The explanation is as follows:
The reasoning behind this new, higher benchmark is for several reasons. We wantI am an indie artist that does every thing by myself plus this is my profession and how I make my money. I am not a hobbyist. I also though am not a machine.
to keep the quality and the relevancy of content available on Beatport as high
as possible. We acknowledge and understand that labels do take some time to
build a brand, but we also feel that a higher income minimum serves to separate
the ‘hobbyist’ from the serious professional (or aspiring professional) producer
and/or label manager.
That is about 300 to 400 songs per quarter, per artist. If I was selling that many tracks a month from just 1 site, not including making that from iTunes and so on, I would be selling it all myself from my own site. I only use these places for exposure. Not profit.
I have always felt with Beatport, it was all about the money. They never cared about the artists. They have the money to dominate the market, so they can set the rules as they please.
I do not think that Beatport should dictate who "indie artists" are by the amount of money they have or make. What they are saying is that you are not an artist that creates unless you have money.
It is no surprise to me in this world. For a long time, many talented artists have been silenced and kept down because they had no money. The Internet leveled that playing field giving indies a more affordable way to promote.
I know a quote that says, "It is a flawed society that causes art to be created within a financial means..." - the author is unknown.
So the Beatport fad will end and most probably the site will lose out. I think it is a major mistake to turn your backs on the indies.
There is always iTunes and the other 1000 digital shops to sell your stuff on...
www.504productions.com
18 comments:
wow, i'm surprised...i would think this would hurt beatport.
This is retarded, the main reason I like Beatport is that they have the most comprehensive collection - if they start dropping things that don't sell quite enough for this threshold then they lose that.
We have never used, nor do we at this point in time ever plan to, sell our tracks via Beatport. They have, through hype and clever marketing, managed to secure a place as the 'No.1 dance music download site', but we truly believe that their day's at the top are numbered. It's only a matter of time before someone comes along and steals their thunder.
They are also one of the most expensive download stores we have ever come across, especially for UK punters, who do not pay the equivalent to their US counterparts for the same tracks i.e a track that cost $2.00 in the US will be charged £2.00 in UK.
There are a number of quality artists who cannot get themselves a place on their site simply because they are not 'big names' in the industry, even though many of these so called 'big names' are putting out mediocre material at best.
Beatport is all about marketing and hype. It doesn't matter how good your material is, if you're not a household name or selling bucket loads of tracks or have connections in the 'industry', they simply do not want to know.
It's refreshing to see that someone else spoken up about this, and I believe it will be their downfall. There are many quality (not to mention cheaper and fairer) download sites to choose from.
Without meaning to sound prejudiced, as a UK based label we tend to sell our tracks through UK based download sites anyway because we believe in supporting British based download stores.
Sites such as DJ Download, Track It Down, Juno Download, Beats Digital etc all have fairer (and cheaper) policies and good customer service, both for artists and punters alike.
Just to let you know, we are not saying this because we have an axe to grind (we have had to opportunity to sell through Beat port and I believe some of our back catalogue stuff is on there through our connections with other labels) we just don't agree with their elitist attitude. . .
Tux, I wholeheartedly agree.....
I for one, have always been frustrated by the amount of crap that clogs Beatport. Trawling through the site to find decent music takes ages because there's so much shit on there.
Culling loads of crap labels (imposing a certain revenue amount seems like a fair way to do this) is a good thing as there will be a lot less shit on there.
Plus the benchmark is NOT applicable to all labels, and Beatport will also be making judgement calls about which labels to cull IE: a decent label that has only released a couple of decent tracks but failed to meet the benchmark will still be kept on Beatport.
What's wrong with a little quality control, in a digital era that's clogged by below par music?
What's wrong with controlling the industry, the music and who gets heard is what you are saying?
I know some big names that can't get on Beatport. They may not be BT or Paul Van Dyke, but they have charted on Billboard.
Just sounds like typical who knows who and who can make who money as usual if you ask me.
Boycott Beatport then. I have. I'm an indie artist that was denied by Beatport. There are plenty of other stores out there that have club music, including indie dance music artist that were just cut from Beatport. I sell my tracks on Jamvana.com just because their service is great and a lot of my fans love the fact that they can buy my tracks for only $0.99 US. They have the big boys on there as well for all you people that just want to buy tracks from big labels like Ultra. I just bought the brand new Robbie Rivera release for $0.99 per track as well as the new AVB release. Saved myself a few bucks over buying at Beatport.
Why would a store try to be like this? This does nothing good to the scene. NOTHING! There are better sites all over JamVana.com
Itunes and 1000 of more. I say BOYCOTT BEATPOPRT!!!!
Man that guy cant even spell Beatport but I say BOYCOTT them to!
