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“Music is therapeutic,” the late musician Prince as soon as stated. Bandcamp co-founder Ethan Diamond advised 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 workers at present after finalizing its sale to music licensing firm Songtradr amid wide-scale cuts on the Fortnite maker. One former worker advised 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 group of artists and followers. After a complete analysis, together with the significance of roles for easy enterprise operations and pre current capabilities at Songtradr, 50% of Bandcamp staff have accepted gives to hitch Songtradr.”
The remainder of the roughly 120 staff will 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 accordance with inside paperwork seen by Kotaku. Based on 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 evening earlier than the deal was introduced.
Diamond didn’t reply to a request for remark despatched to his Bandcamp e-mail tackle over every 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 might divest itself of Bandcamp in a September 28 weblog submit that exposed roughly 830 layoffs throughout the broader firm. Staff of the impartial music platform, which has been an particularly standard place for followers to purchase from and assist online game composers instantly, 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 workers had misplaced entry and permissions to the instruments wanted to carry out their common duties in that point, grinding every thing however essential capabilities inside Bandcamp to a halt as workers waited to see who could be laid off.
Through the weeks that adopted, Bandcamp’s union, which represented about half of the corporate on the time, called on Songtradr to voluntarily recognize 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 large adjustments to situations on the bottom with Bandcamp being minimize roughly in half.
“There’s no method Bandcamp will proceed as Songtradr has promised,” one former worker advised Kotaku earlier this month. “It’s simply fully fucked up.”
The chaotic switch of possession and the confusion amongst workers 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 expertise and platform, quite than the corporate as an entire, together with its workers. As staff waited for the deal to shut, many had been left at nighttime about what was occurring and who would finally nonetheless have a job when the mud ultimately settled. Based on 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 workers the place they might 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 this planet,” Epic Video games wrote on the time of the unique acquisition. “The truth that Epic bought bandcamp a 12 months after they purchased it reveals that they’d no plan and no actual curiosity in bandcamp’s mission,” tweeted FTL: Sooner Than Mild composer Ben Prunty.
It’s not clear what is going to occur to Bandcamp going ahead. ”We’re dedicated to holding the present Bandcamp providers that followers and artists love, together with its artist-first income share, Bandcamp Fridays and Bandcamp Each day,” it stated in a press release to Kotaku at present. Epic will proceed to work with Bandcamp on Fortnite Radio and stays an investor in Songtradr.
Based on 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 supply course of with full-consideration of all authorized necessities,” a spokesperson for Songtradr advised Kotaku. They stated remaining gives had been despatched out after a cautious analysis and examination of “a number of components.”
The Bandcamp United union didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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