Beatport vs DDA

[djsence]

Seven UK dance music download stores have joined together to create the Dance Download Alliance (DDA). The seven members, 3Beat Digital, Audiojelly, DJdownload, Juno Download, TrackitDown, Trax2Burn and Xpressbeats, have joined together to counteract a proposal offered to dance labels and distributors by Beatport who offers an exclusivity arrangement, as an option, on all new releases from labels if they chose to participate.

The DDA has been quoted as saying that "we believe that the short and long term effects of such a proposal will damage the dance music industry as a whole. Consequences for labels, artists and distributors, as well as download retailers and ultimately customers, could be severe."

The DDA is threatening to dump labels who "join a blanket exclusivity arrangement" since it "would not be economically viable for us to continue to stock repertoire from labels" who [accept said arrangement]." The letter to participating labels also goes on to warn: "The loss of the support and promotion of seven major UK online dance retailers (as well as our many affiliate stores) will undoubtedly have a major impact on your label's and artists' profiles across the web, as well as your ability to maximise additional revenue streams such as compilations and licensing. Leaving customers without the choice of where to buy your music could also increase the chances of your music being traded through P2P networks stimulating a rise in dance music piracy."

Banding together the UK's leading online retailers to fight Beatport is a savvy move for this new coalition since their combined power far outweighs individual efforts. Having access to up-to-the-minute releases from labels is the lifeblood of Dance music-oriented retailers, both online and offline. The seven retailers are determined to not let this new exclustivity option succeed, which would significantly harm their businesses, and may have taken a page out of the recent online royalty rate hike battle that found instant strength in numbers.

"The Dance Download Alliance believes that fair competition and consumer choice are foundations for a healthy and flourishing dance download market," claims the DDA. However, if you read between the lines, you can smell the desperation.

The alliance is painting Beatport as a company who's following Apple's cutthroat tactics in order to solidify their top position, and to gain the upper hand against their competitors. Leveraging market position has allowed iTunes to not only dominate the market, but also to control pricing. In addition, prominent positioning on the retailer's site often makes a significant impact on the fiscal results of a new release, so many labels are forced to play ball. However, this isn't the case in terms of Beatport

[Tronic]

There are so many other options still out there.

Stompy.com is another great one.

Plus a lot of labels offer digital downloads on their own sites. That is the way to go if you want to support, as you know more of the money will go directly to the artist / label.

Also....I have found a lot of great music on Itunes. The quality is just fine when you play the tracks out, and almost all tracks are .99.

You have to know what you are looking for, but a lot of good music to be had....

- tronic

[B_tech]

Why would I put my shit on solely European download sites and force Americans to pay close to $4 a track, rather than $1.99 on Beatport?

The DDA is a crock of shit and they were the first people that I cut contracts with, because they use exchange rates to further THEIR profits, but don't pass any of that onto the label and they collect VAT on AMERICANS!! In case you weren't aware, you can only collect VAT on persons residing in the EU, so that tactic is illegal.

Besides the obvious reasons, Beatport does NOT require exclusivity. I had shit on Beatport AND Stompy, so there's some mis-information being spread there.

Now, I can see using those sites for European distro, but to try to take American sales when the prices are 2x higher than Beatport? That's just fuckin asinine. Any labels that jump at this opertunity are foolish and short-sighted.

[theperfectcyn]

i fucking hate beatport.

[B_tech]

me 2, but I hate all the Euro-sites more, for trying to bilk US customers out of more money.

[dj jakub]

The reason why tracks are more expensive from the euro site has nothing to do with the overcharging of customers, it's the result of a really weak dollar. They are not charging people more they set their price based on their local currency, can't blame them. I don't see why they should sell tracks cheaper to americans.

As far as charging for VAT for non europeans, i know junodownload.com, doesn't do this. Trackitdown, might, i'm not sure, but when they used to sell actual records through tuneinn when it was around they never did.

DDA is simply fighting against Beatport's new exclusive distribution deals, and I don't blame them. Beatport just sent out a new email about the new distribution deals about a week ago. In it basically they say if your label generated more than 5k for Q1 or Q2, you can get a exclusive deal, which will include giving you a bigger cut of the profit, and i'm assuming special promotion on their site. You can select to do a 4 week or 8 week exclusive run with beatport at which point you can sell your music else where. DDA is saying that this will really hurt other shops as they will get music a month or two after the release date, when most of the money is generated. They are banking on the fact that combined as a collection of sites, they can give a label an alternative. Remember beatport is 40% North America sales, 40% Europe, 20% elsewhere. So exclusive deals to euro sites are 50/50 in a labels eyes, profit wise it might be better to go with them.

