Here at ADE 2018, Beatport has announced the official name of its forthcoming premium download and subscription service. It will be called Beatport Cloud, and will offer a number of features in addition to the store’s basic service.
For US$4.99/month, the lowest tier – called Beatport Cloud+ – offers DJs a 10% store discount, although lossless downloads will continue to attract the standard 0.75c surcharge. There will also be unlimited re-downloads of all tracks ever purchased, and a new “needle drop” feature for easier track previewing.
The next tier, Beatport Cloudx, for $17.99 throws in 10 free MP3 downloads per month too (it’s not clear whether they “roll over” if you don’t use them all) as well as all the features from Cloud+.
The final tier – Beatport Cloud Pro – offers 20 free lossless downloads a month. While it drops the store discount for further purchases, it also drops the 0.75c lossless fee. It will cost $39.99/month.
Is this a good deal?
While elements of the offering (a new “needle drop” previewing option, and unlimited re-downloads of stuff you’ve bought) ought to be standard to everyone, the fact that the unlimited downloads option is retrospective (and lossless at the top tier, even if the original purchases weren’t) will certainly appeal to historically heavy users of the site.
Unlike download pools, though, the fact that the downloads you can get here are capped means that this is a different value proposition to those services. Beatport Cloud is maybe best thought of as similar to the way banks offer optional monthly paid options on bank accounts, in return for perks. Power and heavy users certainly benefit – but such subscriptions aren’t for everyone.
Our view is that Beatport should drop the 0.75c upgrade fee entirely for all users, and should definitely roll unused subscription tracks over. Were it to do that, it would attract more casual customers, many of whom would additionally see the value in upgrading to one of the plans here.
• In separate news, Beatport has announced that its forthcoming DJ streaming service for DJ software is to be called “Beatport Link”.
What are your thoughts on this? Is it something you’d be interested in signing up to? What do you like and not like about this? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Phil Morse
