How to top the Beatport Charts
By: Oskar Eichler
Tags: Dj, Marketing, Beatport, Music, Charts

Beatport is the largest electronic music platform in the world. We sat down with Zach Jaffe, Director of U.S. Partnerships and Marketing for Part 3 of our interview with Beatport to learn more about the influence of the store and gain some valuable insights into the mechanics of the charts and the exposure they can provide.

Q: First of all: How are the Beatport Top 100 Charts calculated?

Zach: The Beatport Top 100 Charts are calculated by track sales in the past 7 days running. The charts update once a day around 3am Denver time. All pre-order sales get distributed equally towards the first 5 days of a release being published and available.

There are both track and release charts. Release charts fluctuate much more because there is much less buying of full releases. The volume is lower so what it takes to move on the charts is much less. A sale only counts as a release purchase if the actual release is bought, not if all tracks on a release are being purchased individually. The other way around though, a release purchase does count towards sales for all individual tracks on that release.

There are Top 100 charts for each genre on Beatport, and an overall chart that combines the best selling tracks of all genres. The biggest genres on Beatport additionally have a HYPE chart, a chart that is reserved for up-and-coming labels that are part of the HYPE program. This gives smaller labels a platform to get seen. You can learn more about joining Beatport HYPE here.

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Q: What are the biggest genres on Beatport?

Zach: The biggest genres on Beatport right now are Techno, Tech House, Drum N Bass & House. Melodic House & Techno is the fastest growing genre at the moment. Drum N Bass has seen a big increase and is also doing really really well. When I started working at Beatport four years ago, Drum N Bass was around spot #7, and it’s slowly been creeping up and is now our #3 genre, which is an interesting trend.

The difference between Beatport and other DSPs is that we see trends as they are happening, because tastemakers are DJs, and DJs are traditionally choosing what people are dancing to. So when DJs and promoters are throwing parties with a specific type of music, they will be getting that music from us, which then in turn influences the rest of culture.

Q: What’s the process of determining genres and how do you manage overlap of genres on the store?

Zach: It’s extremely tough. We are at 32 genres right now on Beatport and are constantly shifting and evolving together with dance music culture, because culture is always shifting especially in electronic music. Each little pocket of music has its own life that is a breathing organism on its own. Classifying stuff is very difficult.

Our curators are experts in their specific genres. We will often classify genres based on what they are delivered as, but not always. Our curation team goes through all the top priority releases every single week to make sure the correct genres are assigned and will change them if incorrect. We have audio example charts that show the sonic reference of each genre and will also update a track if it’s already charting in the wrong genre.

Q: Speaking of deliveries, how does someone get their music onto Beatport?

Zach: Using any of the major distribution platforms you should be able to easily get your music delivered onto Beatport. You don’t necessarily need to sign to someone else’s label, but you would need to create your own label in the process of your distribution. The music has to be relevant to the store in order to be accepted, as we are working hard towards cutting down irrelevant content (like Hip-Hop or Rnb which would have to be delivered to Beatsource, our platform for open-format DJs).

Q: How is Beatport handling this volume of traffic and deliveries from an infrastructure standpoint?

Zach: Beatport is very focused on improving the bedrock and foundation of our technology. A lot of the technology stack was built many years ago, so the technological innovations we had with LINK and Beatport DJ required a different foundation than we previously had just from the store.

If there are things people are irritated by or want fixed on Beatport.com, we can assure you we know about them and we are actively working to fix them. We are at a time and place in the history of our company where we are able to address things quicker and more efficiently than ever before. A big shoutout to our technology team in Denver. They are working tirelessly to make the Beatport experience better every day.

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Q: What’s next?

Zach: We want to keep evolving LINK as a product, making it more functional, more usable and help DJs find music and play music quicker. LINK is the straightest path towards that, so improving Beatport LINK and Beatport DJ are our #1 priorities.

We are also focused on supporting the store, as we have seen a massive increase in download sales as a result of Beatport LINK. You can’t get a lossless file on LINK, so as the world opens back up, we hope to see even more people discover music on LINK, and either use offline mode or purchase tracks directly from Beatport.com. I personally wouldn’t want to play at a big festival or on a great sound-system with anything but a lossless file — so that part of the industry will continue growing in importance and the Beatport charts will keep reflecting the electronic music culture shaped by tastemakers and listeners around the world that Beatport enables to DJ.