[throwaway15968]

Throwaway, but I work at Bandcamp. We're all very frightened and don't know what the future holds. We were told that some, but not all, will get offers from Songtradr and it may be up to a month before we receive an offer. It's pretty depressing.

[BLKNSLVR]

For what it's worth in this depressing and anxious waiting period: thank you for your efforts, and I sincerely hope you can continue as you have been.

As many other commenters have pointed out, Bandcamp is a great service. For me, it's really the only place I purchase music because of its commitment to paying artists fairly and offering FLAC downloads of the purchased music.

Again, thank you and good luck!

As an aside, I support unionisation precisely as the counterpoint it is intended to be, and any management actions against unionisation should be treated with suspicion and I generally look at that kind of behaviour as the base reason why unions need to exist in the first place.

(Both sides can be corrupt, but if there's only power on one side, then the corruption is both more likely to occur and increase).

I hope the unionisation thing is totally unrelated to this situation.

[throwaway15968]

Thank you, truly. It means a lot.

I'm international, so I'm not represented by the union, but I support them for exactly the same reasons that you state here.

I don't think it's related to the unionization. I'm sure it didn't help, but Epic also spun off SuperAwesome today.

[hatsix]

I work at SongTradr. I know nothing about the acquisition, but can answer any other questions you have.

I feel like Bandcamp 100% fits better with SongTradr than Epic.

[throwaway15968]

Thank you, I appreciate it! A few quick questions:

1. How are benefits/compensation? Competitive?

2. Are there a lot of international remote employees at SongTradr? Bandcamp has a lot of people around the globe and we'd love to know if SongTradr is likely to make offers internationally or if it'll just be near offices.

3. Do you like working there?

[hatsix]

1. Compensation is what I would call mid-tier competitive for each region. You won't get an SFO salary in Spain. You'll get more at FAANG or a more tech-focused startup, but I left a FAANG job to come here.

2. Lots of international employees. No exec-level requirements of working from an office, but some teams may have their own rules.

3. It's middle of the pack, but that's mainly because I get stuck doing jobs I hate because I'm the only one with the experience, and we've got a client breathing down our neck. it's the burden of being the Sr Dev, but eventually, I'll have trained my team well enough that I can do a bit of real innovation... until then, I really believe we're enabling artists to make a better living by opening up a market (sync) that has generally been reserved for artists that are already living comfortably.

[throwaway15968]

Thank you for the response! That’s really helpful, makes it feel a little less vague & murky.

[bigiain]

> I feel like Bandcamp 100% fits better with SongTradr than Epic.

FWIW, at least some ("one"?) musicians are cautiously optimistic about this:

https://mastodon.sdf.org/@lardmotel/111145640060611780

[vintermann]

Well, that doesn't take a lot, because Epic isn't so much a company as a pile of money which doesn't know what to do with itself.

[rglover]

Hadn't heard of SongTradr but I'd agree. Huge opportunity for underground musicians to get their music licensed for commercial stuff.

[yuriks]

Do you think this sale was intended as a union-busting move? It sounds like they're not retaining staff with the sale, and this timing seems to match with Bandcamp's staff unionization efforts.

[altacc]

It was probably mostly about cash balance for the company. I once worked in a company that was a niche business but very profitable and with predictable cash flow. That made it very quick and easy to sell when needed, basically a tradeable asset. Twice in the space of a few years it was sold when the current owner wanted some cash and another had excess cash. Sounds like this is the case with Bandcamp.

In my middle management experience, being profitable and owned by a company that didn't share the business domain was best as they mostly left us alone as long as we were profitable. When they finally got bought by a similar business, that's when they tried (and failed) to merge jobs. I've since left but they've recently been spun out yet again.

[notatoad]

there's not a whole lot of point to union-busting if you don't own the company anymore...

bandcamp staff unionizing might have been a consideration in deciding to sell the company, but i don't think it's fair to call that "union busting".

[Insanity]

These decisions take time to make. Not sure when the union efforts started though - but not sure how likely this would be as a result of those efforts..

[docpop]

Bandcamp workers voted in favor of a union in March 16th of this year. It was one year and a week after Epic acquired the company.

It's impossible to know what Epic is thinking know, or even when they bought BC, but 6 months sounds like how long it would take to sell Bandcamp off as a retaliation for unionizing.

[throwaway15968]

I don't think so. Epic also spun off SuperAwesome today, who are not unionized.

[mey]

When Epic was announced as a buyer, it kinda struck me that Valve would've been a better steward for the platform in the short term, with potential synergy in the long term considering how many OST they already sell for games.

[ace2358]

Thank you and everyone on the team. You changed music. Full stop. You gave us what we wanted. Full stop. We love you for your work.

[throwaway15968]

That means the world. <3

[biorach]

Seconded. Bandcamp is one of the few platforms that I really respect. It's done great things for artists and listeners. I'm happy to spend money there.

[matkoniecz]

Thanks also from me!

I really hope that Bandcamp will survive!

[slantedview]

Best of luck! I hope it all works out for you and everyone there, but it might be prudent to be prepared either way.

[throwaway15968]

Thank you!

[armini]

thanks for your contributions to bandcamp, I'd love to connect with you to explore opportunities working on www.kuky.com we're a platform that actually pays creators for their music.

[datavirtue]

Uh...demand negotiations and/or strike immediately. Like wtf!?

[musicale]

That's very discouraging. Bandcamp was great and I will be sorry to see it go.

As I see it maybe there is a void which will need to be filled.

[ip_addr]

Did something similar happen when Epic Games bought the company?

[throwaway15968]

The rumour is that this happened without any Bandcamp staff aware, even executives, so it's different in that we're all in the dark.

[computerdork]

Best of luck, hope it all works out!

[brianstorms]

Is Ethan Diamond still there?