As the biggest and most influential player in DJ downloads, anything Beatport does to its store can have a significant effect on the overall music discovery and buying experience for the whole post-record shop generation.
Set up in 2004, Beatport is easily the most successful specialist DJ digital music store, with plenty of exclusive releases along with the thousands of tracks released each year.
The website regularly underlines its importance as a music discovery tool for digital DJs by hosting stages at events across the US, including at the Winter Music Conference in Miami.
The issue with Beatport
From the beginning, Beatport was regularly criticised for the limitations apparent to users through its running on an all-Flash platform.
I briefly touched on the changeover from Flash to HTML on my site a few days ago, but the bottom line is that in recent years, Adobe Flash has fallen out of favour with internet users due to the proprietary nature of the browser plug-in and the lack of accessibility and control the user has.
Has the potential to help to considerably improve the overall music buying experience of digital DJs…
For example, you can usually stop a page loading by hitting ESC – except the Flash elements, which keep playing. Not to mention that visually impaired customers just can’t use Flash sites like Beatport at all with their screen readers.
With newer versions of HTML, though, developers can do anything that Flash can, and sometimes more – with the bonus that their site will work on iOS (Flash doesn’t work on the Apple operating system).
Now Beatport is beta testing a completely new, HTML version of the site that takes advantage of these advances and finally addresses many of the aforementioned concerns, and which has the potential to help to considerably improve the overall music buying experience of digital DJs.
It’s still in invite-only beta, but we’ve had a preview of the site. (Plus, go to the end of the article for the chance to grab one of our 10 beta tester access codes.)
What’s new
The new Beatport home page: Its lighter, airier look is the first thing that strikes the user. (Click to enlarge.)
So what’s changed? The most obvious thing is the bolder, airier look to the site. There’s a lot more white space, with larger fonts and more contrast. This makes it a lot easier to navigate and unclutters the user interface.
The front page quickly presents you with the Beatport Top 10, features and a view of the tracks in “My Beatport”, the new name for the artists/labels you follow. These can easily be added to the playlist of the new Beatport Player. You can also see a rundown of new releases and some recommendations.
Speaking of the player, this is now fully HTML, with a waveform you can scrub through and basic controls. It does lack a volume slider right now, but apparently this is in the works. The player now brings your playlist centre stage (rather than cooped up amongst the clutter) and allows you to easily add entire search lists or individual tracks, or remove listened-to tracks.
Beatport has obviously taken a cue from Google with search, and show results as you type. This works quite well, giving accurate results.
Something I found very frustrating with the old site was the poor implementation of the way you refine your searches. The new site addresses this by letting you filter results further by genre, artist, label and release date. They’ve missed a trick by not implementing the system used in the “My Beatport” filters throughout the search results, as this would make finding tracks with common names much easier.
An addition that’s created some buzz in the webisphere is information on the tempo and key of the tracks.
An addition that’s created some buzz in the webisphere is information on the tempo and key of the tracks. I’m not sure why though, as I can’t imagine ever shopping for tracks based on either.
You get a pretty good idea of tempo based on genre (125-135 for techno/house, 140ish for dubstep, 160ish for drum & bass etc.) and as my friend put it regarding keys: “I really love this track! Shame it’s 9A, otherwise I’d buy it!” Not gonna happen…
The new Beatport music player is more modern, although as of now it lacks a volume control.
No change without pain
The changes are a big departure from a look and feel that Beatport has held for a very long time. This will obviously divide current users’ opinion, but as one such user, I’m pleased to report that once you get used to the changes the site flows very well.
Something to bear in mind is that the developers are still adding new things all the time. The site is a work in progress, hence the “beta” label, and you can submit your own ideas and feedback on their uservoice.com page.
Personally, I found the experience from music discovery to checkout as painless as it should be with the only niggles being no way of adding a “Download Code” to get a discount; and the lack of filtering for search results.
Conclusion
Clear and simple filters help you to organise your favourites. (Click to enlarge.)
Whether you love or hate the current site, this move is definitely a good thing.
