Half of Bandcamp staff laid off

[Largos]

https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/17/ ... w_layoffs/

Many staff at audio marketplace Bandcamp aren't singing a happy tune after the platform's new owner, Songtradr, laid off around 50 percent of employees.

"As of October 16 2023, Songtradr has officially acquired Bandcamp. Over the past few years the operating costs of Bandcamp have significantly increased. It required some adjustments to ensure a sustainable and healthy company that can serve its community of artists and fans," a spokesperson confirmed to The Register.

"After a comprehensive evaluation, including the importance of roles for smooth business operations and pre existing functions at Songtradr, 50 percent of Bandcamp employees have accepted offers to join Songtradr."

In other words, staff were told to reapply for their jobs and half of them didn't make it in the Hunger Games-like contest.

The Oakland, California-based music site, patronized by Radiohead, Peter Gabriel, and Aphex Twin, was bought by Epic Games last year - in part because of the site's strong following in the gaming industry. It also has a thriving business producing vinyl LPs - which for younger readers are music storage devices that play back sound when a stylus is dragged across a polymer disc as it rotates.

As a POI for Fortnite players, in an economizing round last month Epic cut staff by 16 percent and sold off Bandcamp, saying it was "we still ended up far short of financial sustainability." The $520 million it had to pay in a settlement with the FTC for over violating children's privacy might have had something to do with that.

Bandcamp employees are reportedly receiving six months severance pay - unusually generous terms for the tech industry. This might have something to do with staff choosing to unionize in March, in alliance with the Tech Workers Union 1010.

The cuts, however, have been brutal. According to one former employee the editorial department that promotes new music is now down to three people after being gutted.

"We are committed to keeping the existing Bandcamp services that fans and artists love, including its artist-first revenue share, Bandcamp Fridays and Bandcamp Daily," said Songtradr.

"We are looking forward to welcoming Bandcamp into our musically aligned community. We share a deep passion for all things music and will continue to serve artists, labels and the fans who make it all possible." ®

Fair warning to have back up plans if you need them.

[Michael Willis]

More conversation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37905638

[GMaq]

Eeesh!

I just spent a good portion of this week organizing and putting the catalog of an old non-tech-savvy musician friend on there because he had no online presence.. This is disappointing news for sure!

[Largos]

A video about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kan7RGc-QrA

[glowrak guy]

I'm not too worried about Bandcamp. They've been around long enough to know what needs fixing or changing.
These large layoffs occur in a wide range of industries where the payrolls and workload don't match up.
In an attempt to keep a business alive and profitable, new or existing management must identify the most productive employees,
and others are let go. Sadly, sometimes it's the brown-nosing ass kissers who keep their job, but often, the truth exposes
their laziness/incompetance, and they are also replaced or just axed. This has happenened to many huge social-media and
entertainment conglomerates, who failed to run lean efficient businesses. In this recent mess, the root cause is easy to see.
Even my bank is now run on a skeleton crew, preferring fewer workers and longer lines/wait times for customers. kachinnngggggg$$$$$$

Every thing a business will purchase, now costs more, because fuel prices
have doubled, for each of these standard steps below, in the creation of
all the things we buy.

energy needed to discover materials
energy needed to gather materials
energy needed to transport materials
energy needed to process materials
energy needed to ship processed materials
energy needed to ready materials for production
energy needed to to produce products.
energy needed to store and ship products
energy needed for local distribution and sale of products.

Fuel costs for each of these steps have doubled, and everyone has to either increase their price,
or lower the quality and/or amount of a given product per sale.

Even in the best of times, we should have multiple backups of valued finished works, related project files,
and serial-numbers-receipts for expensive tools and software. Which reminds me I'm behind by a few dvd's worth,
I better practice what I preach pretty quick
Cheers

[sysrqer]

Enshittification of the internet continues.

[RyanH]

Enshittification of the internet continues.

Great term and article. Thanks for the link.

I remember when I first read that Epic had bought Bandcamp, Bandcamp was telling users not to worry, this would be great for everybody, etc. I do believe that they believed that at the time. I was skeptical. I guess we'll see where it goes...

[AlkuK]

Bandcamp's downward spiral was, unfortunately, well underway, when it got sold to the gaming firm. Considering that things routinely go sour when the good folk give in to outer pressures (covid / market boom, whatever), I'm not surprised at all. There could be a by-us for-us platform that catered to artists' needs. PE (Chuck D) tried this in the earlier web days, and ended up selling out? Surely, I'm not against selling, but there could be even clauses to stop belly landings such as this...: Bandcamp being sprayed out with gutter water owing to short-sighted owners. In short, people can be too fickle or fidgety, when money is concerned... I'm building on Christ. Peace, all.

