Digital giant Beatport announcing radical changes

It has been several months since the entire music industry has been struck by SFX’s bankruptcy announcement, leaving the future of Beatport, among others, unclear. The biggest digital music distributor issued a statement announcing their Streaming, Video, News & Events features will be shut down on May 13.

“On May 13, we will no longer offer our Streaming, Video, News, and Events features, and all traffic to these sites will redirect to the Beatport Store homepage.

We’d like to thank all the loyal listeners, readers, and viewers who have come to enjoy these services, as well as all the labels, artists, and promoters who have participated in them. We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

The Beatport Store will continue to operate without interruption.”

One of the main impacts is on the portal’s distribution service – Baseware Distribution, leaving a vast majority of labels with 48 hours to find a new distributor, one of which is allegedly Beatport’s top seller Spinnin’ Records. In its emails to labels, the digital giant advised: “We encourage you to negotiate a new arrangement with another distribution service to ensure your future releases are addressed.” The content of those shall be pulled down from the system on May 13th.

Beatport, however, have assured their customers that those changes are for the good, already assuring their digital store is performing 51% better and that they will continue to improve to ensure their continuous support of the music community.

Read the full statement here.

Upon the bankruptcy announcement by SFX, Beatport was scheduled for auction on May 3rd however it has been advised that this has been postponed for a later stage. Whether this will lead to even further changes to the site will no doubt be revealed in the coming weeks.

H/T: Resident Advisor