EMI Music is finally licensing Beatport, a specialist online retailer of electronica music, in a deal that will satisfy many electronic musicians and DJs.
Back in 2008, Moby, releasing on EMI’s Mute imprint, complained on his MySpace page about the lack of a license: EMI have denied themselves very considerable revenue and have limited the audience for their electronic dance artists. There are thousands and thousands of DJs who pretty much only buy their music from sites like Beatport.”
Now EMI says it’s giving Beatport a license to sell its tracks in North America, Europe and Australasia, including those from The Chemical Brothers, Kraftwerk and LCD Soundsystem.
Beatport has been going since 2004 and, as Moby wrote: “The average cost for a track on Beatport is twice or three times the cost of a track on iTunes (which makes sense, as the tracks are a lot longer).”