Stay Connected
Atlanta Black Star/Business
BusinessMusicTechnology

BeatStars: It’s Like an iTunes for Beats

Posted byBy Stan | Published on: CommentsComments (0)

With the new music industry taking a shift to virtually obsolete release dates and on-demand music services, the ever-growing need for high quality (and affordable) music production is at an all-time high. In comes BeatStars, a digital production marketplace where singer/songwriters, producers, and vocalists can collaborate and monetize their compositions.

BeatStars claims to have the highest average transaction for its user base in the digital music industry at over $100. Many of today’s well known producers and songwriters currently utilize the platform, inclduing Grammy Award winning music producer Focus (Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, 50 Cent). Focus uses the BeatStars platform to manage his catalog of beats and compositions and he calls the service “The iTunes of Beats”.Mason “MDL” Levy (Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, Cee-Lo), producer and writer of Justin Bieber’s hit song “Boyfriend,” also utilizes the BeatStars platform to create a passive income for himself.

Music producers and artists are not the only people benefiting from the service. Up-and-coming record label Funk Volume, which is home to XXL magazine’s Freshman alum “Hopsin,” uses the BeatStars HTML5 widget to create a new source of revenue directly on the label’s website.

“Our fans love our artists, but they also appreciate the beats they record over,” says Dame Ritter, founder of Funk Volume. “Why wouldn’t our fans that buy our songs also purchase our beats? The BeatStars widget has been a great source of revenue for us.”

Source: hypebot

Still independent.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way

Related Stories

Back to top