Independent State Of Mind

The news of Downtown and its collection of brilliant companies being bought by Universal Music Group, hot on the heels of the final pieces of PIAS going the same way, has once again brought this question to the fore.

For 20 years, Beatport has supported the growth of artists from predominantly independent record labels. Each week, our team works to ingest and merchandise tens of thousands of new tracks, get them into the hands of our passionate DJ community, who then amplify them out into the world. Our corner of the music industry represents the nexus of a delicate ecosystem of independent artists and labels, co-existing with the major labels.

In our experience, independence is less about choosing between a major-associated company or a true standalone one. However it does rely on having the freedom to exist and create on your own terms. One company buying another won’t change that, and in many cases it could be a benefit to those rightsholders involved through improved margins, enhanced hive-mind market knowledge and shared R&D.

Regulators will need to make sure market dominance is treated with the seriousness it deserves. How they determine the value of further consolidation of the market and the impact on deal making alongside the improved intelligence from proprietary data ownership is yet to be understood. There are good arguments for and against it.

While that’s going on, other industries who use music to promote their cars or fitness products as well as big tech who rely on it to engage audiences on their platforms are once again watching with bemusement and relish at the infighting. Recently another dance based company took a ‘byte’ out of the industry thanks to this exact issue. Perhaps through the process of open dialogue there is a path to collaboratively coexist, and in doing so better represent the talent that this industry exists for.

In the meantime, Beatport has made at least one other option available to those wishing to find an alternative path to market. We recently acquired the ampsuite label management platform, which offers full end-to-end royalty accounting, analytics, distribution and promotion services to a rapidly growing list of over 1000 independent labels, both in dance music and other genres. Beyond issuing contracts, registering works, distributing to the long list of online retailers and consolidating revenue streams into a transparent reporting and payment format, the platform offers tools to support audience growth, following the principles of community building;- building and maintaining newsletters, mailing lists, engaging producer and DJ communities through LabelRadar, Beatportal  and our IRL events, like IMS.

TLDR: We think we’ve got a good idea of what an independent label needs to really thrive, so if the recent news has you thinking about a change, we’d love to chat.