EMPIRE and Create Music Group are initial launch partners, with major label content planned for Q2 2021.
Beatsource, a joint venture between Beatport and DJcity that serves the open-format DJ community, announced that extended versions of popular songs will be available through Beatsource LINK beginning on February 15th.
Beatsource LINK is the market-leading streaming service for open-format DJs that was launched early in 2020.
This category of DJs relies on the creation of extended edits of songs whereby approximately 15 to 30 seconds of the instrumentals are added to the beginning and end of the track to facilitate easier mixing without clashing vocals during DJ performances.
For the past two decades, “record pools” like DJcity have provided this service for labels and DJs as a promotional tool.
However, with the inclusion of DJ edits into the Beatsource LINK product, labels will now be able to fully monetize these extended versions under existing licensing agreements, have more control over the approval of these extended edits, and obtain better data on the plays by the DJ community to use for marketing decisions.
“DJs have been playing modified versions of songs since DJing was invented,” said Brian “DJ Quickie” Wong, President of Beatsource.
“While streaming has saved the music industry from over a decade of declining revenues, DJs were left out of this wave of innovation because they were never officially provided with the content they need.”
With that in mind two of the industry’s leading independent labels and distributors, EMPIRE and Create Music Group, have mined deep into their catalogs, identifying some of their most popular tracks, and assembled a variety of DJ edits exclusively for Beatsource.
Tracks included in the first wave of edits include hits by Fat Joe, Rich The Kid, Busta Rhymes, Anderson Paak, Robin Thicke, DJ Chose, Funkmaster Flex, Tory Lanez, the Insomniac Records catalog and much more.
“Not only does this collaboration create, for the first time, an authorized and monetized channel to stream DJ edits, but artists will gain unprecedented insight into how DJs are playing their music,” continued Wong. “We can now track things like how many plays a song is getting in the clubs, who played it, and performed to what size audience.
This information was never aggregated until our forward-thinking partners at Empire and Create helped challenge the music supply chain to better serve the most important tastemaker in the industry, the DJ.”
Create Music Group’s EVP of Operations, George Karalexis commented, “Alongside the rise of streaming we’ve seen a striking downturn in the tools and resources that music creators and record labels offer to open-format DJs, an extremely important group of tastemakers that can really help to break new artists.
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In order to re-engage this vital part of the music promotion ecosystem, we’ve opened up our catalog to Beatsource who have tailor-made a huge catalog of custom mixes and edits for their vast network of DJs. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with them as our catalog grows and their network of DJs expands.”
“EMPIRE’s focus on innovation through technology has transformed providing independent music to the world,” said Ghazi, Founder and CEO of EMPIRE, “and the support of the DJs as taste makers and record breakers has been integral to our success. We know these tools are essential to DJs, and this partnership with Beatsource will ensure that our most dedicated supporters have access to the right content to continue making an impact with our artists. Salute the DJ.”
Beatsource and Beatport are actively engaged with the major labels to ensure their content is included as fully approved and licensed DJ edits by April. In the meantime, hits from two of the leading independent labels, Empire and Create Music, will be available exclusively to Beatsource LINK and DJcity subscribers.