Anyone have an opinion on this situation? I’ve heard layoffs are starting to affect operation of the web site. It seems to be working right now, but I hope it doesn’t ultimately go away. It’s one of the few places artists can bypass the labels to leverage their music for their own gain. I don’t think many artists are getting rich on Bandcamp, but I think many really great albums might not be released without an outlet like Bandcamp.
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I thought the lay offs were part of the Epic lay offs and not part of the new company.
As the place where I probably spend about 70% of my music money, I am like you hoping for the best outcome here.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of on the ground information about.
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To be fair, it seems epic bought BC 18 months ago, I missed that sale completely, I’ve used BC for years.
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I have also been a customer of BC for a good few years and I was concerned when Epic bought them.
I currently have no expectations for what will happen after the latest sale, but I have plenty of hopes. A Bandcamp like service is needed in the current market bringing bands and musicians closer together and giving bands direct access to their fans if that is what they want.
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That is my understanding, too.
It would seem that Songtrdr’s business is closer to Bandcamp than Epic Games, albeit their focus is digital delivery, but we’ll have to see. It’d be great if they could address the worldwide distribution of physical media, but I won’t hold my breath.
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If they can do it at a more reasonable cost then my 80/20 digital/physical split will be flipped 
Yep the same price again for shipping vinyl is ridiculous and can’t be helping sales if you can get it elsewhere for same cost and free delivery and by next day.
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This looks quite sad and it’s hard to see how there is no impact.
Maybe BandCamp Friday goes or moves to quarterly.
I suspect Songtradr left out a key word from their statement. They said Bandcamp was no longer profitable. I think they meant it is no longer profitable “enough”. It seems odd that they would buy a company they considered unprofitable. Laying off half your staff is not a path to profitability. It’s a path to closure. These types of situations always reinforce my opinion of corporate management skills. My wife worked for Photomat back in the day. When she started they dominated the photo processing industry. After a series of monumentally bad decisions by management including a reluctance to embrace 24 hour processing, they eventually folded. Photomat actually started the video rental industry. But they thought there was no money in it. By the time Blockbuster took them to the cleaners, Photomat had gone belly up. It’s unclear to me how Songtradr can leverage Bandcamp for the own benefit. Maybe someone in the industry can enlighten us.
By the sounds of it, BandCamp expanded their headcount much faster than their growth would have allowed for.
Whether this was Epic inspired we don’t know, and now maybe Songtradr is trying to put it back together with a reasonable headcount and cost base.
I have nothing but good wishes for BandCamp as they are doing the work of the angel’s for independent artists.
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Letting 50% of staff go, where have I seen that before. I wish all the best for band camp, I love the brand and what they do.
I feel for the 50% let go.
I’d love to work somewhere like band camp, I have a good job, for a well known brand, that I’m totally uninterested in, it would be great to actually care about the brand you work for. Luckily I’m not in marketing.
Yes 50% is a bad, but I do not believe that there is a breakdown of which departments are hardest hit. You certainly have to feel for the staff, and yes it’s a company that I would also liked to have worked for, purely from helping develop independent music distribution for high quality music.
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Was reading this article and figured I would share. There has been a lot going on with Bandcamp recently.
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Thanks, I didn’t see it but thanks for the link.
I have received some emails recently from some bands I have purchased and follow and they are concerned about where Bandcamp is going. There aren’t many alternatives.
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Yes, it stinks and everything I read doesn’t sound promising.