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. Its annual revenue for 2012 was
reportedly around $15–18 million, with losses of $2 million.
History = Founding =
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. 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. 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 = In February 2007, Beatport launched the
Beatport Player, a viral marketing web widget to play back relevant content by
Artist, Label, Genre, and Chart. Built using Adobe Flash and HTML, the player
gives users the ability to create custom, dynamic playlists from song
previews of Beatport's catalog 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 =
The third version of the online store, named "The New Beatport", was released
on January 21, 2009. Multiple features were added to the site including
embedded artwork in purchased music, a new user-preference system named "My
Beatport", keyboard shortcuts and sitewide multilingual support. As a
newer version of the store, it integrated the use of a Adobe 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 = 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. 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. 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 would help
provide a higher level of national exposure to current and up and coming
EDM artists. 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.
= 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 2006: Best Dance Music Retailer and Best
Dance Music Specialty Retailer 2007: Best Dance Music Retailer
2008: Best Dance Music Specialty Retailer
2009: Best Dance Music Website and Best Specialty Retailer
2010: Best Dance Music Website and Best Dance Music Specialty Retailer
2011: Best Dance Music Specialty Retailer
2012: Best Dance Music Specialty Retailer
2013: Best EDM/Dance Music Retailer 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 Instagram
Official website Beatport top tracker