IMS Report: Music Sales and Genres: A look at Beatport’s involvement in the Dance music industry

It is undoubtedly clear that, apart from facing stiff competition in terms of being a music sales platform from the likes of Apple’s iTunes and Google’s Google Play, Beatport has more or less pioneered and made Electronic Music its own forte. And if the recent report from last week’s International Music Summit tells us anything, it is that Beatport has gotten better at what it does.

Owned by the L.A. based LiveStyle conglomerate – a live-events company founded by media entrepreneur Robert F. X. Sillerman -Beatport has not only performed well in the past few years but has also returned profits to the parent company as per the report. In the time between first quarters of 2016 and 2017, Beatport’s Track Sales have gone up by 4%, Registered Users up to 7% between Jan 2016 and Jan 2017. What is most impressive is the increase in the sales platform’s visitor inflow – which has increased by a staggering 14% – showing that the usual gossip about Dance music starting to decline can be put aside for good at last.

Moving on from sales to genres, Beatport’s top selling genre has remained unchanged with Techno remaining at the forefront since the first quarter of 2015. While Techno (Minimal and Deep Tech) continues to dominate the sales genre wise alongside Tech House and House, genres such as Nu Disco and Electro House remain at the bottom of the sales performances. Fairly new to the scene, Future House climbed to 9th position whereas old-timer Trance has shown a resurgence of sorts in the past 12 months.

Based on the report, it would be safe to say that Beatport’s not only dominating the Electronic Dance Music industry through its sales platform and avenues but also returning profits for its parent company after the restructuring that took place in May 2016 – a fact that may have assisted the SFX Entertainments to emerge out of its bankruptcy as the LiveStyle brand.

The full report is publicly available for all to view here.