DistroKid, which launched in 2013, has established itself as the world's largest online music distributor, responsible for roughly 30-40% of all new music uploaded to stores. Their customer base is overwhelmingly independent musicians.

On Monday, Oct. 21st, DistroKid placed 37 employees, roughly 25% of its staff, on administrative leave, pending layoffs. This includes the entire full-time customer support staff and most of their quality assurance engineers. The employees who were placed on leave were all members of the DistroKid union, which had won its election in April with strong numbers. The affected employees make up 47% of the union, including 5 of the 7 bargaining committee members. They were given notice of this 1 hour before the union bargaining committee was set to resume negotiations with DistroKid over their first contract.

When addressing concerns about AI and outsourcing last year, DistroKid founder and CEO (now Chairman of the Board) Philip Kaplan unequivocally stated that employees didn’t need to worry, and that jobs were not in danger. But today, the company has decided it values the cost savings of outsourcing more than employee expertise and loyalty, and that it will be using the savings on growth and marketing initiatives.

Because of the recently formed union, DistroKid is legally obliged to negotiate with employees over the layoffs. While DistroKid claims they are negotiating in good faith, the union bargaining committee reports that the company seems dead set on layoffs, after they wholesale rejected the union’s counterproposal that was aimed at addressing the company’s stated goals. DistroKid seems willing to destroy their company culture and public goodwill in an effort to dismantle the DistroKid union.

We, the undersigned, demand DistroKid remove union employees from administrative leave and not lay them off. We stand with DistroKid employees and their right to safely organize their workplace.