“Based on its current financials, Bandcamp requires some adjustments to ensure a sustainable and healthy company that can serve its community of artists and fans long into the future,” says a statement provided by Songtradr chief marketing officer Lindsay Nahmiache. It says the company will be extending job offers to Bandcamp staff over the next few weeks as the sale is finalized.
Epic did not respond to a request for comment but last week posted an email from CEO Tim Sweeney saying laid-off employees would get six months of pay and health care along with other benefits. The Bandcamp union faces the prospect of having to start negotiations over again with Songtradr management.
Barringer, the Bandcamp software engineer, says that a handful of engineers are still performing the critical tasks needed to keep the site running, but otherwise they can’t commit new code. He found a minor bug this week but couldn’t access the program he needed to fix it.
It’s not great timing for Bandcamp to be in stasis. Today is Bandcamp Friday, a monthly event that started during the early days of the Covid pandemic in which the platform waives its usual cut of transactions so that nearly 100 percent of revenue goes to artists.
Traffic typically spikes on those days, hauling in extra money for artists, but some staff are concerned that their inability to perform basic tasks could derail the event, harming fans and artists. “None of us are here randomly just because we need a job,” says Barringer. “We’re all here because we love artists and we want to create a space for them to succeed.”
Nahmiache provided a statement saying “Epic is committed to running the event as planned” while the sale is finalized, and that Songtradr plans to continue Bandcamp Fridays, as well as maintain the platform’s artist-first revenue sharing and its music guide Bandcamp Daily. In an interview with Billboard this week, Songtradr CEO Paul Wiltshire said Bandcamp was “a great platform as it is” and that “there’s not a need to change it,” adding that the company planned to add new music licensing opportunities for artists.
Wiltshire’s quoted remarks made no mention of Bandcamp’s workers, though. “So of course we’re trying to remind him that employees have a lot to do with what Bandcamp is about,” says Pope, the union organizer.
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Bandcamp’s union is demanding that Songtradr offer jobs to all current employees, recognize the union, and continue the negotiations begun with Epic. The union has launched a petition for fans and artists to back those demands. Musicians including psych rocker Damon Krukowski and power pop songster Ted Leo have taken to X to blast out their support.
Union members argue that to stay artist-first Bandcamp needs to retain its workers, with their repository of knowledge and their commitment to the site’s mission. “We want Bandcamp to stay as artist-friendly as possible,” says blair. “And we felt that having a seat at the table was the best way to ensure that happened.”
Updated 10-6-2023, 1 pm EDT: This article was updated to clarify that Lindsay Nahmiache provided a company statement on behalf of Songtradr.
