Independent music platform Bandcamp sold - AGAIN

[thewayne]

While this seems like a repeat, it isn't. About a year ago, Bandcamp was bought up by Epic Games. About a week ago, Epic sold it to Songtradr, a music licensing company - and not only was 16% of Bandcamp's workforce laid off, but lots of people were locked out of key systems. Songtradr put Bandcamp into 'stasis', making it very hard for the workers to help bands and buyers of music with problems, which means revenues from people buying music will likely drop.

Smart move there. They probably thought they were avoiding insider sabotage, I don't think that was a likely happening as people working there were also doing it as a labor of love of music on top of doing it for the wages.

Regardless, sacking that much of your workforce is decidedly a dick move and could have been handled a lot more gracefully. And here's the best part - some, if not all, of Bandcamp's workers are represented by a union. You can just bet that the firings were in violation of contract.

https://www.wired.com/story/epic-games-sale-bandcamp-music-platform-limbo/

Comments

[dewline]

Yep.

And that violating the contract that way was the goal of the deal.

[white_aster]

Sad, but not surprising. When Epic Games bought it I was like "....??" It just didn't seem like a good fit at all, and felt like something they wanted to have just to sell later. Super sad, as I buy most of my music from Bandcamp nowadays, partly because of how they fairly pay the artists, and partly just because they let me listen to the whole dang album so I know whether I actually like it first. And who knows what the new owners are going to do with it.

[thewayne]

I have a feeling I'm going to be buying a lot of my music in the future direct from bands when I can.  There's a German band that I really like, Saltutio Mortis, and I can buy their CDs direct from them.  I'm tired of enriching Amazon except when I absolutely have to, usually I can find alternatives.  And the band will probably get a lot more if I buy it from them direct.

[white_aster]

Yeah, I'm hoping that bands can transition to their own storefronts and still make enough. I'm just sad....Bandcamp as a system actually was working very well at introducing me to new bands and getting me to buy new music. I don't listen to the radio or anything else music related other than the bandcamp newsletters, really.

[thewayne]

I used BC for music for video production.  I always contacted the artists, paid for the music, gave them credit in my videos, and sent them a link.  I'm hoping nothing bad happens, but I'm not holding my breath.

[disneydream06]

Don't you just love Big Business?
UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

No, I really don't.  Clearly this was a vanity purchase that served no big need for Epic to consummate, and now it's damaging Bandcamp further.

[silveradept]

It's unsurprising but still aggravating the ease in which capitalism is able to ruin the good things merely through the pursuit of getting more profits.

[thewayne]

Yep, that about sums it up.  Boards like the buy-outs because it frequently means bonuses for them that sits on them.