I'm effected by this as well. I'm an artist thats been around for over 10 years producing dance tunes and done fairly well. It is very very frustrating to get this news from them. It was hard enough to get on the site and even with a track or two that have reached the top ten in my genres, they plan to cut me because I'm not some super duper cash maker. I recently heard an interesting fact. Most business that have many clients, like Beatport does, make most of their money from the collective total of the "little guy". Not the big sellers. So not only does this make no since from a biz standpoint... its just wrong. Shame on them.
The learning curve to become a successful label/artist is long and hard, I am speaking with 20 years in this business and I have no connection to beatport.
This whole story breaks down into perspective:
- If Im an artist/small label I dont like it because theyre telling me Im not good enough and I think I work hard (maybe not hard enough at the right things)
- If Im a label that isnt being cut, I like it because now it will be easier to see my releases
- If Im a customer this means more high quality, RELEVANT releases, (If you want boutique and eclectic products/services you dont go to Macys or Dillards you go to the small stores, Beatport is no longer a small store)
- If I am beatport I want to stop wasting time, money and bandwidth on tracks that arent holding their weight and helping me pay my bills, that is the simple point in business, "controlling overhead".
What everyone needs to understand is that every business needs to make not so popular decisions to stay in business.
In BP's opinion if youre making good, RELEVANT (dont forget that word) music then you will sell, period. Not to mention that you bust your arse promoting the hell out of your releases because exposure is the only thing that will do that. If you cant get to the big jocks you need to buy a promo list or get a pr agency to work your tracks, that is the way this industry works, and its always been that way.
Just now that BP is in the open, people have a bunch of opinions in areas where they dont have all the facts.
They spend heaps of money on marketing and promotions, and servers(drive space) and staff and bandwidth, pool parties, events, now a site redesign---WHERE DO YOU THINK THIS MONEY COMES FROM?? From labels that produce quality consistently.
It may be true that the majority of BPs income comes from the bulk of the lower labels but those lower labels are pulling 2, 4, even $8k a quarter, not $200-300.
That is where a lot of confusion lies. For the smaller labels/artists that dont have a firm grasp on what needs to happen they should start with the other stores, build up a nice catalogue and then approach BP again.
If anyone needs some help or guidance in how to make their efforts more competitive then feel free to contact me and I will do my best to consult.
Don't flame me with a bunch of nonsense just because you dont like what I have to say, I make sense and that you cannot deny.
yea, doing shit just for profit, no matter who it hurts has made business rock....just look at all the greedy businesses not failing and needing a bail out....
i am being sarcastic.....making your decisions based on money alone hurts everyone involved....period.....
i dont see itunes stopping indies. and they sell way more music than BP and sure use much more bandwidth.....
Dan I can tell that you have probably never owned a business, because if you had you would be more open to how hard it is to stay alive--you have the concept all wrong.
The idea of any business is to provide a service and make a profit. You do not want to spend more running your business as compared to what you are pulling in. When that happens you need to make adjustments to ensure you can keep your business on the right side of the line.
Simple, VERY SIMPLE economics.
BP has also cut staff nearly in half to make sure that they can continue to provide a service at the level that everyone expects, and another one of those decisions was to let some labels go so that the store and its staff can perform more efficiently.
Any company that doesnt make moves to stay efficient will die, period.
iTunes is a different breed of monster altogether, though the business models are the same, the strata of customer and the way they ingest content is more advanced than BP.
iTunes is completely automated and are serviced by aggregators that can provide at least 250 releases and have barcodes/UPCs for it to be worth iTunes' time to process
iTunes has typically always not dealt with the small labels they ask that a distributor brings many artists/labels in at once.
And iTunes brings me to another point, traffic. People want their tracks in iTunes and BP because these are the most popular stores and they have the highest number of visitors. Visitors = Sales.
Stores like Juno, DJD, Beats Digital, etc, are all great stores in their own right, but they come nowhere close to having the same amount of visitors as the major players, the reason everyone is upset is because BP now says, "you dont capture enough sales from the traffic we work so hard to bring here", case and point.
why do those big companies have the number one spot? do you know why?
money....meaning that only those with money can compete. meaning those without even if they are the next jimmy hendrix or phil collins will never be heard just because a lack of money.
and that is ok with you? that art...a form of expression (not a product) is being controlled to a point where only those with $$$ get to express themselves?
thats why the industry sux now dude. i knew many cats that have or had the equipment but was hiring me to teach them how to use it.
and you assume wrong. i remix for labels plus have my own music i promote. its a business... www.504productions.com - but i dont need 500 billion dollars to live. so the business is not for massive profit. as long as i get by without working at a slave job i am happy.
capitalism does not work. it creates industries where things, even normal things you expect to be the norm like health care become for profit only. what we see now in the economy is the direct result of that failure. any society that oppresses for any reason including financial is not a free or working society.
Hi Dan, you make some good points, however the concepts of capitalism dont necessarily apply to this convo because BP is not making this decision to make MORE money or to take advantage, they are making this decision to maintain what they have currently.
