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Bandcamp Slashes Nearly Half Its Staff After Epic Sale (sfchronicle.com) 61

Aidin Vaziri reports via the San Francisco Chronicle: Epic Games has initiated layoffs at Bandcamp, the Oakland-based online music distribution platform it recently sold to Songtradr. Among those affected were members of Bandcamp Daily, the platform's editorial arm, as confirmed by former staff members on social media channels. "About half the company was laid off today," senior editor JJ Skolnik announced on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday morning. This move comes weeks after Songtradr's acquisition of Bandcamp was announced on Sept. 28. The company did not disclose how many employees were impacted by the cuts.

Songtradr, a Santa Monica-based licensing company, had previously stated that not all Bandcamp employees would be absorbed after the platform's sale from Epic, citing the service's financial situation as the basis for workforce adjustments. [...] The sale comes as the company cuts around 16% of its workforce, about 830 employees, in the face of lower profits that were outpaced by growing expenses.

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Bandcamp Slashes Nearly Half Its Staff After Epic Sale

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  • Epic Fail? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Errol backfiring ( 1280012 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2023 @05:19AM (#63930935) Journal
    If you fire half of the staff, the rest will want to get another job as well. This is just bleeding Bandcamp out.
    • If you fire half of the staff, the rest will want to get another job as well. This is just bleeding Bandcamp out.

      As a long time IT worker, I can assure that this is not correct. While most may now want to leave, there will always be people who will not leave no matter how bad it gets and how many get laid off. Some employees are terrified of leaving their jobs and will stay until they also get laid off, ignoring all the warning signs. I'll give you an example, although it's not the only one I know. About a decade ago, I worked for a Fortune 500 company and we needed another system admin guy and we hired one fr

  • local scenes...
  • Wait, what? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2023 @05:41AM (#63930971) Journal

    Epic Games has initiated layoffs at Bandcamp, the Oakland-based online music distribution platform it recently sold to Songtradr.

    How could Epic Games initiate layoffs at a company that it recently sold?

    Don't you mean that Songtradr initiated layoffs?

    • Re:Wait, what? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Entrope ( 68843 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2023 @05:51AM (#63930989) Homepage

      https://www.latimes.com/entert... [latimes.com] explains it a bit more clearly:

      The Bandcamp staff reductions were part of the September layoffs initiated by Epic Games. A representative for Songtradr told The Times that 60 of Bandcampâ(TM)s 118 employees were offered the opportunity to retain their position, and that 58 workers had accepted.

      And:

      Because the transaction was an asset sale, Songtradr had no legal requirement to retain employees or recognize the union.

      So technically it sounds like Epic fired everyone at Bandcamp, sold the company's assets to Songtradr, and Songtradr hired about half of the enployees.

      • Re:Wait, what? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2023 @06:09AM (#63931017) Homepage

        "So technically it sounds like Epic fired everyone at Bandcamp, sold the company's assets to Songtradr, "

        Only in the USA could you get away with that kind of shit. I'm glad I live in europe where employees are treated less like disposable cattle and we have laws preventing companies just firing everyone on a whim.

        • by RobinH ( 124750 )
          Ok, on this one point, you win. In Europe life is wonderful because companies can't fire anyone. That's legitimately nice. But Europeans also make way less income [wikipedia.org] and live in a very geographically dangerous area where there are potential adversaries all around and very little in the way of natural defences. On the other hand the US has vast natural resources, is a net food exporter, is net energy neutral, isn't reliant on imports for anything other than Taiwan electronics and sun belt coffee, has an ama
          • 1. This is average wage, and the number is pushed higher by a few extremely high income outliers. Median and mode numbers would be a more valuable comparison.

            Even so, a small wage reduction for good trains and healthcare seems a great tradeoff.

            • by RobinH ( 124750 )
              If you go from $77,000 a year to $53,000 and you also have to pay a higher percentage of taxes, that's hardly a "small wage reduction."
            • Okay, fair enough. Median income in the US is about $60K/year. Norway comes close to that and Luxembourg actually surpasses it, but those are special cases (Norway because of its oil wealth which it has managed quite well, Luxembourg because it's so small) Next up is Denmark, at $46K. German is at $45K. France is at $44K. Italy is $35K. Those are not "small wage reductions".

          • by Viol8 ( 599362 )

            "and live in a very geographically dangerous area where there are potential adversaries all around"

            If you think europe is dangerous then I guess you never leave your basement. I'd sooner go anywhere in europe than some american cities and towns where every halfwit has the right to own a gun and use them. And does.

            • by RobinH ( 124750 )
              I'm not American, but I've spent considerable time there, and while there are certainly "bad neighborhoods" in the USA, most people live in reasonably safe areas and go about their day without much worry, much as people do in Europe when I visited there.
            • by cshamis ( 854596 )
              Europe is more dangerous dude. Look it up.
          • Most nations in Europe provide better services and infrastructure than the USA so one doesn't need as much income to live nicely and with lower stress. They won't go broke if they leave the house and have an accident... or get shot.