Economics aside, I also honestly think it really depends on what type of music you are selling. Beatport is really really pushing the whole electro house and minimal house thing, they seem to be perma locked into those genres. Most stuff like techno doesn't sell well there at all, from personal experince i have had stuff chart in the top 50 on junodownload, while having terrible sales on beatport.

Overall, exclusive deals are probablly not the best for the industry, but it's a brave new digital world, i'm sure things will figure themselves out.

[theperfectcyn]

Originally posted by dj jakub
Beatport is really really ruining the whole electro house and minimal house thing, they seem to be watering those genres down.

[dj jakub]

:)

[B_tech]

Dude. Beatport has NOTHING on Kompakt and Bleep for minimal and they never will. Beatport is catering to the people that buy electro house, prog and other club-ish music. They have an extensive minimal selection, but most are unknown labels and crap music, which is watering the genre down. But the same argument can be raised for all the netlabels that put out wack music... it's the artists that waterdown and kill genres, not the stores.

And I fully realize the conversion rate and the weaker dollar is the culprit for the gap in prices, but 1.99 quid is ~ $4. Why would *I* as a label owner actually want to drop my American seller, Beatport, to sell on the European sites, so my American buyers have to end up paying 2x as much? That does NOTHING but turn away Americans that don't want to pay that much for a file.

As for the VAT, I know Juno doesn't charge it (although the site tried to charge me once on a vinyl order), but AudioJelly and Trackitdown DO charge it and are very clear that they do so.

All said and done, it's cheaper and more effective to set up a download store on your label's website. You keep more money, pay less fees and don't have to deal with the territories. I know quite a few labels that go this route.

[theperfectcyn]

i actually have downloaded more music for free from blogs at high bit rate in the past 3 months than i have from ANY of the purchase sites. i gotta say i kinda feel bad doing it, but these blogs publicly put the songs up there for no charge at play-out-quality kbps, i assume they must have some agreement with the artists. so i don't do it a LOT, and this keeps me from sounding like the same old shit :)

i particularly hate the fact that most of the time the track i wanted when perusing beatport, was $2.49, not 1.99, due to the exclusivity thing agreement put on it.

i need to remember to log into my messenger account. THAT's where the good shit comes from :)

[B_tech]

most of the hot shit I hear is off netlabels, because most of the 'minimal' labels are doing this tired Gui Boratto sound or the stereo tom sound like Barem. *yawn*

OHHH you're talking about the 'preview' blogs. LOL Don't feel bad, 99% of the tunes posted are from promo copies and test pressings.

[skloot]

Preview blogs eh?
linky linky?

Definitely having fun exploring netlabels recently, there is some amazingly good stuff out there. Textone and Clever Music and whatnot really do it for me

[B_tech]

Too bad Clever went from a netlabel to a PAY label... i'm not happy with that decision. If you want some crazy amounts of Textone stuff, there's the 'mp3' page that a lot of people don't know ab00t: http://textone.org/mp3/

Some of the preview blogs are member only, but one that's pretty well known is Hypnotic Breaks (I can't remember the exact address, so Google that name).

[skloot]

Neato, thanks a lot! *writes script to scrape textone catalog*

Been really diving into netlabels today and digging it quite thoroughly. Interdisco and Epsilonlab have some serious <3.

[dj*a0*]

Awesome... Thanks Lance!

[B_tech]

Epsilon is good, but only a few of their releases are free... the rest are for sale on Beatport.

Here's a few that I love:
DoBox
Archipel
Broque
Claque Musique (Gaetano Parisio's label)
Electrotoxic (for electro)
Funque Droppings
Ignored Records
Polytone
Resource Records (used to do vinyl, now is a netlabel.. it's not well known either ;) )
Yuki Yaki

Look those up in Discogs and enjoy :D

[Shauk]

see my review of some of these digital download stores on my website.

honestly, I think DDA can go fuck itself given the fact that my experience with audiojelly made me want to cut my nipples off with a steak knife.