Oakland’s Bandcamp slashes staff after sale
Epic Games has initiated layoffs at Bandcamp, the Oaklandbased online music distribution platform it recently sold to Songtradr.
Among those affected were members of Bandcamp Daily, the platform’s editorial arm, as confirmed by former staff members on social media channels.
“About half the company was laid off today,” senior editor JJ Skolnik announced on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday morning.
This move comes weeks after Songtradr’s acquisition of Bandcamp was announced on Sept. 28. The company did not disclose how many employees were impacted by the cuts. California’s Employment Development Department did not immediately have information on layoff notices.
Songtradr, a Santa Monicabased licensing company, had previously stated that not all Bandcamp employees would be absorbed after the platform’s sale from Epic, citing the service’s financial situation as the basis for workforce adjustments.
Bandcamp, the online service that helps millions of independent artists market their music directly to fans, set up an office in downtown Oakland in 2019. It boasts giving creators and record labels an average of 82% of sales revenue, far higher than other streaming music services.
Epic Games, creator of the hugely popular “Fortnite” video game, acquired the platform in March 2022 but decided to dump it after just 1 years of ownership. The sale comes as the company cuts around 16% of its workforce, about 830 employees, in the face of lower profits that were outpaced by growing expenses.
“Epic folks around the world have been making ongoing efforts to reduce costs, including moving to net zero hiring and cutting operating spend on things like marketing and events,” CEO Tim Sweeney wrote in a memo. “But we still ended up far short of financial sustainability.”
Despite calls from Bandcamp United, the employee union, urging Songtradr to extend job offers to all existing staffers and provide voluntary severance options, Songtradr has not recognized the union.
“Officially laid off from Bandcamp, after two weeks of waiting in limbo with many of my fellow colleagues,” Atoosa Moinzadeh, a social media manager at the platform, wrote on X. “Unsurprisingly there has been no humanity extended in this process. our union will prosper though.”
Epic said that SuperAwesome, a youth marketing firm it purchased in 2020, is also being divested as a separate entity.
These divestitures will result in approximately 250 employees leaving Epic. Those who do not receive new positions will be offered severance packages.
Songtradr, in a news release announcing the acquisition, had pledged to maintain Bandcamp as a marketplace and music community “with an artist-first revenue share.”