Original article can be found on Billboard.com, written by Michael Sundius
To the collective delight of DJs and producers everywhere, Beatport is finally updating its genre classification system. While the store has evolved dramatically in its 12 years of operation, its approach to genre tagging has remained relatively static. Terry Weerasinghe, VP of Marketing, confirmed the news to DJ Tech Tools in a recent interview. “This is something that the public has been asking for, and hands up, we’ve heard them,” Weerasinghe said.
With roughly 25,000 new releases every week, genre tagging is a crucial component of Beatport’s retail structure. The problem arises when newer genres like big room and future house get lumped into traditional sections like progressive house and deep house, obscuring any clear definition as to what each category entails.
To facilitate the new approach, Beatport has enlisted some of the foremost minds in dance music, including Kompakt, Toolroom, Spinnin and Aus. Members of each imprint, along with a DJ of their choice, will participate in a panel to modernize Beatport’s approach to genre categorization.
“We’ll be conducting an audio survey where we play our new genres to DJs who’ll give us feedback as to whether or not this is the right way forward,” Weerasinghe said.
Beatport is starting with their largest sector, house music, but will be applying a similar approach to bass music and other umbrella categories in the near future. The new genres are expected to launch by the end of August, and will include categories such as big room, future house and more.
On top of this, Beatport will also be launching a pre-order system, which Weerasinghe described as “the biggest request from our labels and suppliers.”
All of this comes on the heels of Beatport’s dramatic restructuring, which saw the former SFX entity relinquish its music and video streaming platforms, mobile app, news section and, events vertical. “We’re trying to get back to being that nerdy music store,” Weerasinghe said.
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