At the end of the day, Bandcamp's founders sold to Epic. We all knew that was going to have a bad ending, we just didn't know the details. Now we know the details.
I mean, sure, "they" being "capitalist overlords", created a world where the Bandcamp founders would need to sell out in order to have am assured secure life for themselves and offspring. But they did sell out. Epic is just doing what Epic does.
> a world where the Bandcamp founders would need to sell out in order to have am assured secure life for themselves and offspring.
"need" is a bit twisted, i'm not sure anyone "needs" a million or so. If they really wanted to get out of it and keep it nice they most likely could have set up a non-profit or something, raised some money from the community and probably still get a small rent in some way. Also it's not like the CEO of such a company (smallish but still) is strapped on cash already.
> But they did sell out.
That's it.. There's no excuse and as you said, everyone knew this kind of constant downhill had a very high probability to happen. They definitely took the 90% chance coin-flip to hose the community and get "an actual bit of capital" much of money.
It seems odd—Bandcamp was basically a small company that could have chugged along with small but non-zero profits indefinitely.
Epic did nothing with them, and now they are being sold to a company that will almost certainly just destroy their value.
Why? This is dumb. I can see why Bandcamp’s owners would sell, but no rational buyer would buy Bandcamp, it is a company that is only valuable because of the goodwill that it has. Their niche is very-online music enthusiasts who are into the community feeling. We’re going to notice and leave as soon as the cash-in change happens.
Why didn’t Epic and this other company whoever they are just light some little piles of money on fire instead. At least they could have warmed their feet.
The narrative for why Epic did it is believed to be that it was an arrow in the "Apple is a monopoly" quiver. Epic would build a music-buying iOS App, and then complain to the government that Apple demands 30% of the revenue.
I mean, sure, "they" being "capitalist overlords", created a world where the Bandcamp founders would need to sell out in order to have am assured secure life for themselves and offspring. But they did sell out. Epic is just doing what Epic does.