jamez_23

I'm intrigued. *waits patiently*

Very sad. Chaosunlimited was one of the first on-line psy shops. Really good, friendly service as well. They will be sorely missed.

Don't be ashamed !!!! (Comment added to avoid regerism)

Hey. Thanks for your insight on this. I think that was pretty much spot on. They must be operating within the confines of legal contracts. They must have the final say on prices. As it would seem that payments to labels / artists are by percentage that would seem a fair way to distribute the extra money, most likely with no obligation to inform artists / labels of the changes. It would be an admin nightmare for them, after all. I reckon you're right. My sentiments exactly. Not a good message to send out. It will have an effect. Like you said; time will tell. Ain't that the truth. Same here.

Here is the letter I sent them last night. Lets see if they listen to my suggestion, it seems fair to me. "Hi Guys, 1. There are major problems with my account. I have 1 track in my crate and Beatport v.3.0 seems to think that the cost is £54.48. I know that your prices have gone up but I think this is a bit much! (forced attempt at making light of the situation). Please see my attached screenshot. I hope you can rectify this problem as I would like to continue using this account. Also, may I take this opportunity to make a suggestion? Why do we in the UK pay a disproportionate wav charge? Does it cost anymore for someone in the UK to download a track from you? No, it does not. Why, then, are we paying double? The increase in track cost I can handle, but this is ridiculous. Suggestion :- Make the wav handling charge 50p. OR, track in line with the current exchange rate keeping with $1 charge, which would be fair on everybody. i.e. 55p or whatever. Please take some time to respond to this suggestion rather than just send a blanket response. Kind regards, James"

Kerching !!!!! Nice one me old mate. See you soon !!!!!

Nah. Its the American's fault, this one. Anyway. Chin up old chap !!! *wot *wot*

Hmmm. The service is going downhill rapidly. My account is screwed. There is 1 track left in my crate and the system seems to think that I owe £54.48 for it. I know the prices have gone up but that takes the fucking biscuit (pun itended). I'll also admit now (My name is James, I'm a Beatport addict) that I opened up another account (since the other one is royally fucked) to download one of the tracks off the new Extrawelt EP. I am ashamed, it was just one track ok !?!?! However, when I click on 'download' I get a nice error saying "file not found". I purchased the track last Thursday, notified them of the problem on Friday but their once admirable support still haven't done anything about it. Still no track. Of course I have been billed, which was painful enough without having to suck eggs for the actual product. Things are looking worse and worse for Beatport.

The points still stand. Thanks for your help in finding out whats going on.

Nice one Kris. I'd be intersted to hear the reply. Just one thing though. The UK is now billed in Pounds £, not Euros. I believe their intention is to bill the rest of Europe in Euro's (I'm not sure if they are doing so yet. See the reponse from Beatport to my complaint on page two)

Constructive criticism is always useful. It actually has value to artists and people considering purchasing a release. I agree with whoever it was that mentioned the critique of Movies, fashion etc ..... Just slagging stuff off for no reason is pointless, although it can be fun in Skazi's case.

Hmmmm Back to Beatport thing. I received the Sog Files MMVI CD in the post this morning (sounding good so far). The Cd has some fantastic inane ramblings in the inlay (Their words not mine!). Much of the rambling focuses on the labels transition into the digital realm. They see that digital downloads are the future and that vinyl sales are dropping. They are embracing the revolution. Good for them. They even go as far to mention Beatport specifically in all of this. Bear in mind this is a fairly new cd. I'll quote directly. "all the while, as technology rockets tirelessly forwards, broadband gets .... broader. You'll note MP3's on Beatport are now a nominal 320kbs for the same price as before and wav's are now dowloadable at only $1 more" I'm going to write to SOG and ask them if they think Beatport has represented their interests by raising prices in the UK. I get the impression that SOG (A record label with many links to the UK) must be one of the "International Partners" Beatport refers to in the response to my complaint.(See page two) Y'see - I don't think that Beatport told anyone about this change. SOG couldn't have known or they wouldn't state that WAV's are $1 extra in their promotional blurb. I imagine they may feel a tad embarrassed, seeing as they state that Beatport has become the alternative to Soulseek and has saved them. WAV's are £1 extra in the UK (twice as much!) now. No longer a viable option. Nor is vinyl, but if I wanted vinyl it would be cheaper! The SOG files MMVI cd costs £8.67 ++ postage ... etc .... ends up usually around £10. To download all of the tracks from Beatport would cost me EDIT (I got that wrong) 9 * £1.49 + £9 Wav handling. Thats £22.41 folks. Do Beatport get that extra money???? Mr Elysium didn't seem to be aware the fruits of his labour were now worth more if sold in the UK. SOG don't seem to be aware. I'm sorry. Who was it that said they weren't stupid??? That is not representation of your foreign Partners - it is pure unadulterated stupidity. Do you think the record labels are going to pleased? To know that consumers would rather P2P their stuff again because of a bunch of stupid American's have just priced their products out of the market? Its not a sly business move really, is it, at all? Quite. (Oh and wotcha Biggins !!!! )