Flash detractors should definitely try the new site and get involved with feedback, but equally so should fans of the current site. There are threads on the usual DJ forums discussing the topic and swapping access codes, and we’ve got ten Beatport Beta access codes to give away, so there’s really no excuse for the committed digital DJ to miss giving it a go right now!
• Dan Morse is a London, England-based DJ who runs his own DJing blog, It’s a DJ’s life! For weekly music discovery tips, remember to join our free Access All Areas club.
Have you ever struggled with Beatport’s Flash interface? Are you glad that the most important online music source for DJs is getting a major overhaul? Have you tried the new Beatport yet? What do you think? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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Tags: beatport, music discovery, online stores
Do you have ‘special’ access, or can we visit this new site somewhere, I’m still getting the flash one on beatport.com.
:: Ed
[ link ]It’s by invite code.
[ link ]The first time I’ve forgotton to click ‘notify of followup comments’ and I miss out on an invite code! DOH!
[ link ]I think it was a smart move.
I work in Interactive Media, and I’m not totally anti-Flash, but I am a believer in “there’s a time and place for it”. Flash works when the site is merely a presentation…like a new movie coming into theaters. You’re not expecting the content to change at all, thus you can go all-out with a multimedia explosion on the consumer and wow them with animation and imagery to sell them on going to see the show.
With Beatport, it’s an ecommerce site. Many in the past have tried to do flash ecommerce sites, but they were all failures. When you’re changing information that much and need to be able to search and find information easily, Flash will only clutter the process.
You ever notice how many big name DJs ditched their flash sites? The reason is they grew tired of the expense and trouble of updating concert dates and even more when they wanted to bring a blog into the fold.
If you have to change your content regularly, then flash will be a menace over a cool thing. Make a flash site when you’re pushing a single event or something. Anything where the content isn’t regularly changing.
[ link ]The key feature saves you the hassle of runnin it through mixed in key yoursel at a later date. It’s a nice touch and gives me one less thing to do a day.
[ link ]They would be better off having a partnership with MiK and charging a little bit extra to have the key info included in your download
[ link ]True, that’s a good idea. In my experience, Beatport metadata is sometimes really poor though. I always feel a bit cheated when I invest in an MP3 to find that whoever tagged it couldn’t even take the time to add proper information to its metadata leaving me to do this work. One area that good record pools shine in.
[ link ]Purchased at beatport.com
[ link ]Where are you guys finding the key/BPM info for tracks on the beta site? BPM info actually is very helpful to me, but I haven’t seen it displayed anywhere.
[ link ]You can see it when you click through to an actual track page. There’s also an option to correct the key info if you think it’s wrong.
[ link ]It’s about time. The old Beatport site turned me off from buying music there every time I tried it out. I routinely found myself spending more on Juno and paying higher prices just because their site wasn’t a mess. Looking forward to the new design, looks good.
[ link ]This is great news! I don’t like shop-sites that are flash based, too messy, buggy and clunky.
[ link ]Does anybody else think the tracks are extremely over priced? In iTunes you can get most of them in 256kbps for 79p…
[ link ]I already saw the entry on your blog, Dan.
Saves me work to post it myself.
I can offer two invite-codes though if someone is interested.
[ link ]I am very interested
[ link ]I’m also interested. I hate Flash.
[ link ]I’ll ask Phil to give me your mail-adresses so I can send them to you.
[ link ]I’ll put you guys in touch – watch your inboxes.
[ link ]Invites sent!
[ link ]I’m actually really excited that I’ll be able to shop for tracks based on tempo and key. It’s hard to find EDM tracks that are low BPM for doing a warmup set. And since some key signatures are more common than others (i.e. 5A, 10A) I might be more tempted to buy a track if it’s in an unusual key to round out my collection.
[ link ]got it magnified 150 pc got blank bits to the left and right and need eyes like a sh*thouse rat to read the text
[ link ]Rubbish or is this still the old version of the site?
Anybody have any codes to share?
[ link ]No Mention of Beatler? I’m finding it a pretty use full GUI and good alternate to beatport.
All I really want is album artwork for wav’s ! paying top dollar and no F*@$king art work is not on.
