In a dramatic twist to the Beatport auction process, the sale has been temporarily called off and the company is shutting down almost every project they run that isn’t the music store. Keep reading for details:
Beatport Sale Suspended
The popular online music retailer may have been listening to readers in our article about DJs buying back the company and – with a post on the official Beatport blog detailed how they want to serve the community and get back to basics:
“[…] 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.”
The post goes on to announce that the company will be shutting down “the Streaming service and mobile app, Beatport News, the Video livestreaming platform, and the Events section effective May 13, 2016” as well as halting the auction process for the sale.
In terms of the sale itself, there’s only a brief mention of how things will go moving forward – “while we plan to continue considering offers for Beatport, the previously detailed auction process will be suspended for now.”
Billboard reported from once source that “as many as 49 Beatport employees have been laid off as part of today’s announcement” – with additional changes also happening in the internal management structure.
SFX, Beatport’s corporate parent recently filed for bankruptcy, and as part of that process the lenders who now own the company have the opportunity to sell or streamline any of the assets – including Beatport. As bidding seems to be taking a long time, they probably wanted to cut costs and minimize losses by eliminating non-essential services.
A New Coupon Code
Since the beginning of the sale process there have been very few coupon codes for discounts on the Beatport store. Just yesterday prior to this shakeup being announced, a new 20% off code was issued – MOVEMEVIP – which also enters you into a contest for tickets to the Movement festival in Detroit later this month. Let’s hope that this is part of the back-to-basics way of doing things and a focus on the DJ’s who have supported dance music sales for years.
