Devs from Rockstar, Necrosoft and more slam Epic and Songtradr for "trashing" Bandcamp as layoffs announced

The fleetingly Epic Games-owned online audio distribution company Bandcamp have shed "at least" half their staff in the course of being sold off to Songtradr as part of mass layoffs at Epic this summer. That's according to the union Bandcamp United, who are even now restarting discussions with Epic in the hope of obtaining a better outcome.

It's terrible news for those affected, of course, but it also doesn't bode well for the future of independent music. Bandcamp, which has now traded hands twice in two years, is one of the few places where indie musicians can make a living. There are plenty of angry reactions from musicians and bands on social media, as you'd expect, but game developers are also rallying in support of Bandcamp United, with criticism aimed at Epic and Songtradr in equal measure.

"Epic bought a profitable business, decided they needed to cut costs, and nearly immediately started gutting that profitable business before selling it off to vultures," observed Brandon Sheffield, director of Demonschool developer Necrosoft Games. "Bandcamp is the only place where smaller musical artists make any money. What a miserable situation." Sheffield added that "bandcamp has unionized and songtradr hasn't recognized it yet, I'm sure that's a coincidence".

"Ugh, this sucks," wrote George Williamson, associate audio director at Rockstar. "It was the one place for buying music that felt like it was allowing artists to actually make money. It's sadly predictable that when big tech money gets involved, they scramble to make a quick buck, trashing the value at the same time."

Liz Ryerson - designer, musician, lecturer and the creator of the extremely good and influential Problem Attic - described the reduction of Bandcamp as reflective of a wider attack on independent culture. "i really hope people truly understand how catastrophic the Bandcamp situation is, and the kind of militancy that is going to be required to fight these attempts to destroy all culture outside the biggest and richest names," she wrote. "this is not just "a sad situation" or whatever."

Ryerson added that "without independent art there really is no culture. there is only a hollow hole filled with fascism and personality cults".

Responding to a Songtradr Xitter comment from before the layoffs that the acquisition would be "business as usual", Hannah Nicklin (RPS in Peace) of Saltsea Chronicles developer Die Gute Fabrik pointed out that "firing half of the staff who made Bandcamp a thriving cultural sphere that in many ways actually meaningfully solved the discovery problem with excellent curation is business as usual for terrible capitalists, sure." Nicklin's colleague and Die Gute Fabrik co-founder Douglas Wilson added that it was "infuriating to watch large corporations gut one of the most valuable communities/services on the internet."

For their part, Songtradr have justified the layoffs in the usual belt-tightening terms. "Over the past few years the operating costs of Bandcamp have significantly increased," a representative of Songtradr said in a statement shared with Vulture. "It required some adjustments to ensure a sustainable and healthy company that can serve its community of artists and fans."

The company have also promised to give artists more ways to make bank, including the option of licensing their work out. "Songtradr will also offer Bandcamp artists the ability and choice to have their music licensed to all forms of media including content creators, game and app developers and brands," the statement continues. "This will enable artists to continue to own and control their music rights, and increase their earning capacity from Songtradr's global licensing network."

As for whether Bandcamp United might be successful in persuading Epic to intervene with Songtradr regarding the lay-offs, and how exactly that would work, I'm in the dark. But Epic do plan to have an on-going relationship with Bandcamp, commenting in a press release that they are "exploring ways to partner with Songtradr to build an inventory of music where artists can opt in to have their music licensed for use in Epic's ecosystem.

"Epic will continue to collaborate with Bandcamp on projects like Fortnite Radio and is investing in Songtradr to support Bandcamp's successful integration into Songtradr," the statement adds. Perhaps they can invest in preserving a few of those jobs, as well. I'm not holding my breath.