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thewayneThere's been an interesting revelation and nasty development in the sale of Bandcamp by Epic Games to Songtradr. Approximately half of the staff have been dumped. And it turns out that the sale was an ASSET SALE with "no legal requirement to retain employees or recognize the union". Wow, what a weasel way to operate! I mean, I've heard of a company shedding assets in bankruptcy reorgs, but that's not what's going on here!
Late stage capitalism or what?
From the LA Times article: "Songtradr has not officially recognized the Bandcamp United union, which had been demanding Songtradr extend an offer to all employees and provide severance packages to those who declined to stay on board. Because the transaction was an asset sale, Songtradr had no legal requirement to retain employees or recognize the union."
So the name moves, the assets move, and almost all of the people are gone. One thing that I found confusing was one article said that Bandcamp had 830 employees, then this LA Times article says "A representative for Songtradr told The Times that 60 of Bandcamp’s 118 employees were offered the opportunity to retain their position, and that 58 workers had accepted."
Seems to me that this is fertile ground for another big company to swoop in, recruit all of these suddenly displaced people, and restart Bandcamp under a new name with fresh funding. I, not being a billionaire and successful businessman, will not be doing this.
The Slashdot article summary references a San Francisco Chronicle article that first complained that I was using an ad blocker. When I unblocked the article, it then wanted me to subscribe. Fortunately someone on Slashdot pointed to the LA Times article which just wanted ads unblocked. I then went back and re-blocked the Chronicle.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-10-16/bandcamp-layoffs-songtradr-epic-games
https://slashdot.org/story/23/10/17/0226239/bandcamp-slashes-nearly-half-its-staff-after-epic-sale
Late stage capitalism or what?
From the LA Times article: "Songtradr has not officially recognized the Bandcamp United union, which had been demanding Songtradr extend an offer to all employees and provide severance packages to those who declined to stay on board. Because the transaction was an asset sale, Songtradr had no legal requirement to retain employees or recognize the union."
So the name moves, the assets move, and almost all of the people are gone. One thing that I found confusing was one article said that Bandcamp had 830 employees, then this LA Times article says "A representative for Songtradr told The Times that 60 of Bandcamp’s 118 employees were offered the opportunity to retain their position, and that 58 workers had accepted."
Seems to me that this is fertile ground for another big company to swoop in, recruit all of these suddenly displaced people, and restart Bandcamp under a new name with fresh funding. I, not being a billionaire and successful businessman, will not be doing this.
The Slashdot article summary references a San Francisco Chronicle article that first complained that I was using an ad blocker. When I unblocked the article, it then wanted me to subscribe. Fortunately someone on Slashdot pointed to the LA Times article which just wanted ads unblocked. I then went back and re-blocked the Chronicle.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-10-16/bandcamp-layoffs-songtradr-epic-games
https://slashdot.org/story/23/10/17/0226239/bandcamp-slashes-nearly-half-its-staff-after-epic-sale
