citykitty
Bandcamp UnitedToday, Epic Games’ sale of Bandcamp to Songtradr closed and at least half of Bandcamp’s staff was laid off. This is heartbreaking. We love our jobs, the platform we’ve built, and the Bandcamp community. We’re glad we have our union — coworkers who have each other’s backs. We’ll be moving together to decide our next steps. On Wednesday we return to the bargaining table with Epic Games, and we’ll keep you updated. Love and solidarity to the whole Bandcamp community. Thank you for your support.
nigelsezyarr@bandcampunited Boooooo. Shame on Epic and SongTradr
Jonas Wisser@bandcampunited Sending y'all best wishes. 💜
t s r o n o@bandcampunited can someone explain how bargaining with Epic is happening even after the sale to Songtradr is complete, & layoffs have happened?
some kind of orange shape@tsrono I suppose the contract they had with Epic had provisions for this
@clayote odd if that's case...i'm not familiar with union negotiations (though i support them) but i can't see how the Bandcamp United people can do anything here if they're negotiating with someone who doesn't legally run the business anymore. maybe they're just pushing for bigger severance packages from Epic, maybe? even then i'd think Songtradr took on any costs associated with paying out the many people they've already announced they're laying off...
just thinking out loud here. 🤷♂️
just thinking out loud here. 🤷♂️
helleano)))r@bandcampunited i do not know what the future holds for all of us, collectively, as the bandcamp community, but sending all the best to those still with us in this fight and those who have been cast away by corporate greed 💗
PhilI’m not a Bandcamp customer but I am anti-enshitification, so count me in if there’s anything I can do to help.
MycotropicLove your footprint and love the flute reference as well!
Craig Sloss@bandcampunited I’m so sorry to hear about this. I’m a big fan of the platform you built and the people who got laid off deserve better.
Jason Garber
CC@bandcampunited I've been a huge patron of Bandcamp of years and what has been happening has been absolutely tragic and heartbreaking to me. I hope all you guys manage to break away from this awful situation and can stand on your own again. I hope to see BC continue and would like to put more money to you guys for such a great service :(
Mike@bandcampunited good luck and best wishes, I have discovered and purchased heaps of great music over the years on Bandcamp.
Max "Buzzworthy" Eddy@bandcampunited Solidarity ✊
Brody 🚀 Brooks@bandcampunited You all built something incredible and deserve so much better 💖
AccordionBruce@bandcampunited
Terrible news
Companies should randomly fire half their shareholders and management every once in a while
Orca 🌻 | 🎀 | 🪁 | 🏴🏳️⚧️
5 🌳 walk into a bar… & say ow@bandcampunited Do you want us to keep selling things on Bandcamp?
also we are biased but we'd would just love to see y'all form a worker cooperative!
Fruity Mercury 
@bandcampunited absolutely gutted to see the last bastion of proper indie and purchased digital music compromised like this.
I wish you all good bargaining, knowing your audience is behind you and not the corporate shills trying to purge the very soul out of it by laying off who makes Bandcamp awesome.
I'm actually half hoping the laid-off staff start their own platform that takes all the good stuff from Bandcamp with it, but I'm assuming that's not in the pipeline.
Sokian@bandcampunited let's all build a new music platform
Monsieur Valentine 🇺🇦@bandcampunited Bandcamp staff ought to explore a consumer coop option
Gnorzaps
elizabeth veldon@bandcampunited bandcamp is such a wonderful site and you should be proud of the work you have built together.
Benjamin Balder Bach@bandcampunited I'm a happy user of Bandcamp.
But Bandcamp exists only thanks to their workers and the musicians.
I'm ready to leave the platform anytime that someone tells me that it's now primarily serving shareholders.
If you can, please don't sign non-competitive contracts so you can help build a worker-owned music selling platform instead of whatever Bandcamp is becoming.
Timo Peach@bandcampunited Hells, this is depressing. It is another fight for future values in the face of robot corporate soul selling - may you move with one resolve and scare the shite out of the right people.
BeckyGood luck!! I hope you make them rue their capitalisim
MPG@bandcampunited I'm old enough to remember back in the80's the "Look for the Union Label" campaign. I wonder if we could arrange some sort of "anti-boycott" (because boycotts don't really work) wherein we get enough of us to pledge that *if* songrtadr recognizes the union and gives them a fair contact, we pick a non-bandcamp-friday date and purchase like it *is* bandcamp Friday. Call it something like #UnionMonday.
If they don't... well, we the customers will look for other options. 🥕 / 🏑
rotted mood@bandcampunited such a bummer. I’ve been buying music on Bandcamp since its initial days. To me this is heartbreaking.
Pxl Phile@bandcampunited fingers crossed to work it out
Tim@bandcampunited how depressing. Open source software has taken over the world; now what we need out community driven non-profit organizations to take over and become the leader of services such as "way to buy mp3s without drm"
Shredd Tone 
@bandcampunited Love Bandcamp, hate to see corps abusing it as well as it's workers and community
Iron Kobra@bandcampunited what's the best way to support you now?
Kostyn@bandcampunited how can we help you take the platform back and make it a worker self-direcred enterprise and/or a coop? Will the other half of staff quit in solidarity, plummeting the price of the company so the employees can collectively buy it? Is that illegal? What can we do to help you?
Solidarity forever!
The Slight Misgivings@bandcampunited I hope the Bandcamp staff can get a good redundancy deal. This doesn't bode well for the future.