[glowrak guy]

BandCamp is still up and running. Their system, as is, is pretty simple to navigate, seems quite complete, and shouldn't
require a huge support staff. A couple things I need to study to understand how certain things get viwed in public,
but I'm happy with their service.
Cheers

[Linuxmusician01]

Maybe it's simply because the days are gone that you can earn a living in Music. Let alone the days of getting extremely rich like the Beatles and the Stones (60's, 70's).

There is an extremely insanely high and endless supply whereas demand is still the same (that is: also high but not a high as the insanely high supply). Price is determined by supply and demand. Not by quality, unfortunately.

I remember record stores in the 80's and 90's. They just stopped selling LP's to sell CD's or were about to. That made room in the stores for recordings in every music genre (rock, commercial, dance/house etc.) and every of decade (60's, 70's & 80's/90's). But it was slowly getting impossible to "serve" every part of the public. Just too many decades of good pop-music. Specialist stores emerged and I loved them. Big stores only had, to name Pink Floyd, 'Dark Side' and 'Wish y. Were Here', the good small shops for music lovers even had 'Soundtrack from the film More' (which sucks BTW).

The downfall of music stores coincided with the rise of Napster and The Pirate Bay. In my opinion that obfuscates the "problem". Part of the problem of slowly but surely not being able to earn a living in the Music biz as new band is not - again: as I remember - the ease of illegal and now legal (Spotify) downloads, like Metallica argued. It was the sheer amount of supply of good music compared to the hey days of the 60's and 70's. I am not from the 60's/70's, yet I listen to music from that era a lot. That new Rolling Stones album is a great hit and gets played by the young and old alike. That says something in my opinion. Can you imagine a 20-something in 1966 listening to music his dad likes? Nope. Supply is at an all time high.

The lay-offs at Bandcamp and recent behaviour of Spotify (if you have less than a certain quota of steams a month you wont get paid!) IMHO is a consequence of this. Those platforms were "new and happening" but now that the dust has settled something has to give. Another example: now that new social media platforms are popping up like mushrooms on dirty soil the juggernauts like Twitter/X and Facebook run into trouble. Supply and demand. Saturation of the market.

Sad but true.

[glowrak guy]

The phrase 'earn a living in music' has always had a broad definition. My next-door neighbor is an 'unknown' by international standards,
but plays jazz gigs locally, sells his music, and some music gear, online, and CDs at shows. He gives guitar and music-tech lessons,
and has a few back-yard concert charity fundraisers each summer. His wife is a landscaper, and some years, sells starts of the
most popular local flowers and herbs. Not rich, but they're enjoying a good life.

Demand for music is growing, as the population grows, as 3rd-world cultures modernize, and as old geezers modernize.

Specialist music shops are doing well here, having adapted to the market, and are growing in number.

Back-catalog 'old' music get's more listens than the stars pushed by a few big consortiums. Artists have the freedom
to learn and apply the lifestyles, decisions, and business practices that promote success.

To me, for a small monthly fee, cheeper than a single USA fast-food meal, Spotify supplies near instant access to virtually
any commercial music that's ever been recorded. I value that potental. Bonus points for my own music own being included.
(I added 8 more songs to the list recently, 'Late4Work' is a short one, on the fun side of the needle.
'The Lost Photo' is a more somber reflective piece. 'Charly At The Party' is a goofing off 'Vince Guaraldi' type temperment.

'Sad but true' ? Quite possibly. And maybe just the tip of an iceberg.
To quote Candace Owens, "Life's Tough. Get a helmet"
Cheers

[Linuxmusician01]

The phrase 'earn a living in music' has always had a broad definition. My next-door neighbor is an 'unknown' by international standards,
but plays jazz gigs locally, sells his music, and some music gear, online, and CDs at shows. He gives guitar and music-tech lessons,
and has a few back-yard concert charity fundraisers each summer.

Your neighbor is a very lucky and taleted person!

[...]
Specialist music shops are doing well here, having adapted to the market, and are growing in number.

Hmmmmm. Where I live they're all gone. As are music-instrument shops, but that's anther story.

This all does not mean that I'm disappointed in "music" or how the business is nowadays. I avoid big stadium shows like the plague. Like Roger Waters said after the 'In The Flesh' tour of 1977: "They're a disaster for everybody involved." (made him write 'The Wall'). I go to bands that are unknown to me after listening to one or two songs of 'm on Youtube. The little amount of money that you pay then (sometimes as little as € 15) is an insult to the artist. But they're giving all they have and I'm having a great time. No people around that photograph themselves with their back to the podium to post on Facebook/Instagram. No loud drunk people.

