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About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

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Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#151

Post by callalex »

diggan wrote: post #148
callalex wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s a fixed amount, it’s negotiated and not public information.

You're right. The numbers I had in mind were averages: > on Bandcamp Fridays, an average of 93% of your money reaches the artist/label (after payment processor fees). When you make a purchase on any other day (as millions of you have, with more than $1 billion now paid directly to artists), an average of 82% reaches the artist/label. https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-fridays-update

Oh I was talking about iTunes. Now we’re both learning something new :)

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#152

Post by derefr »

callalex wrote: post #112
biorach wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Just calling someone dumb isn’t constructive. Instead tell them what you think Bandcamp had to offer.

Bandcamp is (was?) to music as Flickr is to photography. It's a portfolio site, that doubles as a means to buy things from that portfolio. It's the thing an artist's social media pages link to to say "here's my body of work for you to browse through." Where browsing through that portfolio — listening to 30-second previews of songs, etc — doesn't require signing up for any service, but is just a regular part of the public web.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#153

Post by tessierashpool »

brink wrote: post #12
JohnFen wrote: post #3

And the small hope I have that BandCamp would remain a good thing after SongTradr acquired them grows even smaller.

I use Bandcamp a lot. Tbh, if I had acquired Bandcamp, in efforts for streamlining, I probably would have laid the editors off too. I've never read a single bandcamp article. Did anyone actually read them, especially enough to justify their cost?

if I had acquired Bandcamp, in efforts for streamlining, I probably would have laid the editors off too

that's not what happened. they're not streaminlining for the sake of streamlining.

SongTradr is in the business of B2B sync licensing. Bandcamp's in the business of selling music to fans.

SongTradr's probably throwing out the articles not because they didn't move sales to fans, but because SongTradr doesn't care about selling music to fans.

they're probably more interested in converting Bandcamp creators to a sync licensing business model.

I've never read a single bandcamp article. Did anyone actually read them, especially enough to justify their cost?

yes. your experience is your experience. it is not universal. Bandcamp was making money with those articles, both for itself and its creators, for many many years.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#154

Post by ye-olde-sysrq »

iainctduncan wrote: post #139

Background, I work in diligence for software aquisitions. There are a lot of assumptions on this thread. I don't know the answers in this case (not sure if anyone does?) but I think it is naive to assume that Bandcamp was wise to be employing all these people. While acquisitions tanking a company with stupid decisions are super common, it's also super common for companies who are trying to look like they are growing…

prior to this, bandcamp was owned by Epic and lord only knows why they bought them or what their bigger plan was. i also have no idea how much they staffed up under epic rule since they went from a small business to being owned by the fortnite money man. Entirely possible it's something like:

1. bandcamp is a sustainable normal small-to-medium business growing healthily

2. Epic has tons of fortnitebux and is feuding with apple so they buy bandcamp as some kind of tangential play should they end up as a big alternative store on iOS. so they could have a music store offering (to compare to itunes? not that apple gives a crap about itunes anymore??) in addition to an app store?

3. the money music stops and everyone races for a seat. bandcamp is left hanging.

4. epic sells bandcamp to whoever just to get it off the books so they can focus on fortnite lootboxes

5. songtradr or whatever their name is tells the union to pound sand and cuts bandcamp down to a core team because they're planning to just gut the product and transition all these indie artists over to whatever platform they were running before. This is a music IP company. I don't think they want to handle B2C purchases or provide streaming music. They just wanted to buy a big pot of artists and IP to add to their collection.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#155

Post by amrocha »

willsmith72 wrote: post #89
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…

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…

A few mil won't get you those things, but they'll guarantee your basic necessities. For example, my dad is working into his 70s. If I could fund his retirement I would.

And here's the kicker: you can always go build something bigger than yourself after selling. Having fuck you money means you can make the ethical choice next time.

Edit: on your comment about founders regretting their first sale. I'm guessing most founders are also well off, and don't worry as much financially. But even then, regret doesn't mean they made the wrong choice. I regret exercising my Shopify stock while I worked there, but it was still the best decision for me at the time.

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#156

Post by theolivenbaum »

NewJazz wrote: post #149
iainctduncan wrote: post #139

Background, I work in diligence for software aquisitions. There are a lot of assumptions on this thread. I don't know the answers in this case (not sure if anyone does?) but I think it is naive to assume that Bandcamp was wise to be employing all these people. While acquisitions tanking a company with stupid decisions are super common, it's also super common for companies who are trying to look like they are growing…

Isn't the pre-IPO / pre-acquisition playbook to cut staff lower than the optimum level to show profitability? But I'm spitballing here, anyone know more about whether Bandcamp was bloated? Bandcamp was shown to be profitable quite recently. Hard to justify slashing staff in half with that in mind.

From what I see, it's exactly the opposite. It's more like we hired all these people because we're growing so fast, so please give us money

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#157

Post by codethief »

willcipriano wrote: post #91
FireBeyond wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I destroyed my back working without mats in the resturant industry. Every winter I get back pain and have to use a cane for a few weeks. Use mats if you are going to stand somewhere 8+ hours a day kids.

What kind of mats are those?

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#158

Post by notJim »

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.

Starbucks has lost several cases related to NLRA violations. You can find more information searching "Starbucks NLRA", but here are a couple

https://www.hrdive.com/news/starbucks-how-we-communicate-pol...

https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/nlrb-region-3-...

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#159

Post by winternett »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #53

I'm really bummed. I love Bandcamp. It's the only place I can buy music FROM THE MUSICIAN with very little overhead, and download a high-quality lossless track. Amazon only lets me buy crap-quality MP3s. Apple is opaque about it, putting either lossy AAC or lossless ALAC in the same M4A containers. >:( The only good alternative is Qobuz, which is frustrating to use and charges absolutely massive overhead. But unfortu…

Junodownload is where I buy music most. They have a wide variety of options and fair pricing. It's much easier to find and browse music there.

Our link: https://www.junodownload.com/labels/Ruff+And+Tuff+Recordings...

Re: About half of Bandcamp employees have been laid off

#160

Post by willcipriano »

codethief wrote: post #157
willcipriano wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I destroyed my back working without mats in the resturant industry. Every winter I get back pain and have to use a cane for a few weeks. Use mats if you are going to stand somewhere 8+ hours a day kids.

What kind of mats are those?

They look like this: https://www.amazon.com/ROVSUN-Anti-Fatigue-Drainage-Non-Slip...
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