[ link ]Re: the album art
That’s not Beatport’s fault or anything, WAV simply can’t handle images embedded to the files, it’s a technical thing.
Also,
“Set up in 2004, Beatport is easily the most successful digital music store, with plenty of exclusive releases along with the thousands of tracks released each year.”
I assume you meant most successful store specifically aimed at DJ’s, because I’d find it hard to believe that it’s smaller than iTunes or even Amazon.
[ link ]“Set up in 2004, Beatport is easily the most successful digital music store” – yes, it’s a typo – I’ll go and correct the intro.
[ link ]Sorry for not clarifying but yes it is beatports fault.
[ link ]I understand that wav files don’t include metadata and never will however that’s not the issue (well it kind of is).
I tunes allows the use of Album Artwork with wav’s by sending artwork as a separate file and linking it once imported. Traktor also has an option to do somethig similar if artwork is missing. I have written to beatport several times but never had a reply.
So the BPM and Key info…is that just displayed on the site, or is it embedded in the mp3 tags? And if it is the latter, will it conflict with Traktor’s analysis in anyway?
[ link ]I think it’s just displayed on the site.
[ link ]***
With newer versions of HTML, though, developers can do anything that Flash can, and sometimes more – with the bonus that their site will work on iOS (Flash doesn’t work on the Apple operating system).
***
Just to clarify, there are things that HTML5 is not good at and that Flash is still better – HTML5 video currently can’t be copy-protected I believe, and the Flash development tools are better for doing keyframe-based animation and way more approachable. Last I looked, there weren’t any good animation tools on the Javascript/Canvas tag side of things; you currently need to be a ninja of a programmer to pull off the really complex stuff.
Also, there’s always Internet Explorer to contend with, although DJs are a smart bunch and I’m assuming most of you are on FF/Chrome/Safari/Opera.
Lastly, when talking about Flash not working on the Apple OS, we’re talking about iOS (iPhone, iPod, iPad), not Mac OSX.
Apologies for the nit picking.
I’m satisfied with the current BP interface, but I have my quibbles and I’m looking forward to seeing the new site when it goes live.
[ link ]Anybody have any codes to share?
[ link ]Welcome update, knew it would happen at some stage..just hope that my hold bin is still in tact and they have added new features to the hold bin where you can tag/classify/order tracks more easily..
Looking forward to the updates, any news on a launch to the public?
[ link ]I’m sure it will be
[ link ]does anyone have a code for me? pretty please ?
[ link ]They charge a fee for WAV files on top of the priceof the song…Makes me just want to buy the CD and make my own WAV files.
[ link ]I guess it’s because the bandwidth is more for WAVs at their end.
[ link ]And good luck finding most of the stuff they sell on CD..
[ link ]how about uploading some screenshots of some pages for those with no beta site access???
[ link ]There’s not much to see past what we’ve included in the review.
[ link ]Knowing the track key and bpm info will just improve my mixes…
I usually end up with a set of keys that only work a certain way…
“this track has to be next, as the key is the only that will fit properly with the remaining un played tracks in the mix”
I will be able to get a balanced set of keys, so that finding matches will be easier, and not have them dictate so much as to what is played next to keep the mixing in key going.
[ link ]But then you’re buying music on the basis of key rather than quality… risky, no?
[ link ]I always buy by the quality of the tracks.
If I pick more than 20 tracks for 2 hours (mixed) before purchasing, it can help keep the costs down, by selecting based on key.
only in that situation would I allow key to dictate, after listening to the quality.
2 hours of trance is around 20 tracks (mixed) and I usually pick a few more to get in-case the key isn’t right.
[ link ]The samples were removed from the rss feeds. I hope they fix this in the new version of the website. They were so handy for me and certainly also for other users too because many rss readers (like my rss reader Google Reader) have a built-in player so it was possible to listen the samples right on the rss reader. Regards
[ link ]So, I cannot find the links to their RSS feeds. Are they no longer going to provide these?
[ link ]Seems not…
[ link ]Yes indeed, i miss the rss feed too. Would be wondderful.
[ link ]