This just in, we have word that EDM’s largest digital download network, Beatport, have recently fired a shockingly large amount of engineers based in Denver and San Fransisco. EDM giant SFX, who recently acquired the company, now seems to be ousting the teams who aren’t bringing in money.
According to techcrunch.com,
“[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.’ Those include six engineers in SF — essentially the whole office.”
Beatport has already fired a considerable amount of employees, at least twenty, from their home base of Denver, but also decided to send HR to San Fransisco to lay off even more workers. Being that the company has still been operating at a loss after the 3rd quarter saw them losing $1 million of their $12 million of revenue, they decided to take matters into their own hands.
SFX has officially confirmed the layoffs, stating:
“With the additional resources provided by SFX, we are making significant new investments in Beatport and focusing on providing the best possible experience for our users – the DJ, the producer, the labels and the entire Electronic Music Culture community. To allow us to adapt and improve our service, it was necessary to make some organizational changes. We have closed our San Francisco office, reorganized our engineering team, and cut some positions in Denver. Beatport has always been about innovation and connection and these moves allow us to focus on that. With the recently announced acquisitions of PayLogic and Arc90, this refocus on maximizing Beatport as the definitive site for everything related to Electronic Music is indicative of our commitment to igniting the simmering Revolution of this astounding movement, Electronic Music Culture. We look forward to unveiling a number of exciting new technology initiatives in 2014.”
Now, Beatport is left with a morsel of a team, most likely to help out in the non-store departments in need of the help. Amidst all this, it is quite possible that SFX may shut down some of the products that were not successful in bringing in desired revenue, like Beatport Play. With this being so close to the holidays, it is not a great time to be laid off. Thankfully, the now ex-employees received excellent severance packages that will hold them for a short while.
Where does the company go from here? It will be interesting to see how the shareholders and investors plan to compensate for this. This corporate “bloodbath” is revealing to see how big EDM has grown and how cutthroat of a business it has evolved into. We will be sure to keep you updated as more news comes in.
Source: Techcrunch