The full version of this article, along with thousands like it, can be found here: Epic Games continues acquisition spree by acquiring Bandcamp

Epic Games is continuing its habit of buying innovative creator-friendly companies. The US-based video game giant has announced plans to acquire the online music platform Bandcamp.

Founded back in 2007 by Ethan Diamond, Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, Bandcamp is a well-loved service that allows artists and musicians to sell their music directly to fans. The company has said that it will continue to operate independently post-acquisition, and that its team and mission will remain unchanged.

This move is just the latest in a long string of acquisitions for Epic Games. In the past few years, they've bought up companies like Psyonix (makers of Rocket League), Kamu (a game security provider) and most recently, Houseparty (a viral social media app).

Epic Games' had this to say about the acquisition: ""an important role in Epic's vision to build out a creator marketplace ecosysetm for content, technology, games, art, music, and more". Bandcamp will still run its standalone store and community, and co-founder Ethan Diamond will continue to lead its operations.

The two didn't say how much the deal was worth or when they expected to finalize the arrangement. Bandcamp has grown over the years and has paid musicians close to $1 billion so far, Mr Diamond said.

The move follows a string of creativity-related acquisitions at Epic, including ArtStation, Cubic Motion and Sketchfab. While a music platform is an unusual purchase, it reflects Epic's evolution from a purely game-oriented company to one that produces visual effects tools like Stagecraft, which is used on the Disney+ show The Mandalorian and turns games into creative platforms. While Bandcamp's exact role at Epic isn't known, it could easily help artists in various mediums profit from their work.

The team at Platform Executive hope you have enjoyed this article. Automatic translation from English to a growing list of languages via Google AI Cloud Translation. Reporting by Rob Phillips.

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