October 17, 2023 – OAKLAND (CelebrityAccess) – Bandcamp, an Oakland-based music business and app with a popular editorial section (Bandcamp Daily), runs an artist-friendly application to stream tracks for free. Still, the site tries to steer the listener towards purchasing music digitally or as a physical medium, with an average of 82% of the net revenue from Bandcamp going directly to the artists.
So, the music industry was apprehensive when it was announced that Epic Games, the company behind Gears of War and Fortnite, was snatching up Bandcamp in early 2022. Bandcamp co-founder and CEO Ethan Diamond announced the deal at that time in a short, non-detailed blog post but said Epic shared the company’s mission of building “the most open, artist-friendly ecosystem in the world.”
Late last month, Epic Games laid off 16% of its workforce or 830 employees, due to what CEO Tim Sweeney said at the time was “overspending.” It was also revealed that after just 18 months, Epic would sell the Bandcamp business to Songtradr, a Santa Monica-based company that deals in music licenses.
One of the worst tech labor years on record continues with the news that half of the employees at Bandcamp have lost their jobs due to the corporate swap. Just 50% of Bandcamp’s employees got offers from Songtradr in the acquisition – which Songtradr confirmed in an email to The Verge, in which they restated their commitment to keeping the Bandcamp experience the same. However, several editorial staff members have been laid off, including senior editor JJ Skolnik and Atoosa Moinzadeh. Employees who did not receive offers from Songtradr will be eligible for severance pay.
Bandcamp employees are reporting the news via their respective social media accounts, with one of them refuting Songtradr representative Lindsay Nahmiache’s statement to SFGATE that 50% of the Bandcamp workforce actually received offers.
officially laid off from bandcamp, after two weeks of waiting in limbo with many of my fellow colleagues. unsurprisingly there has been no humanity extended in this process. our union will prosper though.
still working at brick, still freelancing, so don’t be a stranger! pic.twitter.com/QL8Zb9H8ap
— Atoosa Moinzadeh (@atoosamoinzadeh) October 16, 2023
this makes it sound like they gave offers to all of us and 50% of us rejected them, which is NOT what happened. weasel language https://t.co/muvKip17p7
— jj skolnik (@modernistwitch) October 16, 2023
Hi friends. Myself and many colleagues were laid off from Bandcamp today. I had a good five years there and I’m looking forward to the future. I’m available for any editing, writing, or social media work. You can reach me at the email in my bio.
— Diamond Sharp (@diamonde) October 16, 2023
In March of this year, Bandcamp workers formed a union, Bandcamp United, in light of Epic taking over the company. According to Rolling Stone, several Bandcamp employees said new employment contracts were handed out with the takeover, and workers were given “a limited amount of time to sign them with no room for negotiation.”
It is the first union for a music streaming platform as it joined Tech Workers Union Local 1010 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), comprised of over 85,000 white-collar workers in the US and Canada. The mission statement says it wants to eradicate pay inequalities at the audio distributor, access to paid time off and promote “equitable conditions and economic stability.”
As of press time, Bandcamp United’s petition asking Songtradr to recognize them as a union has garnered more than 10,500 signatures, but no commitment from Songtradr yet. On Tuesday (October 10), the union’s X page posted the following:
“BARGAINING UPDATE: BCU is back at the table today w/ Epic Games mgmt re: layoff effects bargaining. Epic proposed six months severance — same as the previous offer and offered to Epic employees. We demand more for this upheaval & believe Epic employees deserve better, too. ✊✊”
This was posted 14 hours ago from the same Union X account.
Update on today’s layoffs: pic.twitter.com/yyUkcifXdQ
— Bandcamp United (@bandcampunited) October 17, 2023
Songtradr was founded in April 2014 by CEO Paul Wiltshire. In August 2020, Songtradr raised $20M in a series C funding round, valuing the company at $165M. In June 2021, the company raised another $50M in an oversubscribed Series D funding round. In addition to Bandcamp, the company has acquired several businesses in the last few years, including MusicCube (2022), Massive Music and Song Zu (2021), Big Sync Music (2019) and 7digital in March 2023, a B2B music company for a reported $23.4M.
CelebrityAccess has reached out to Songtradr for comment. As of press time, nothing has been received.
