Less than a month after being acquired by Songtradr, online music store Bandcamp laid off 50% of its employees on Monday, both on the technology team and behind the company’s blog, Bandcamp Daily.
In recent years, Bandcamp’s operating costs have increased significantly. The company has had to make some adjustments to ensure its health and sustainability and to serve its community of artists and fans, Songtradr said in a statement to Rolling Stone magazine.
The company added that 50% of Bandcamp employees had accepted an offer to work at Songtradr. For the remaining 50%, the contract will not be extended.
Video game maker Epic Games, which acquired Bandcamp in March 2022, parted ways with the platform popular with music lovers on September 28, laying off 16% of its employees. Songtradr, a company specializing in music licensing, also acquired the company.
Several former employees took to X (formerly Twitter) to comment on the announcement of their layoffs.
After three years at Bandcamp, almost 100 albums and forming a union, [j’ai] was fired without a sign from management, claimed Rochelle Shipman, Bandcamp’s record representative.
Officially released from Bandcamp after flying around with my colleagues for two weeks. It is not surprising that no humanity shines through, wrote editor Atoosa Moinzadeh.
Bandcamp prides itself on giving more money back to the artists hosted on its platform than other industry giants like Spotify or Apple Music. According to the company’s website, fans have paid a total of $1.19 billion to artists since its founding in 2007, including $193 million last year.
With information from Rolling Stone, Exclaim and The Guardian