes as Epic Games also lays off 16 per cent of its workforce and is divesting Bandcamp and SuperAwesome.

The Vice President of Epic Games, Steve Allison, has said in a statement that the sale of Bandcamp will “make it easier for independent artists to connect with creators and developers looking to license their music and enable Epic to focus on its core metaverse, games, and tools efforts.”

In March, a number of Bandcamp staff, under the name of Bandcamp United, unionised in a push for fairer wages and greater transparency from its leadership. Bandcamp’s CEO Ethan Diamond later responded, saying, “following the NLRB’s process and timeline. Bandcamp will respect the election outcome and if a union forms, we will negotiate in good faith.”

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