Beatport

Beatport

Opened	2004
Platforms	Cross-platform (web-based application)
Format	MPEG Layer 3 (.mp3) @ 320 kbit/s, WAVE Audio (.wav), Audio Interchange File Format (.aiff)
Restrictions	None
Preview	2:00 minute MP3 previews @ 96 kbit/s
Website	www.beatport.com

Beatport is an online music store specializing in electronic music and culture. Beatport is a privately held company owned and operated by Beatport LLC and based in Denver, Colorado with offices in Los Angeles, California, San Francisco, Tokyo, Japan and Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 2004, and in 2013 bought by Robert F. X. Sillerman's company SFX Entertainment, for a reported price of slightly over $50 million.^[1] Its annual revenue for 2012 was reportedly around $15–18 million, with losses of $2 million.^[2]

History

Founding (2004)

The first version of Beatport's web store, Beatport 1.0, was released on January 7, 2004 and consisted of 79 Electronic Music Record Labels in its catalog.^[3] Half a year later, Beatport was beginning to become recognized after a few collaborations with well-known DJs and partnerships with the technology company Native Instruments.^[3] In January 2005, a revised Beatport 2.0 was released, with a catalog of over 100,000 tracks supplied by 2,700 signed labels. Beatport was also made accessible through a scaled-down GUI embedded within DJ software: Traktor DJ Studio by Native Instruments. On August 7, 2006 Beatport released Beatport 3.0 Fully Loaded, the third version of its original store, which featured improvements to navigation, customized content subscription via My Beatport, and new payment options.

Beatport Player (2007)

In February 2007, Beatport launched the Beatport Player, a viral marketing web widget to play back relevant Artist, Label, Genre, and Chart content. Built using Adobe Flash and HTML, the player gives users the ability to create custom, dynamic playlists from Beatport's entire catalog of song previews to be embedded into nearly any HTML website.

In August 2007, Beatport launched a community-oriented music site, Beatportal, whose stated mission is "...to provide music lovers with up-to-date information about the world of electronic music". Following up on the idea of the community-oriented site, Beatport introduced the Beatport Music Awards‏ on March 18, 2008. Each year Beatport users can vote for the best electronic music artists in an effort to trace the progress of these artists over the years or determine which has the largest growing fan base. The BMAs are broken down into 19 categories, including Best Artist categories from each genre, Best Remix, and Best Single. The nominees for the BMAs are based solely on unit sales at Beatport.

The New Beatport (2009)

A version called "The New Beatport" was released on January 21, 2009 and integrated the use of a Flex 3 web application provided by RealEyes Media. On July 14, 2011, Beatport launched their HTML5 website with new features, designs and a new platform.

SFX acquisition (2013)

In February 2013, Beatport was acquired by Robert F.X. Sillerman's SFX Entertainment, a conglomerate focusing on EDM properties such as festivals and promoters.^[4] Additionally, Beatport announced a partnership with the music recognition service Shazam, which would allow the service to index Beatport's catalog so its songs can be recognized by Shazam's app.^[5]

On January 6, 2014, Clear Channel Media and Entertainment announced that as part of a marketing partnership with SFX, it will syndicate a Beatport top 20 countdown show to its major-market contemporary hit radio stations beginning later in the year. Clear Channel staff, including John Sykes, believed that the deal (particularly the Beatport countdown show) would help provide a higher level of national exposure to current and up and coming EDM artists (Clear Channel's syndication division also produces the American Top 40).^[6][7][8]

Music catalog

At launch, Beatport offered tracks from 79 electronic music labels to customers worldwide. Over the years, the company has grown and expanded its music catalog to include more artists and differentiations of the electronic genre such as house, techno, drum & bass, and dubstep.

Sales of sample packs and remix stems, in the "Beatport Sounds" section, grew from an annual revenue of $600,000 in 2010 to $6 million in 2012.^[9]

Digital rights management

All tracks on Beatport are provided free of DRM. There are no restrictions on the number of devices to which a purchased song can be transferred nor the number of times any individual song can be burned to CD.

Awards

International Dance Music Awards (IDMA)

• 2006: Best Dance Music Retailer and Best Dance Music Specialty Retailer^[10]
• 2007: Best Dance Music Retailer^[11]
• 2008: Best Dance Music Specialty Retailer^[12]
• 2009: Best Dance Music Website (awarded to Beatportal.com) and Best Specialty Retailer^[13]
• 2010: Best Dance Music Website (awarded to Beatportal.com) and Best Dance Music Specialty Retailer^[14]
• 2011: Best Dance Music Specialty Retailer^[15]
• 2012: Best Dance Music Specialty Retailer^[16]
• 2013: Best EDM/Dance Music Retailer^[17]

See also

• Juno Records
• Christou v. Beatport, LLC

References

Further reading

• "International Dance Music Award Winners". About, Inc., part of The New York Times company. Archived from the original on 21 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-27. 
• "Westword: Regas files suit against Beatport, Beta, and AM Only". Denver Westword Blogs. Retrieved 2011-03-10. 
• "23rd Annual International Dance Music Awards Nominees & Winners". Winter Music Conference. Archived from the original on 27 December 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-06. 
• "26th Annual International Dance Music Awards Nominees & Winners". Winter Music Conference. Retrieved 2011-04-18. 

External links

• Official website
• Beatport top tracker