“Music is therapeutic,” the late musician Prince as soon as stated. Bandcamp co-founder Ethan Diamond informed NPR in 2020 that the purpose of the impartial digital music platform he was constructing was to deliver that energy of therapeutic to everybody. Many present Bandcamp staff are going to want it. Epic Video games, which acquired Bandcamp only a 12 months in the past, laid off roughly half its employees right this moment after finalizing its sale to music licensing firm Songtradr amid wide-scale cuts on the Fortnite maker. One former worker informed Kotaku that no person’s heard from Diamond because the sale was introduced.
“Over the previous few years the working prices of Bandcamp have considerably elevated,” Songtradr wrote in a press release. “It required some changes to make sure a sustainable and wholesome firm that may serve its neighborhood of artists and followers. After a complete analysis, together with the significance of roles for easy enterprise operations and pre current features at Songtradr, 50% of Bandcamp staff have accepted gives to affix Songtradr.”
The remainder of the roughly 120 staff will probably be laid off by Epic and obtain six months of severance, at the same time as Bandcamp’s union continues to cut price with the billion-dollar firm over higher phrases. Epic Video games purchased Bandcamp in March 2022 for $273 million, in response to inside paperwork seen by Kotaku. In keeping with two former staff, who wished to stay nameless as a result of they didn’t need to jeopardize their severance packages, even Diamond was not conscious of Epic’s plan to promote Bandcamp to Songtradr till as quickly because the night time earlier than the deal was introduced.
Diamond didn’t reply to a request for remark despatched to his Bandcamp electronic mail handle over per week in the past (it has since been disconnected). Epic declined to touch upon whether or not Diamond was conscious of the deal to promote Bandcamp earlier than it occurred.
Epic Video games introduced it could divest itself of Bandcamp in a September 28 weblog put up that exposed roughly 830 layoffs throughout the broader firm. Staff of the impartial music platform, which has been an particularly widespread place for followers to purchase from and assist online game composers straight, had been left in limbo within the weeks that adopted as to whether or not they would have a job at Songtradr as soon as the sale was full.
Two former staff stated they had been instantly logged out of Epic’s company-wide Slack channel as soon as the deal was introduced on September 28, regardless of nonetheless being on the corporate’s payrolls till it formally closed. Additionally they claimed {that a} majority of the employees had misplaced entry and permissions to the instruments wanted to carry out their common duties in that point, grinding the whole lot however important features inside Bandcamp to a halt as employees waited to see who could be laid off.
In the course of the weeks that adopted, Bandcamp’s union, which represented about half of the corporate on the time, known as on Songtradr to voluntarily acknowledge the union whereas it additionally negotiated with Epic over how the layoffs to union members could be dealt with. For instance, the sport writer stated that no worker who obtained a suggestion from Songtradr would stay eligible for Epic’s severance bundle. They might successfully be pressured to take the job on the new firm, regardless of the huge adjustments to situations on the bottom with Bandcamp being lower roughly in half.
“There’s no means Bandcamp will proceed as Songtradr has promised,” one former worker informed Kotaku earlier this month. “It’s simply utterly fucked up.”
The chaotic switch of possession and the confusion amongst employees was due largely to the character of the deal between Epic and Songtradr. The 2 firms agreed to an “asset sale” of Bandcamp quite than a “inventory sale.” This meant that Songtradr was solely buying the know-how and platform, quite than the corporate as an entire, together with its employees. As staff waited for the deal to shut, many had been left in the dead of night about what was occurring and who would finally nonetheless have a job when the mud finally settled. In keeping with two former staff, neither Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, nor anybody else on Epic’s senior management crew, ever held an all-hands assembly with Bandcamp employees the place they may ask questions.
The sudden, surprising buy of Bandcamp in 2022 and its messy sell-off this month have drawn criticism from many supporters of the platform. “We share a imaginative and prescient of constructing essentially the most open, artist-friendly ecosystem on the earth,” Epic Video games wrote on the time of the unique acquisition. “The truth that Epic bought bandcamp a 12 months after they purchased it exhibits that that they had no plan and no actual curiosity in bandcamp’s mission,” tweeted FTL: Sooner Than Gentle composer Ben Prunty.
It’s not clear what’s going to occur to Bandcamp going ahead. ”We’re dedicated to preserving the present Bandcamp providers that followers and artists love, together with its artist-first income share, Bandcamp Fridays and Bandcamp Day by day,” it stated in a press release to Kotaku right this moment. Epic will proceed to work with Bandcamp on Fortnite Radio and stays an investor in Songtradr.
In keeping with two former Bandcamp staff, those that had been laid off had been disproportionately from the union. “Songtradr had no entry to union membership data and we executed our employment provide course of with full-consideration of all authorized necessities,” a spokesperson for Songtradr informed Kotaku. They stated closing gives had been despatched out after a cautious analysis and examination of “a number of elements.”
The Bandcamp United union didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
