About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off • Hacker News Board

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#81

Post by FireBeyond » Mon, Oct 16, 2023, 6:50 PM UTC

lawlessone wrote: post #72

NewJazz wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could this be considered a union busting action? Especially if the union was planning to negotiate for remote work. Edit: previously said strike breaking instead of union busting.

Looks like it, Starbucks has a tendency to suddenly close stores in areas where unions are attempted. Doesn't seem to matter to them if the store was doing well or not.

Around here (near Seattle) they are having to explain why the foam floor mats behind the counter used for anti-fatigue were removed as trip hazards, but only in stores attempting to unionize...

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#82

Post by nerdponx » Mon, Oct 16, 2023, 6:51 PM UTC

lawlessone wrote: post #76

gizmo wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheaters think everybody cheats when given the opportunity. Thieves believe only fear of the law is what keeps the masses in line. Liars believe lying is normal and that they’re only embellishing anyway and really it’s for the greater good and also pragmatic and necessary to succeed. There are many people who would not f their users and employees over when given the opportunity. Be like that.

Would like to think i wouldn't sell, but if someone massive company is offering my money, the worry is always they'll build their own later and stomp me anyway.

That and there's probably an element of wishful thinking. "I built this nice thing, and they promised me they won't mess it up."

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#83

Post by ulrikrasmussen » Mon, Oct 16, 2023, 6:51 PM UTC

Zambyte wrote: post #69

shmerl wrote: post #4

Bandcamp is where I go to buy DRM-free FLAC music. I hope they won't shut it down.

7digital is another source I often use.

I used to use them too, but they closed their EU store so Bandcamp is the only option for me now. Yes, Apple and Amazon might also be options, but I haven't ever done business with either and I don't intend to begin.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#84

Post by constantly » Mon, Oct 16, 2023, 6:51 PM UTC

gizmo wrote: post #50

amrocha wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a hypothetical scenario: - You're running the successor to Bandcamp - You're making good money, employ a couple staff - Epic comes to you offering millions to buy your business The rational choice is to sell. Would you choose the stress of running a sustainable business over the payout? I know I wouldn't. There's no indication afaik that Bandcamp was in financial trouble before they got acquired. This is inevi…

Cheaters think everybody cheats when given the opportunity. Thieves believe only fear of the law is what keeps the masses in line. Liars believe lying is normal and that they’re only embellishing anyway and really it’s for the greater good and also pragmatic and necessary to succeed. There are many people who would not f their users and employees over when given the opportunity. Be like that.

Well, first of all, it’s transactional. I have no particular affinity for any given service I use. If another service comes along that has enough upside to overcome the momentum of switching, I’ll definitely do it, and I’m sure you would too, and maybe that will annoy the company. That goes the same for the company; if they have a chance to cash out, I’m sure they’d take it. And maybe that will annoy me.

But the bigger point is that you conflate selling to a bigger company with more resources with “f[ing] their users,” which is just naive.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#85

Post by diggan » Mon, Oct 16, 2023, 6:52 PM UTC

lawlessone wrote: post #76

gizmo wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cheaters think everybody cheats when given the opportunity. Thieves believe only fear of the law is what keeps the masses in line. Liars believe lying is normal and that they’re only embellishing anyway and really it’s for the greater good and also pragmatic and necessary to succeed. There are many people who would not f their users and employees over when given the opportunity. Be like that.

Would like to think i wouldn't sell, but if someone massive company is offering my money, the worry is always they'll build their own later and stomp me anyway.

That's why the product itself should not just be the technology stack (as GP might allude to), but something larger. In the case of Bandcamp, it's the relationships, community, trust and integrity that makes it what it is, and another massive company won't just be able to create those things by throwing random employees at the problem.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#86

Post by winternett » Mon, Oct 16, 2023, 6:52 PM UTC

biorach wrote: post #42

winternett wrote: post #19

As a musician once on there, I joined, spent a lot of time carefully designing my page and uploading my catalogue, and then I paid $20 a month for their premium service for absolutely no traction on the site beyond external promotion I did. The UI on BandCamp has been vastly outdated for ages now, it was very hard to navigate and find new music by genre. i only go there to buy music if I have a direct link. It's a pr…

> i only go there to buy music if I have a direct link. > Bandcamp doesn't even allow YouTube video embedding for music videos, which is a huge mistake alone. > Music platforms should be heavily promoting any independent artist that pays them a monthly fee... They seem to think that monthly subscription money form hard working artists is simply for extra file storage above free accounts. You haven't really understood…

[flagged]

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#87

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 16, 2023, 6:52 PM UTC

winternett wrote: post #19

As a musician once on there, I joined, spent a lot of time carefully designing my page and uploading my catalogue, and then I paid $20 a month for their premium service for absolutely no traction on the site beyond external promotion I did. The UI on BandCamp has been vastly outdated for ages now, it was very hard to navigate and find new music by genre. i only go there to buy music if I have a direct link. It's a pr…

[deleted]

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#88

Post by conradfr » Mon, Oct 16, 2023, 6:52 PM UTC

winternett wrote: post #19

As a musician once on there, I joined, spent a lot of time carefully designing my page and uploading my catalogue, and then I paid $20 a month for their premium service for absolutely no traction on the site beyond external promotion I did. The UI on BandCamp has been vastly outdated for ages now, it was very hard to navigate and find new music by genre. i only go there to buy music if I have a direct link. It's a pr…

Bandcamp was profitable at least until their sale to Epic.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#89

Post by willsmith72 » Mon, Oct 16, 2023, 6:53 PM UTC

amrocha wrote: post #44

wutwutwat wrote: post #25

Bandcamp is an odd site. It's existed for a very long time and is simple (or was when I last used it a couple years ago) in terms of application requirements. Basically what I'm saying is it feels very much like a rails app you could build in a weekend. Direct upload mastered files to s3 from the artists, activejob to convert to various formats and throw back to s3 via activestorage, subdomain model scoping for artis…

Here's a hypothetical scenario: - You're running the successor to Bandcamp - You're making good money, employ a couple staff - Epic comes to you offering millions to buy your business The rational choice is to sell. Would you choose the stress of running a sustainable business over the payout? I know I wouldn't. There's no indication afaik that Bandcamp was in financial trouble before they got acquired. This is inevi…

It's not at all as simple as a "rational choice". It completely depends on your objective. Why did you start the business in the first place?

If it was to make a few mill and never have to work again, sure, sell.

If you wanted to build something bigger than yourself, work with great people, feel accomplished, then why sell? How is that few mill going to get you those things?

A lot of founders regret their first sale because they realise they didn't want a cashout, they wanted to build something awesome

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#90

Post by winternett » Mon, Oct 16, 2023, 6:53 PM UTC

reactordev wrote: post #78

nomel wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly why I have Spotify rather than bandcamp. It finds music I like, regardless of musician effort. I found more new musicians in the first year of Spotify than decades before. It’s a loss for everyone if good music goes unheard.

It’s a loss to musicians to have a monopoly like Spotify (who likes to recreate popular songs with their own artists and label) be the gatekeeper to what is good music. From a service perspective, it’s great. I have the worlds music at my fingertips. From a music perspective it’s horrible. I have one company dictating streaming payments and terms on an entire industry and you’re f&$ked if you don’t play nice. Ask Tay…

Agreed. Spotify is a terrible alternative for the musicians.

Myspace and Mp3.Com used to be the road map to how sites should be run, but venture capitalism and publicly traded companies ruined the entire ecosystem.