For years, Beatport has staked a claim as one of the top music stores for DJs – but just like any other product, there are competitors on the market. A clever Reddit user has taken the top 2200 songs from each Beatport category and written a Java program to compare them to Amazon’s pricing. Keep reading to see his Amazon vs Beatport findings and why many DJs might want to consider shopping around for their music.
Beatport vs. Amazon
Oftentimes, when multiple companies are competing for customers, they will play the price game – each company trying to offer a better deal than the next. One Reddit user, Sinisa Radovcic, decided to use Amazon’s Product Search API to cross reference every top-selling track from Beatport to find out what (if any) price different existed between the two. Sinisa writes:
“The purpose is to measure Amazon in comparison to electronic music download market leader Beatport. Also, I pay for my downloads and I want to get more tracks for the same amount of my weekly music budget.”
The difference is substantial – of the tracks that were available on Amazon, there were savings across the board. If you bought every single track on Beatport it would be about $3,070, whereas on Amazon it would run just $1,785.
Take one example, the top Tech House track on Beatport, Emanuel Satie’s rework of I Get Deep. The track is $1.99 on Beatport’s store, but if you cruise over to Amazon, it’s just 89¢.
Quality Caveats To Amazon
So why is Amazon so much cheaper? The biggest difference is that Beatport carries MP3s that are 320kbps, where as Amazon is encoding at a 256kbps VBR. The quality is still pretty solid, but for DJs playing large club systems many will want to stick with 320 MP3s (read our DJ’s Guide To Audio Files and Bit Rates).
If you’re just planning on rocking out at small house parties and in your bedroom, this could be a big win.
A few other things to note about this analysis:
- Not Every Song Is On Amazon: Based on Sinisa’s analysis, only 1672 out of the 2200 top tracks on Beatport were available or soon-to-be released on Amazon. Amazon isn’t comprehensive.
- No International Data: Something that wasn’t explored was if DJs who use a more local version of Amazon.com have the same level of discount on Amazon.
Would you consider buying some tracks on Amazon if there’s a substantial price difference? Or does 256VBR on your Don’t Buy list? Let us know in the comments below.
