"Beatport" stands for Commercial and Sellout?

[MacGuffin]

I wish they were even more selective to be honest, like records used to be, it was a lot harder to get into those than Beatport.

+1

someone had to believe in your music enough to invest for a pressing

[Reversoulmusic]

www.Traxsource.com is the true underground house/dance music download site

forget all the others check it out for your self

Best

jjk

[nbinder]

I also prefer whatpeopleplay (better preview, browser back button, ...), but unfortunately these days many releases are Beatport exclusive.

Yes, currently Beatport seems to be "the place to be", but I wouldn't be sad if that changed. Nothing personal, I just don't like the Flash site. However, I don't think that BP will die in the near future. Their market position is excellent. Also, the fact that you (the "underground") dislike BP does not reflect the majority of the business. For the majority, BP's monopoly position is a given fact and absolutely no problem, as long as they are represented on the site.

I totally agree with Tarekith, Timothy Allan and MacGuffin that there are too many digital releases that would have never been pressed to vinyl and I totally disagree that the situation is worse than it used to be in local record stores years ago. Small "underground" productions are much easier to get/distribute and if your stuff does sound interesting to anybody except yourself and all your relatives/friends, somebody will notice and you'll be able to release it. That's at least my experience. Of course releasing mainstream productions is easier... but it has always been like that.

[nbinder]

I wish they were even more selective to be honest, like records used to be, it was a lot harder to get into those than Beatport.

+1
someone had to believe in your music enough to invest for a pressing

exactly. maybe labels should be forced to pay a certain amount for a release but in return get a higher percentage of the sales....?

[nbinder]

You've obviously never dealt with a label...

Sorry to disappoint you... I do have experiences.

If everybody's so excited about having their stuff on beatport, BP can change the conditions to their likings quite a bit. And now imagine that you desperately want your stuff to be available there (and you're running a label)... wouldn't you be willing to pay a certain amount for it? No? Well then you wouldn't have been able to run a label in the pre-digital era....

[reeloy]

....the idea to buy sell out space on beatport is not that bad....to be honest.

It's sad but true...especially when it comes to four to the floor dance music there won't be no business left soon, if there's not some kind of filtering going on...

16 000 new releases this week?!

....i even got lost when there still was something you could call a vinyl business....that's long ago...

Digital distribution is the last word here....and so is beatport....but thank god, they're not alone....

Zero charts......

[phil909]

i think it's the labels job to specify what genre the track is, not beatports.

i quite like beatport, there's a lot of great music on there if you know where to look.
i find it is best to make favourites of your labels and artists to help sift through the mire.

if you use it as your only resource then you're going to run into problems. it's best to mix it up, traxsource and junodigital are both excellent too.

if you don't like beatport, don't use it. simples.

[nbinder]

I'm not disappointed..?

My point is that a label is going to shell out cash if you're unproven. And a small label definitely wouldn't - they can't afford the gamble.

If you are a new artist and you go to a label saying "I need you to pay for all of this, but you'll get a higher percentage of sales..." they'll laugh in your face.

We're talking about two completely different things here: I adressed the problem of too many labels on beatport releasing tons of crap stuff hardly anybody buys (Beatport does get rid of labels that do not sell anything over a long period of time, however as far as I was told, that period must be really long and really no sales). You are talking about the topic from the perspective of an artist. And my position to the problem you are talking about is very clear: If you don't find a label that is really interested in your stuff, you didn't find the right ones or your stuff is really crap.

Also, from my experience, labels DO invest in stuff that is likely to sell. Of course, we're not talking about ultra-underground stuff here. But it is hard to distinguish between low sales due to style and low sales due to low quality. That - I agree - is not covered in the idea of an upfront payment.

[nbinder]

Well, I was responding to when you said-

maybe labels should be forced to pay a certain amount for a release but in return get a higher percentage of the sales....?

So...

Yeah, and that still is exactly what I am talking about. Which part of it did you get wrong...?

I see your point that you think a label would not be willig to invest in an unknown artist, but that's the kind of decision A&Rs had to make: Are we willing to invest into the release of this new artist (pressing, artwork, ...)?

Right now, releasing stuff is too easy leading to many "records" that would not have been put out in the pre-digital era. So the obvious conclusion is: Go back and force some kind of investment.

Of course that kills some underground stuff, but at the same time also a good amount of the crap we are getting every day right now. If you think your stuff is good and everybody disagrees and nobody wants to invest in you music.... maybe your music IS crap...?

If you're really producing good stuff that only 10 people like, distribute it for free on your website/myspace/...

[Tarekith]

I don't think labels need to pay a fee, Beatport just needs to be more picky about what they accept. Before it gets put on the site, and not after when it doesn't sell. Music is certainly very subjective, but I don't think anyone has scanned BP and not gone "really? this is seriously for sale?" more than a few times.

[nbinder]

But then, some individuals decide.

I'd prefer the fee model, because then the market decides instead of somebody with probably bad taste

(OK, people with enough money can still put out their stuff. Umm.)

How do you get an independent jury on a sales centric site...?

[t.riggins]

Hey guys here's the link to that article my colleague wrote when he talked about Beatport.

http://www.internetdj.com/article/tales ... o-pro-1126


The part where they got dropped is around the 10th paragraph......but overall the entire article is for those who are trying to go pro and speaks from his own experience.....so It's a really good article and gives a good insight how Beatport operates.

But like anything that involves the words "major / corporation" its all about the money, you either bring money to them or don't. Anyway take a few minutes and read up

[Forge.]

again, it's not about beatport- it's about the labels and artists.

one of the things that I really like about Beatport is the fact that you can add your favourite artists and labels to your account and it will tell you what they have released recently - either in the last week, the week before that, or so on

so you don't have to trawl through 16,000 new releases a week, you just look at what your favourite labels and artists have put out and flick through them

to me that is a really good system - then couple that with the fact that they have a hold bin as well as a crate means you can click buy on anything that sounds vaguely close then go back through several times whittling it down, but you don't have to remove them completely you can add them to your hold bin.....

[Forge.]

Hey guys here's the link to that article my colleague wrote when he talked about Beatport.

http://www.internetdj.com/article/tales ... o-pro-1126


The part where they got dropped is around the 10th paragraph......but overall the entire article is for those who are trying to go pro and speaks from his own experience.....so It's a really good article and gives a good insight how Beatport operates.

But like anything that involves the words "major / corporation" its all about the money, you either bring money to them or don't. Anyway take a few minutes and read up

and again, that article is really a case in point - they were trying to start a LABEL - that is a completely different thing to being an artist. Not something I'd want to be doing these days to be honest - not like there's a shortage of labels.

If you want to get on Beatport (and the other sites) then you need to get on an established label, not start a new one.

[LoopStationZebra]

How many people still go out, play live, build an actual audience and a following, and then sell their albums/tracks via their own website?