I still buy CD's (MP3's are for Napster: I will NEVER pay for such a lame non-physical product); yep: on Bandcamp. Hate the resurgence of bad audio-quality hipster obsolete formats like tape and vinyl. CD's are cheap, Spotify is cheap. This is a great time for music-lovers but not for music makers who want to get famous or earn a living with it.

Small starting-out bands or hobby bands are of amazing quality nowadays. They used to be amateurs not worth your attention until they had a record deal. I love to go to small festivals with small bands. Festivals on a big terrain tend to be somewhere very hard to reach, you must buy a beer for € 6 and they are overly crowded and attract people that are only interested in posting their presence on Facebook (I'm looking at you 50 year-olds like me!). In the early nineties I started to hate festivals and stadium concerts because of all the hassle and the over-crowdedness. That has changed for the better. Some of the festivals that I like most are nearby and even for free! Again: no money to be made here.

That's sad but true: it's heaven for us music lovers but a struggle for music makers I'm afraid... And for some reason (probably the love of music, producing and performing) new acts and bands still pop up very often.

[Largos]

https://mixmag.net/read/bandcamp-united ... ition-news

Bandcamp United, the union established in May to represent employees of the digital record store, has filed an unfair labour practice claim against Songtradr and Epic Games.

The union claims that both companies violated the 1935 National Relations Act (NLRA) through unfair labor practices.

The NLRA protects the fundamental right of private-sector employees to seek better working conditions and designation of representation without fear of retaliation.

Songtradr completed its purchase of Bandcamp from previous owners Epic Games in September, and triggered layoffs for roughly half of the company's staff including three out of its in-house publication Bandcamp Daily's six non-management staff, eight elected members of the union's collective bargaining commitee and 40 of the 67 union's collective bargaining unit.

Songtradr spokesperson Lindsay Nahmiache asserted that the layoffs had been made following a "comprehensive evaluation" which considered the importance of roles for "smooth business operations and pre-existing functions at Songtradr".

Bandcamp United have highlighted how Bandcamp's Black employees were disproportionately affected by the lay offs, as reflected by the graphic below.

https://twitter.com/bandcampunited/stat ... 2072256897

After Songtradr communicated to staff their impending layoffs on October 16, Epic Games confirmed to Vulture that these dismissals were not "new", implying that decisions regarding mass redundancies had already been made prior to Songtradr's acquisition

Weeks before the layoffs, Bandcamp United had published its demands to Songtradr, calling for employment offers and equitable, voluntary severance for all workers and a recognition of the union with speedy continuation of bargaining.

The union has now filed a complaint against Songtradr and Epic Games with the National Relations Board (NLRB) for laying off its whole bargaining committee. Bandcamp United alleges discrimination on the basis of labor activity.

[glowrak guy]

It's absurd for BandCamp to keep it's headquarters in Oakland Ca, a very dangerous place to do business.
The taxes/regulations are stifling, effecting how that business pays it's employees. And there is plenty of
required employee data that can be used in court, should the need arise.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/most-d ... in-the-us/

https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ca/oakland/crime

...add a very posh new leased office space:

2019: new headquarters/store https://www.kqed.org/arts/13848866/insi ... and-office

Back then, according to the 2019 article, 46 of 63 employess worked from remote locations around the world.
Very likely that percentage increased during the covid era, and the covid lockdowns in California were crazy,
you couldn't even walk your dog on a beach, or go surfing. (while corrupt officials blatantly partied in
expensive restaurants )

Now, multiple ownership changes later, and in a more expensive economy, and with plenty of competition,
it's clear to see there was need for cost-cutting, and still a need for a change of location. If they signed some
iron-clad long term lease, the current owners are still obligated, with huge fees to terminate a lease.
Will the lawyers eat my music? It's somewhat chewable
Cheers

[merlyn]

... To me, for a small monthly fee, cheeper than a single USA fast-food meal, Spotify supplies near instant access to virtually
any commercial music that's ever been recorded. ...

I haven't seen Spotify recommended as a healthy lifestyle option. If a Spotify subscription means eating one less cheeseburger a month, then that is going to be good for a person's health.

Really, what is the difference between Napster and Spotify? Spotify has a nicer UI, and supposedly Spotify is legal, which means record companies get the money, not artists. Napster was free and supposedly everybody lost. Spotify costs money, and that money goes to the 'right' place -- the rich. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. That's what the system is set up to do.

The situation with streaming was bad enough that the UK Government set up a commitee to look into it.

To summarise -- it shafts artists and makes songwriting a job that pays below minimum wage. From the musician's side there is the Broken Record campaign that has proposed solutions to make streaming fairer for artists.