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After work hours on September 27 final week, workers of Fortnite maker Epic Video games obtained a calendar invite informing them of a compulsory assembly the subsequent morning, based on an worker who obtained the message. Simply earlier than the shock all-hands was scheduled to start, workers of the web document retailer Bandcamp, which Epic purchased in March 2022, obtained one other e mail, says the employee: Epic was shedding 830 folks—round 16 p.c of the corporate’s workforce—and promoting Bandcamp to audio licensing firm Songtradr.
Bandcamp workers had been surprised to study that a few of them wouldn’t be receiving job provides from Songtradr. That day, the acquisition was introduced publicly, and a number of Bandcamp workers say they started shedding entry to lots of the programs wanted to do their jobs, leaving the platform working with restricted oversight.
Bandcamp buyer help specialist ed blair and software program engineer Blade Barringer say employees have obtained little steerage from Epic or Songtradr about how they’re imagined to do their jobs with out entry to essential programs. When new help requests are available, blair can see them however isn’t capable of correctly reply.
A Zoom assembly final week with Songtradr executives who stated they wished Bandcamp to remain artist-friendly didn’t add a lot readability. The platform’s employees have been instructed that Bandcamp is in a state of stasis in the course of the transition, blair says, a state of affairs that has been “actually destabilizing” for the employees.
The turmoil at Bandcamp is also destabilizing for musicians and their followers. Epic’s acquisition of Bandcamp final yr triggered concern amongst some artists, music lovers, and trade teams, who frightened {that a} uniquely artist-centric platform may change for the more serious.
Bandcamp, based in 2007, is beloved by many artists for offering a spot the place musicians can foster loyal fan communities and obtain a beneficiant share of music gross sales. Bandcamp pays artists 82 p.c of each transaction, whereas Spotify is broadly reported to pay a small fraction of a cent per stream. When Songtradr introduced its acquisition final week, the Way forward for Music Coalition, a musician advocacy nonprofit, posted on X (previously Twitter) that the corporate’s leaders ought to “do what Bandcamp’s superb workers have executed for years—searching for fixed artist/label suggestions at each iteration. Do not screw it up!”
These workers weren’t included in Epic’s sale of Bandcamp. Songtradr bought the platform’s enterprise and operations however not its employees, based on Sandy Pope, bargaining director for the Workplace of Skilled Workers Worldwide Union, which since March has represented 67 out of some 120 Bandcamp staff.
“Primarily based on its present financials, Bandcamp requires some changes to make sure a sustainable and wholesome firm that may serve its group of artists and followers lengthy into the longer term,” says Songtradr chief advertising officer Lindsay Nahmiache. She says the corporate will likely be extending job provides to Bandcamp employees over the subsequent few weeks because the sale is finalized.
Epic didn’t reply to a request for remark however final week posted an email from CEO Tim Sweeney saying laid-off workers would get six months of pay and well being care together with different advantages. The Bandcamp union faces the prospect of getting to begin negotiations over once more with Songtradr administration.
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