Which due to russian download sites, file sharing (from people who use blogs just like this to share links), and the high costs of running a business.
When you open a business, if you cannot get a loan/venture capital you have to get down and dirty and handle things yourself, like I assume that you are doing (I did not investigate your company so please correct me if Im mistaken).
The difference with the "stuggling artist/label" is that they dont have some or all of what it takes to succeed. Things like capital, time, desire, know-how, contacts, skills, marketing, promototion, sales, creative direction...etc....
OK so where does that leave them?
At the mercy of people who do have or understand those things, and sorry Dan, but that is never going to go away. Managers and artists, and marketing companies, etc...all succeed because they know how to do their job well and thats why we need them. If youre a web designer and I want a professional site, should I do it myself (not very well) or try to get someone who knows what they are doing?
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Capitalism = Banks that charge a $35 overdraft fee because they know youre going to do it--is that their fault or the account holder?
Not Capitalism = Companies that profit from providing a service that you need, efficiently.
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What if you ran a store, and have 1000 labels, and only 10% of them were REALLY helping your business to be successful to an extent that you can measure, couple that with the 20 hours per day that you spend running this store (time away from family/friends/hobbies/etc).
Then you would have to decide just what is REALLY worth your time. Now at first you would take the humanitarian approach and try to help those smaller, under performing labels to promote, give them banners and tips to succeed, but how much can you actually do?
Those arent your companies, youre already killing yourself to run yours, you will lose the last 4 hours of sleep that you do get, helping other people.
At some point you will have to make a "not-so-popular" decision for your own sanity--and that is similar to what is happening here.
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"jimmy hendrix or phil collins"
This is the age old story of the budding artist trying to "make it in LA/NY". Mate, you have to get your arse out there and market yourself. Americal Idol and XFactor have taken this model and leveraged it to their advantage. Guess what they formula is "they get rid of the ones who cant hack it and keep the best"
Sounds to me like the new Jimmy and Phil need a manager.
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"only those with $$$ get to express themselves"
Going back to you running a store...if you dont pre-qualify your new artists/labels and just let anyone in, your service will suffer because people will get tired of digging through sub-par performances to get some quality.
This funny enough is a complaint that people had about BP, so now that BP is making the decision to trim the fat, they are the bad guy.
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"thats why the industry sux now dude. i knew many cats that have or had the equipment but was hiring me to teach them how to use it."
Im not sure I understand your point here.
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"its a business...504productions - but i dont need 500 billion dollars to live....as long as i get by without working at a slave job i am happy"
OK Dan, you have a production company...why did you start this company, because you love music right? OK so why do you charge for remixes? If you believe that the world should run on a "flower-child" level then you should be giving all of your music away and doing your part to make the world a better place.
Why do you charge small artists for your services when you know they are stuggling to make ends meet?
What if I dont have $250 for a trance remix--Will you do it for $50? Im not going to say that youre being hypocritical but you have a set of amount of money that you feel your time is worth...the same way BP has a level at which it needs to run to feel like its time for providing its service is being compensated for, and if that means making some cut backs, that is what it means.
Also re: "as long as i get by"
People dont start businesses to just "get by" they want to be successful. Now I have never heard of your company but that does not mean that you dont do quality work, it just means that you need more exposure.
Its that exposure that will get you fans who will hear and buy your music. The same goes for the small labels/artists who were affected by the decision from BP.
So, b/c I charge for my remixes so I have money to live, in a world that charges for everything, i am now the bad guy? i don't have a profit margin of even thousands of dollars...
Most of my remix work comes from indie labels that have a little whoomp behind them. Ford is hired by major labels. How are we wrong for only doing what the system dictates us to do to get by?
If it was up to me, i be happy in the forest chilling in a cabin. but the world is not like that anymore and what we have created will eventually cost us in the long run. always has, always will....
for years companies and record labels have raped the indie artist. stole from their expression of their heart and soul. there is no excuse for it. then when the industry fails, it sues the very same consumers they have been raping for 40 years.
yea, it is all fair and balanced and the "money" has made things so much better for all the bands and artists.
Hi Dan,
No please dont get me wrong, Im not attacking you, Im just trying to show you how you as well make business decisions so that you can earn a decent living, and if lets say your rent goes up, you might need to raise your prices to maintain, and the people that use your service might not be happy about it, saying youre trying to take advantage of them, when youre really just trying to survive.
--
"for years companies and record labels have raped the indie artist. stole from their expression of their heart and soul. there is no excuse for it. then when the industry fails, it sues the very same consumers they have been raping for 40 years."
Now that one I cant debate you on, but that is a whole'nother topic.
:-)
On a side note, reach out to me at my email, Id like to discuss a few things offline.
Cheers
D
hanks for the Blog. I own the content records www.myspace.com/conteudorecords and from my campaign started today ... "say no to betaport" say yes! for music & freedom "
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