Beatport's new podcast series

Podcast series are a double-edged sword in dance music.

On one hand, they're usually always free, and you get to hear some of the latest tunes before they're released as singles. But at the same time, most podcasts are just that- a collection of new songs thrown together in a one to two hour format with no consideration to mixing, pacing, or storytelling. And the result is a glut of "shows" that sound more like a DJ's personal monthly chart rather than a mix.

So to be different, two approaches are becoming more common:

1) Make fewer episodes of a podcast and make each mix more thought-out. Quality over quantity...

2) Add an element to your show that makes each episode different. Quite a few of the locals here have built their podcast series around this characteristic. Brad Miller's "Push The Night" series switches genres each show, DJ Eco's "The Sound of (You)th" episodes are filled with snippets from his upcoming artist album, and Wayde Rafnel's "Uplift" podcasts usually have chunks of his live sets played at various New York clubs.

Beatport has announced their own podcast series today, centered around the first point outlined above...

except it's going to cost you $9.99 a month to listen.

*facepalm*

With a membership, you also get discounts and special offers from Beatport's webstore, and benefits at live evetns. The perks at shows is the most enticing part of the deal, but it's all dependent on your geographic location. If you're a resident of Wyoming for example, or even upstate New York, you're most likely never be able to experience these.

A monthly podcast series is a good idea for an electronic brand like Beatport. But please, don't charge us for something that everyone knows should already be free. Take a page out of Resident Advisor's book and let everyone enjoy the music- that's why we're listening, right?

[Image credit: Beatport.com]

Beatport's annual end of summer sale

Through Monday, all tracks that previously cost $1.49 on Beatport are now $.99.

Beatbot: Is it good?

Yesterday Beatport unveiled a new service for their website: Beatbot, which matches tracks that you like to similar ones based on sound, genre, style, and other aspects. It's a bit similar to the way Pandora works, but the goal is to get you to buy more music from the store.

Here's a quick demo of how it works (the track in this video, Gorge's "Xaxax", is pretty decent):



So how is it?

While I give Beatport effort for trying, it's nothing more than a glorified label tracking service.

For each song you want Beatport to do a scan on, it chooses 20 similar ones. But the problem is that only one or two of these 20 songs are not from the label of the song you picked. So you're essentially just getting an in-browser update of "what's new" from your favorite labels.

Aly & Fila's Rising Sun now available on iTunes

Aly & Fila's debut album, Rising Sun, is now available a week before it's official release date on iTunes for $7.99.

Armada has posted track previews of the album's 15 songs on their official YouTube page, and the release has also scored a positive review from the folks over at TranceFix.

On a side note, according to Billboard, iTunes now accounts for 26% of all US music sales. With this statistic and increasing sales on iTunes in the future, it'll be interesting to see if more electronic dance music artists market their music more on iTunes over places like Beatport and TrackItDown.

Beatport sale (again)

From today until Thursday, April 29, Beatport is lowering the prices of their $1.49 tracks to $.99 each.

If you still have the 25% off coupon that I wrote about earlier this week, you can apply the discount to this sale. I was able to purchase three tracks for $2.25.

This is the first time in recent memory that Beatport has done two discounts in one week.

[Image credit: Beatportal.com]

Beatport coupon offer valid through Saturday

If you shop on Beatport and check your email, chances are you might find a coupon that looks like this, allowing you to earn 25% off your next purchase:

I'm not sure if they are sending this coupon to every user, but I'm certain I received it since I haven't purchased a track from them in over a month.

Normal Beatport downloads cost $1.50 per track. With the coupon applied, you can get a single track for $1.12. If you purchase more tracks, the savings will increase. 

[Image credit: Beatport.com]

Beatport releases iPhone app

Beatport, one of the largest distributors of dance music on the internet, has recently released an official iPhone and iPod Touch application.

 

The app allows users to purchase and download songs from Beatport's music catalog, listen to song previews from a built-in audio player, and access other content on their web site.

Beatport has also posted a tutorial on how to use the app, and so far, it's been getting good reviews from users on TranceAddict. 

[Image credit: Apple.com]

Highs & Lows

Earlier this month I posted a commentary about trying to keep tabs on the releases of your favorite producers, which isn't one of the easier aspects of being a fan of electronic dance music.

Here's another thing though that's been on my mind though lately- the prices of tracks right after they're released on digital download stores.

For the rest of the music industry (not EDM), the long-standing rule has been that an album or individual songs are cheaper the week of their release, and then go up in price shortly thereafter.

Last week I was able to purchase Story Of The Year's new album, The Constant, for only $7.99 at Best Buy. Now if I went there it would run me $14.99 for the hard copy. AmazonMP3 also has been commonly pricing select full-length albums for only $2.99 on their release day for a special 24 hour period.

Why do these retailers do this? While I'm not a complete authority on the music industry, my guess is that all the reviews, hype, and airplay that a album will get during its release week will help push sales from casual listeners looking for new music at a discounted price. If someone was browsing Best Buy this week and saw that Story of the Year album for $14.99 and weren't a serious fan of the group, would they consider buying it? Probably not as much as the week before.

So here's where this all ties into dance music- this industry apparently operates on a digital model that's opposite of what everyone else does.

When a new track comes out on Beatport, it's going to cost either $1.99 or $2.49. While I've bought my fair share of Beatport downloads at the $1.49 pricepoint, which is a little high, the former two prices are pretty ridiculous.

I've heard the argument before that any price is worth it as long as the song is good- but really, $2.49 for a file?

Let's attempt to rationalize this:

"Maybe they do it because every other digital store does the same"

- Not really. Prices of tracks on Beatport, Trackitdown, Junodownload, and other stores are significantly higher than the likes of iTunes, AmazonMP3 and Rhapsody.

"It costs more overhead for a store like Beatport to store a file on their server than someone else"

- This could be it, but at the same time there are still countless indie and smaller digital music stores offering the same $.99 pricepoint as the big guns.

"They do it because DJ's will pay anything to be able to play the latest hot track in their set"

- This is the closest I could come up with, but at the same time it still doesn't make sense. There are more fans listening and dancing to the music who might want to purchase it than DJ's spinning in the booth.

So what's your take on this subject? 

House and cherries

Some notable names have been announced to play New York City venues in the upcoming months.

Last week I skipped out on mentioning that Chris Lake is playing Cielo on Valentine's Day. Luciano Pardini, a popular name for Beatport downloaders, is scheduled to play at the same venue four days later.

Pacha has also booked the biggest name in house- David Guetta, for another show at the venue on Wednesday, February 24. The house vibes will continue at Pacha when Benny Benassi enters the booth on Friday, March 19.

Finally on Saturday, April 3, electro house DJ and producer Boyz Noize will pair up with Major Lazer for a show at Terminal 5.

Ticket ordering and event details can be accessed by clicking the links above.

Classics sale at Beatport through Monday

Beatport has announced a $.99 sale on classic tracks through Monday.

To help you sample some of the old stuff, they've put together lists of ten songs in 14 different genres. Or you could nab anything in their Top 100 Classics chart for only a buck.

However, I searched for classic songs from artists that I listen to and besides the Top 100 chart and lists at the link above, it's slim pickings for the sale. Instead of having all tracks before a certain year at the discounted rate, it's completely random.

If there's a hit song that you liked from the early 2000's or before, it's probably in AmazonMP3's catalog for the same price (if not ten cents cheaper).

Beatport does have though, in my opinion, the best classic trance song of all time as part of this sale.