Tickle Your Taint Eclectic Music Reviews: Reflecting on the Sale of Bandcamp, Extreme Layoffs, and the Impending Erosion of Bandcamp as a Service and Platform

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Monday, January 1, 2024

Reflecting on the Sale of Bandcamp, Extreme Layoffs, and the Impending Erosion of Bandcamp as a Service and Platform

By Jack Rafferty

An immensely disappointing story to highlight from this previous year is the sale of, and subsequent gutting of, Bandcamp. One of the more artist-friendly music platforms out there, Bandcamp was a wonderful place for all those creating music, but especially great for up-and-coming bands and those seeking a platform and exposure that wouldn’t utterly exploit the fuck out of them. For a little background, Bandcamp was purchased by Epic Games, then sold to Songtradr, who proceeded to lay off half the staff of the entire company, particularly targeting those who were attempting to unionize (and who had won the ability to a form union) (https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/bandcamp-bargaining-union-layoffs-songtradr-18432047.php). In a year already terrible for layoffs, especially in tech, gaming, media, etc., this one really pissed me the fuck off.

This act is unfortunately part of a much larger, and growing, trend of attempting to stamp out any gains in working-class organization and power by squeezing down on people, threatening what little stability they have in their livelihoods. Using bullshit excuses, such as Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney’s claim of “overspending.” A SFG article (https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/bandcamp-bargaining-union-layoffs-songtradr-18432047.php) spells out the toll this takes, not just on people’s lives, but the creative integrity and independence of the company as a whole, citing:

“The union added that Bandcamp’s editorial team, responsible for the independent- and small-artist focused Bandcamp Daily, has been cut in half, and two-thirds of union-eligible engineering team members have been laid off too. Twelve out of the 13 union-eligible support staff are out as well, the union said, plus 70% of the vinyl team. Bandcamp’s vinyl pressing service lets artists run pledge campaigns to test out their market for potential vinyl releases.

‘It feels as though many of the aspects that make Bandcamp human—that make it a balm in an algorithm- and profit-driven music industry—have been gutted through these layoffs,’ laid-off editorial team member Atoosa Moinzadeh wrote in the release provided to SFGATE.”

Overall, this is just really fuckin sad and a disappointing outcome for a previously wonderful platform and the peoples’ lives involved. On top of the layoffs, this acquisition will most certainly lead Bandcamp down a road of much more egregious, profit-driven incentives and decision-making processes that will only hurt artists.