As we informed our users internally on Monday, Beatport’s parent company SFX is taking steps to buy the company back and make it private again. That has left some of their assets and funds frozen temporarily, what that means in plain english is that Q2 2015 royalties for labels are delayed.
According to Beatport’s senior staff, whom we spoke to on Monday, the delay should not last more than 3 weeks but an specific date is still unknown. Beatport sent proper confirmation via email Tuesday afternoon putting an end to 48 hours of speculation. Naturally, once the email went out several blogs and media companies got a hold of it and it has brought up discussions as to what it means to musicians and record labels, specially in the Dance music scene.
Since Monday, we have received several emails and have had a lot of conversations with label managers and artists whom we discussed with the impact this has on their business and even their every day lives. Like most of us, revenue from a prominent Dance Music DSP like Beatport is essential to maintaining the day to day operations of a record label and in a lot of cases, team members and artists depend on that income to make ends meet.
It is our duty as a distributor to not only look after the best interest of the music of our labels and artists but also to be there to provide assistance at any level needed. We understand at this time you need a hand and we want to do whatever we can to help. With that in mind we are paying up-front the delayed Beatport Q2 2015 royalties while we allow Beatport/SFX the necessary time to sort out their issues and make a payment to us.
We wanted to point out that ever since Label Engine was founded, Beatport has never missed or have been late with a single payment and their team have been great to us in every aspect of the business so we think our our patience is key at this time.
To our distributed labels, you will find the Beatport report under your “Statements” tab, feel free to submit a “payment request” as you see fit and we will take care of ASAP. If you had already submitted an invoice and it had not yet been paid of, that request was “cancelled” to give you a chance to include the additional revenue to that payment. If we already paid off your invoice, don’t worry we can process a second payment no problem or you can roll it over to the following payment cycle.
Feel free to shoot us an email with any additional questions or concerns you may have, you can also chat with us on social media. Twitter: @Label_Engine and Facebook: www.facebook.com/labelengine
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This is the full email sent to content managers:
“Dear Alexander,
Since inception over 10 years ago Beatport has paid almost $200,000,000 to its label partners. Beatport’s parent company, SFX, is currently involved in a ‘going private’ process that has trapped certain earned label payments. This process will be coming to an end in the next few weeks, at which time all payments will be able to be made. Beatport prides itself on being the broadest and original friend of the makers of electronic music and will clear this one time obstacle very shortly.
In the meantime, feel free to contact your label manager with any questions. Thank you for your patience and continued support.
– The Beatport Team”