Yup. Sorry dude. But believe it or not it's still cheaper than Beatport for me !!! Now you feel my pain! Its more expensive than Beatport used to be. But Beatport have pissed me off so much, it will do for now. Someone needs to crack this niche. I thought Beatport had it, but I was wrong. Someone needs to jump in quick with FLAC WAV - quick download speed, cheaper bandwidth bills. Cheaper WAV's to uncompress at your own lesuire. Someone will take up the challenge.

I found everything I wanted at Trackitdown.net. It has loads of Trentemoller. You have to search for him three times because of slightly different spellings of his name. The newer stuff is mostly available in WAV for £1.75. (75p cheaper than Beatport). Good service though. Dunno what exchange rates would apply to you. I'd be interested to know. I have a few more to check. There are loads now. djdownload.net // juno.co.uk does downloads now.

Agreed. I see what your saying DETOX really I do. I'll just say this. This change is only affecting the UK. I know what effect it will have on the UK market for Beatport. It WILL KILL IT. Stupid is probably the first word that springs to mind. Trust me, I'm a doctor. Anyway. I don't buy any psy trance at all from Beatport. Why would I? Don't know anyone else that does either. Beatport has been and will always be shit for psy trance. I download electro / minimal stuff from there mainly. I buy cd's of prog trance / prog psy from chaos and psy shop. Its much cheaper AND I get the fruits of your hard work when I part with my money. Nice words / Artwork / Information. I also get the feeling that I am contributing to the scene, the label and the artist. I love the psy scene. I feel good when I buy psy / prog cd's because I know first hand the hard work that goes in, its done for love over money. Most of all I feel respected because the prices of CD's are fair, even when I shop in the UK. Its just a shame that most of it is boring me shitless these days. As for legal downloads, I realise that the prices may take an upward trend. But am I going to shop with Beatport who doubled their prices overnight without any prior warning? When I clicked "buy" I had no idea it was going to cost me twice as much and its taken two days of me bitching hard to find out why. I'll vote with my feet on this one. I don't give money to people who don't deserve it. They smack of corporate bitches to me. Thats not what our scene is about is it? *Deep Breath* Anyway, I now use Beatport as my very own wishlist / preview station / site / thingy. I figure by paying them so much money over the years I have contributed to the shiny new site. And guess what, I've managed to find a WAV of every single fucking track in my crate elsewhere, on the NET, since yesterday, for cheaper, with one exception (and that was still available elsewhere, just for the same price). They ARE going down baby. I'm looking forward to psyforum.co.uk coming back online so I can share the good news with the community they're ripping off. The UK, specifically. I'll post some links to the 'calm dicussions' once I've stirred up the pot. Come on. There will be no monopoly over the music we all love.

Let me know how you get on with that man. I have tried but I don't know what I'm doing.

Hmm. The attraction of Beatport for me was with 12" releases / digital releases. If I want to buy trance music I still buy cd's from chaos / psy.shop. They always were better value for money. Beatport was a way for me to get vinyl releases without buying vinyl also good for cherry picking good tracks from other genres, lets face it psy / prog psy has been stagnating recently. It has really opened up my mind and introduced fantastic music to me that i would have otherwise been unaware of. I have been spinning electro house / minimal sets for a while now with very encouraging results. I would still say I was part of the psy scene though, My intention is to still browse at betport but make other arrangements with labels / other download stores to obtain the actual tracks. So - I will still use their services but will contribute nothing to them financially. I will be actively discouraging all of my peers in the UK from using their services, just as I have been singing their praises to everyone, up until now. I have very effective ways of getting my voice heard within our scene here. The prices have nearly doubled for me. Have they nearly doubled for everyone else? chaos / psyshop / saiko sell cd's fore the same price for all. $$$$$ Why do Beatport think they have the right to make the rules up as they go along?