            As far as dangerous geography, that is something but not as much of a factor as it used to be. We waste ridiculous amounts of money on the military we do not hardly need... as you said, we are not located in a hot spot. (it's corruption and also to maintain our economic global

        • Well, the UK is getting more like USA these days.

          France is the place to be with better job security.

        • by quall ( 1441799 )

          Huh? You mean that you are not able to liquidate or sell IPs that you own in other countries?

          Are do you mean that they should also sell their workers, like a slave trader?

          • by Viol8 ( 599362 )

            You can do what you like with your IP but you can't just sack the staff because you feel like it. There's needs to be a consultation then there's redundancy notice and pay. Lukcily over this side of the pond the psychopaths didn't make the rules.

    • Epic Games has initiated layoffs at Bandcamp, the Oakland-based online music distribution platform it recently sold to Songtradr.

      How could Epic Games initiate layoffs at a company that it recently sold?

      Don't you mean that Songtradr initiated layoffs?

      "had previously stated that not all Bandcamp employees would be absorbed after the platform's sale from Epic, citing the service's financial situation as the basis for workforce adjustments..."

      Wait, how can a company spending money on acquisitions abuse the "financial" excuse to lay off enough to kill the very business they just spent money on?

      I think we should be highlighting this stupidity above all. Don't buy even the competition if you can't afford it.

      • by fazig ( 2909523 )
        Sweeney went insane some time ago with things like pushing his idea of a metaverse where he gets to take a cut from everything.
        Where I previously saw a competent software developer I now see someone who has gotten a bit too high on his own ego, joining the ranks of others who seem to be convinced that they can just will their imagination into reality.

        We'll have to see if he continues to follow this path. Though for the time being, I expect more weirdness to come.
        • by Junta ( 36770 )

          Note that Sweeney is in this case not the one spending money to acquire.

          Songtradr said "we want everything needed to run the company, but not the employees, you'll have to lay them off, and then we'll make job offers to the few we want to keep"

          In my experience with one company selling off a piece to another company, it is common for the new owners to force the existing company to take the burden of getting rid of people as part of the sale, one way or another.

          • Severance is built into the sale, as well as the tax write-off. So the ultimate loser (besides the laid-off employees) is all the rest of us taxpayers who get to pick up the tab for that lost revenue. When my company was acquired, went through the same kind of negotiation. I had a number of older employees that the buyer didn't want to carry, so it was up to me to make them severance offers and run the potential risk of lawsuits for age discrimination. Thankfully, I had enough to cover my people (and then s
          • by fazig ( 2909523 )
            As the majority shareholder, Sweeney made the decision to acquire Bandcam in the first place to get a foot into the "creator market place".
            Epic also made a number of other acquisitions that have turned out to be not as smart as they thought it would be. Diversified too quickly in the hopes that their Fortnite metaverse would bring in enough funds to stem it all. But when that pretty much fell on its face they're now in a damage controll mode.

            I don't see how I couldn't at least partially blame Sweeney her
      • by quall ( 1441799 )

        They didn't kill the business after 1.6 years. They sold it because they do not think it is going to be profitable anymore, and only 60 of the 118 employees were offered contracts with the new owners. Epic's business model could have changed, or maybe it's just not as profitable as they thought. If it was a good business, then the new owners would have probably kept more than 50% of the employees.

  • I got an email from one of the bands that used to be on bandcamp at the end of September saying basically this :
    Bandcamp

    mer. 27 sept. 21 h 02
    Gods Of Something

    In about 10 -15 minutes I will start closing everything. I plan to private everything and change the password to something I can't possibly remember so this account will be inaccessible period. If you still want to get codes or free downloads now is the time. Once the Gmail is closed out there will be no other way to contact me.

    Goodbye everyone, don't

  • ...and kept the technical people who keep the platform actually running.

    Today on Bandcamp: World's Tiniest Violin playing Symphony Concerto #1 for Everyone Who'll Miss the Condescending Blurbs About How Women Are Changing Rock ($3.99 or more).

    • by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Tuesday October 17, 2023 @10:17AM (#63931605)

      Today on Bandcamp: World's Tiniest Violin playing Symphony Concerto #1 for Everyone Who'll Miss the Condescending Blurbs About How Women Are Changing Rock ($3.99 or more).

      I know you're trying to spin hate towards band camp but the funny thing about your comment here is that it seems to me that there is more current good rock music by female artists than at any point in my life.

    • Part of the value-add of Bandcamp is discovery and highlights.

      Maybe they were overloaded on that role, but it's *foolish* to think Bandcamp should go without any curation or human element.

      And maybe those tech wizards can make a UI that doesn't blow ass.

  • How can a company fire half the staff *after* it sold the other company to a third company?

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