HR was flown out to Beatport’s San Francisco office to fire the entire engineering team and help quell any worker retaliations (via Techcrunch). Beatport was acquired by SFX in February and since then SFX has decided to lay off Beatport teams that aren’t making money. The 88-person startup fired teams in their Denver office and closed their San Francisco office this past week.
One reason the fired employees are so upset is that Beatport appears to have become a company that focuses on making money off of an industry that is supposed to promote the birth of new music and the unity of a passionate community. Beatport was founded in 2004 and according to their website knowledge base, “offers music in premium digital formats and provides unique music discovery tools created for and by DJs.” However, a source has told Techcrunch that “SFX is not concerned with anything but the store. It was crazy. It was a fucking bloodbath for sure. Some of the people laid off were working there for almost ten years.” Join the club, friend. Layoffs have become a part of life these days. The fact that Denver-based Beatport was considering firing employees over a conference call backs that up.
SFX’s IPO in October priced shares at $13, but they’ve fallen to $11.79 since. They’ve decided to focus more on ticketing and events going forward, instead of on the site itself, which focuses on recorded music that is less lucrative.
Beatport’s laid off employees do get significant severance packages. Hopefully that will last them through the holiday season. Best wishes music lovers everywhere.
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