Nope. Back your data up and you have no probelm. I burn stuff to cd and keep a copy on my pc (which gets backed up.) Not important for me anymore though. I aint paying those prices. I have two kids / mortage etc ..... can't keep up any more. These people are actually encouraging piracy imo. Anyone for swapsies?

For that it would cost me £21.41 which converts to $27.5515 USD Costs me more ! Unbelievable. It's as if they think that no one will mind. We need an even playing field online. Its cyberspace for fucks sake !

Extrawelt - Stammgast

Exactly. They're going down baby!

It's just Euro's as far as I know. Obviously, they have some strange ideas. Probably being run by scientologists or something. <shrugs> It really is quite astounding. The prices are nearly twice as much for me now. Would you guys say the increase for you is in line with that? I don't reckon it is. And how come its ok for the US to get the tracks cheaper? They're making up the rules as they go along. None of the on-line cd shops do this. Beatport are going down baby. Perhaps I'll make copies of the tracks I download for all of my friends (lots of DJ's in there) to help make me feel better about getting ripped off. Its a two way thing y'see. You respect us, we'll respect you. A delicate balance don't you think, Beatport? pfffft

The fucking cheek of it. Read on all you Beatport lovers. "We appreciate your continued support and value each and every one of you who have been with us during the growth of our industry. We wanted to take the time to inform you about the price changes here at Beatport. Due entirely to your continued support, Beatport has become the global leader in digital dance music. However, as a global site – our company is forced to keep tabs on international changes in currency exchange rates and the influence of our international partners. In response to this trend, we must make every effort to strike a balance between the needs of our label partners and that of our customers. If Beatport is to continue providing our customers with the best new tracks from all over the world, we must take a global position in regards to pricing structure. In order to provide a better range of content and premium formats, Beatport prices have been adjusted to reflect market pricing in two of our major territories, UK and Europe. UK is now priced in Pound Sterling: 1. £1.29 for general release 2. £ 1.49 for new release 3. £1.99 for exclusive release and classics Europe is now priced in Eurodollars: 1. €1.49 for general release 2. € 1.99 for new release 3. € 2.49 for exclusive release and classics We are committed to making our site the best digital dance music buying experience on the planet. In closing, we sincerely hope to maintain each and every one of you as a valued customer. However, we must keep our international partner’s needs in mind as well. Thanks, The Beatport staff" SEE YOU LATER BEATPORT !!! ITS CHEAPER TO BUY THE VINYL YOU TWATS !!!! TRACKITDOWN.NET DOES .WAV DOWLOADS FOR CHEAPER. I'LL USE THEM NOW IF I CAN. As for buying cd's (rather than vinyl releases) chaosunlimited / saikosounds / psyshop all have their backs covered for the time being at least. Who in their right mind is going to pay 9 * £1.49 + 9 * £1 (wav handling) for an album? Thats right. £22.14 Fucking twats. I'll be posting my reply to that fucking joke of an explanation all over t'web.

I've been digging about. It would seem that Beatport really is upping the prices for the UK. Please, someone tell me I am wrong. Check this. http://forum.djmag.com/viewtopic.php?t=5119 EDIT - see the post from diggabyte This thread seems to suggest that the 'new' djmag.com site has partnered with Beatport. Now read this. http://forum.djmag.com/viewtopic.php?t=5176 Now I'm really concerned. The posters on this thread suggest that people are mad for buying tunes at djmag.com (same pricing £1.49 + £1 wav charge) when they can get the same from beatport for same amount in $. My sentiments exactly. So, the two sites merge / go into Partnership. Beatport goes down for maintenance. When it comes back on line it is charging the Brits nearly double, presumably adopting the pricing structure of djmag.com????? All of this without any information made available to customers. Is there anyone out there that can tell us what is going on? Please tell me I have it all wrong. I have tried to play fair. Might as fucking well just use soulseek like everyone else. Still no reply from Beatport