Google and Epic Games have reached an agreement to keep Bandcamp on the Play Store amidst its potential billing policy dispute.
The deal that was reached between Google, Epic Games, and Bandcamp was announced in a blog post on Bandcamp’s site as well as in joint legal filings. The issue at hand is a new Play Store rule stating that Bandcamp and other apps would have to switch from their own billing programs to Google’s if it wants to remain in the Play Store.
Google made this change to the Play Store back in September 2020 and stated it was making changes to terms “to be more explicit that all developers selling digital goods in their apps are required to use Google Play’s billing system.”
A delay for this change occurred in July 2021, which pushed the deadline to March 31, 2022. Google made an announcement shortly after stating that on “June 1, 2022, any app that is still not compliant will be removed from Google Play.”
Ethan Diamond, Bandcamp’s CEO, stated in a previous blog post that Bandcamp “will bear” the 10-percent charge applied through Google Play’s billing system, meaning that artists would receive the same amount in sales as before.
On June 1, 2022, Epic Games will start paying into “a mutually acceptable escrow account, on a monthly basis, the applicable fee under the DDA on all revenue collected for in-app transactions of digital goods and services in the Bandcamp app,” reads the legal text, which was acquired by Digital Music News.
Earlier this year, Fortnite developer Epic Games purchased Bandcamp for an undisclosed amount of money. Bandcamp’s CEO, Ethan Diamond, will remain as the company’s CEO.
“Bandcamp will keep operating as a standalone marketplace and music community, and I will continue to lead our team,” Diamond told Digital Music News. “The products and services you depend on aren’t going anywhere, we’ll continue to build Bandcamp around our artists-first revenue model (where artists net an average of 82% of every sale), you’ll still have the same control over how you offer your music, Bandcamp Fridays will continue as planned, and the Daily will keep highlighting the diverse, amazing music on the site.”