Downtown Music has reportedly triggered another round of layoffs amid a broader effort to reduce spending. Photo Credit: Adolfo Félix
A little over five months after nearly 30 CD Baby and Soundrop team members were laid off, Downtown Music has reportedly announced another round of personnel cutbacks.
New York City-headquartered Downtown’s latest layoffs came to light in a recent report from Billboard, which cited an internally circulated message from CEO Andrew Bergman. At the time of this writing, however, the company hadn’t shed light upon the precise extent of the cuts or otherwise addressed the matter in the media.
And on the latter front, it’s worth noting that Downtown didn’t publicly identify the number of professionals affected by the initially mentioned CD Baby and Soundrop layoffs last October. However, employees of the FUGA owner told DMN that “around 30” individuals had been impacted – while also claiming that staff members were “becoming an adjustment variable for businesses.”
In any event, a substantial portion of the newest layoffs will reportedly reach persons working in publishing roles, with the affected divisions including CD Baby, Songtrust, Downtown’s publishing unit, and Downtown Music Holdings alike.
Additionally, the message mentions “a number of cost-saving measures we have underway” – albeit without elaborating upon said measures’ specifics. The “reorganization harmonizes the past several years of strategic investments and divestitures,” according once again to the email announcing the layoffs, which arrive after Downtown acquired Curve Royalty Systems at 2023’s start.
Finally, in terms of the cuts’ details, Downtown higher-ups are expected to meet with their team “in the coming days to share more directly, plans for each division.” It doesn’t appear that any of the laid-off individuals have yet penned LinkedIn posts about the news, and Downtown didn’t respond to a request for comment in time for publishing.
But the layoffs and the cost-saving measures represent just the latest in a line of recent efforts, spearheaded by a multitude of companies, to reduce spending.
Amazon earlier this week revealed plans to eliminate 9,000 more jobs, and it subsequently emerged that the cuts would extend to approximately 400 Twitch employees (and possibly Amazon Music staffers as well). Also in March, Meta queued up another 10,000 layoffs (having parted with north of 11,000 team members in November), whereas SiriusXM laid off 475 employees “across nearly every department” due to “today’s uncertain economic climate.”
Meanwhile, the Facebook and Instagram parent Meta remains embroiled in a licensing showdown in Italy, and the global publishing industry has decried the Menlo Park-headquartered entity’s alleged “unsurprising strongarm tactics.”