Beatport shutdown services
A Beatport shutdown of all its ancillary services will become effective as at 13 May 2016.
But don’t worry – the main service most use the website for – buying/downloading music to DJ with – is not affected by the Beatport shutdown.
Some of these services you may not even know existed to be honest since selling downloadable music was the company’s core business and quite frankly some of them such as the Streaming platform never really took off.
The services affected by the Beatport shutdown include;
Beatport News – their online media channel which was not a bad resource for electronic music news but never became a massively influential voice
Beatport Streaming – this was lauded as the next big thing when their Vice President, Terry Weerasinghe, visited South Africa in 2014. But they took their time in releasing a mobile app version and Beatport streaming simply did not integrate seamlessly with the Beatport store making it something of a fail.
Other services such as their video live streaming and event section will also be suspended and there is uncertainty over their latest partnership with Scratch DJ Academy, in which a weekly, live streamed series via Beatport’s video platform would be produced.
The Beatport shutdown of these services they claim is due to them losing sight of their core focus which is to be on online store and have thus decided to shelve their ambition to be a one stop shop for DJs and electronic music fans alike.
Although the auction of Beatport has been adjourned indefinitely, the unloading of these services is most likely about cutting costs on things that simply weren’t paying their way.
Read the official letter regarding the Beatport shutdown of these services…
Today, we have an important update regarding the Beatport platform and the services we offer.
When Beatport was acquired three years ago, part of the vision was to create a broad digital platform for DJs to engage fans of electronic music wherever they may be. The original Beatport Store and the Beatport brand became the foundation for this vision, upon which we added a streaming music service, mobile app, a video livestreaming platform, and a relaunched news and media property.
We have learned through this process however, that in our effort to be so many different things, we lost focus on bringing the best possible service and capabilities to our most loyal customers: the DJ community. As such, we have determined to invest in what is most important to our business and our customers, rather than adding yet another choice to a sea of streaming services.
This means we will be shutting down the Streaming service and mobile app, Beatport News, the Video livestreaming platform, and the Events section effective May 13, 2016. Additionally, while we plan to continue considering offers for Beatport, the previously detailed auction process will be suspended for now. We’d like to give our heartfelt thanks to all of the loyal listeners, readers, and viewers who have come to enjoy these services over the past year, as well as all the labels, artists, and promoters who have participated in them.
Going forward, we will refocus our attention and resources on our flagship business, the Beatport Store. We’ve already made noticeable improvements in site performance, with our most-used features (track, release, artist, and genre pages) running up to 51% faster.
For over 12 years, the Beatport Store has served DJs and the electronic music community. As a new generation of artists, performers, and sounds develop and grow, inspired by the leaders of today and the past, the Beatport Store will continue to be there to support the music and inspire the community.
— The Beatport Team
