Beatport Acquires Indie-Label Software Company Ampsuite

DJ-focused electronic music platform Beatport has officially acquired royalty-accounting and distribution company ampsuite.

18-year-old Beatport announced the purchase of 11-year-old ampsuite via a brief blog post today. The concise document highlights off the bat that the last few years have seen Denver-headquartered Beatport roll out “bespoke tools and services to its vast community of independent labels.”

Beatport Hype, an “accelerator program” for Beatport labels “with sales less than $15,000 in the last 12 months,” has experienced “rapid adoption” since launching in 2019, according to higher-ups. The text also acknowledges Beatport’s more recent release of LabelBase, “a new information resource and support hub for its label users.”

And ampsuite, in addition to offering the initially noted royalty-accounting and distribution services, comes equipped with music-industry content-management and promotion software.

Regarding ampsuite’s role within the purchasing company, execs plan “to power Beatport’s suite of professional tools and services whilst ampsuite’s existing management team continues to provide a broader distribution service to other digital retailers,” per the companies’ release.

Addressing the buyout in a statement, Beatport CEO (and Ingrooves founder) Robb McDaniels said in part: “We have a very unique relationship with our content partners and DJs of all types around the world, and this expanding set of tools and services will only help to accelerate growth for our entire community over the next few years.”

Moving forward – and especially with crowd-based live entertainment seemingly poised to rebound – it’ll be worth following the growth-related impacts of Beatport’s ampsuite purchase.

The acquisition arrives on the heels of a 54 percent year-over-year valuation decline in 2020 for the electronic music industry, according to the International Music Summit’s 2021 Business Report.

The annual analysis of the electronic music space released in late June of 2021 and also disclosed a far-reaching decrease in electronic artists within Spotify’s Top 200. Meanwhile, notwithstanding the emergence of livestreams, DJ earnings fell by 68 percent from 2019, to approximately $300 million in 2020, the report states.

However, it bears mentioning in conclusion that Beatport turned in 33 percent year-over-year growth in 2020 despite a 16 percent YoY falloff for the wider downloads market, the IMS’ 2021 breakdown relays.

Back in November of 2021, AI-powered electronic music platform Aimi completed a $20 million raise, and Apple Music in December debuted “new and exclusive DJ mixes” from Charli XCX, Jasmine Infiniti, Natasha Diggs, and others.