Bandcamp lay off 50% of staff

Just heard that Bandcamp have laid off half their staff. If you have any music you've purchased and not downloaded yet I'd suggest doing it.

Sounds to me like the problem was with the running of Epic's brands in general rather than any specific problems with Bandcamp: "For a while now, we’ve been spending way more money than we earn, investing in the next evolution of Epic and growing Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators". Songtradr have said in their own press release that they will: "Continue to operate Bandcamp as a marketplace and music community with an artist-first revenue share", suggesting that they view Bandcamp as an asset to their own licensing business. Epic themselves are investing in Songtradr as part of the sale agreement, and plan to work with Songtradr to license Bandcamp music to Epic games, so they must still have some faith in the viability of the platform, despite offloading it. 

I hope is for the best for the fans, the artists, and the music.

Easy Money wrote: One problem with bandcamp is you have to go through paypal to buy most music on there instead of just using your credit card.

Atavachron wrote: One more reason to have phyz meed.

This has echoes of mp3.com from 20 years ago, or ampcast.com not long after that. 

Must be some other factor involved with your situation, because I've always had the option for cc or paypal.


Edited by Progkast - October 17 2023 at 04:35

Agreed. There is a lot of good music there, you can choose your format. Artists can sell swag as well as music in several different media. I have ALWAYS  had the option of using a cc OR paypal. Also, they make it easy for artists to share promos of their music. Plenty of artists make money on bandcamp - as opposed to other sites such as Spotify, which all but few denounce as financial black holes. There are also plenty whom have made thousands, if not millions on this platform. Some, notably (one particular rap artist comes to mind, I remember not, but this was some 10 years ago even), who refused a major record label deal because he made more $ using bandcamp. More money in his pocket and less "middle men". I have never heard anyone say anything negative about it, except for the few here on this forum and I am amazed. I am not an artist, but I run or have run both a prog music podcast and a radio show. Bandcamp has been the easiest to use to LISTEN to, as well as download music. I went from not knowing anything about it, to actually preferring it over any other streaming or downloading service. The site is well organized and the artists themselves seem to like it. It is a D shame that this is happening... my advice to anyone who gives it a thumbs down, to actually TRY other services - you may like the 192 kbps mp3 download or other recording methods used from the other sites. ... can't use that low of quality on broadcast radio, so it's useless to me. I attribute the quality and influence of bandcamp to that of Atlantic records. This is a bombshell, and it's only going to continue in a downward spin. Unfortunately.


Edited by Progkast - October 17 2023 at 04:29

Let's hope they continue. Over at awesomeprog.com we have more than 6k releases, most of them progressive, linked to their pages at Bandcamp.