Ever since Bandcamp was bought by Epic Games last year, the Bandcamp United union has been desperate for the company to give them some recognition. They didn’t get very far with the previous owners – and new management at Songtradr responded to similar requests with a cold, shivery silence.
That wasn’t surprising. Shortly after Songtradr announced they’d bought Bandcamp for an undisclosed sum, they announced that they’d effectively sacked 50% of their workforce. One of those who did apparently survive was J Edward Keyes, the site’s editorial director – and it turns out he certainly had a few things to say on the topic of unions.
To put it succinctly, Keyes is not a fan – writing on an Instagram Stories post that his colleagues were “privileged tech workers cosplaying as Amazon warehouse workers”. He also noted that “There is a strong piece in white-collar tech workers who make north of 70k a year appropriating the language of the legitimately oppressed for anyone with the guts to write it.”.
He also wrote the words “f**k Bandcamp United” on his Instagram Stories. Very mature…
Keyes, however, is far from impervious to criticism himself. After Philip Sherburne wrote an article about the site for Pitchfork, 404 Media reported on an angry tirade that Keyes went on – demanding that they “please f***ing stop writing things about my website, you absolute amateur journalists”.
We sense that Ears To The House is going to enjoy writing much, much more about Bandcamp in the future if this is how ratty it makes their management…
