Since founded in 2004, Beatport has become the world's leading platform for electronic music with a DJ community of over 36 million unique users, of which around 465,000 are DJs, and a catalog of over 11 million tracks supplied by more than 75,000 record labels. It is no secret how important it is for labels and artists to have good visibility on Beatport.

In this article, we explain how to increase your chances of being featured on the site.

1. Plan your releases in advance.

If you want to be considered for a feature, you should plan your releases several weeks in advance: submit your release at least four weeks before it is released on Beatport. Retailers like Beatport want to know what you are doing to promote your music and the likelihood of it selling well. If you are a client of our distribution, be sure to fill out the "Featured Release Form" which you can find on our website.

2. Pay attention to your visual designs.

Your brand image is fundamental. People need to recognize you, recognize your work and recognize the mark you leave behind. In short: be memorable.

"Your listeners don't consume your music. They consume your brand which in the process crafts your identity."

We can't emphasize this enough: it's the first impression of your music, so devote some quality time to it. That said, make sure you get a high-quality cover for the release. Everyone sees the cover before they hear the music. Not only Beatport will judge it, but all the blogs. It should get full attention. Not only will this help you get more fans, but Beatport will see that you have gone to the trouble of getting an interesting artwork and having a strong branding effort.

Nowadays, the artwork is just as important as the music and it can be the deciding factor in getting an article, a banner, a feature, a position, etc. Use smart design principles. Enlist the help of a professional graphic designer if needed. On the internet, you can find several sites like freelancer.com where you can hire designers to do the job for you.

3. Release only quality music.

Nowadays, there is so much music being released, so you must take your time and make sure you make a good record. Be patient, if you are an artist take your time to polish your sound, and if you are a label sign only music of outstanding quality. Creating a final product that you can be proud of will help you promote it because you'll know it's a great track. And don't forget the final sound of your music, for that, you must master your track in a professional mastering studio, our recommendation would be Pobla https://pobla.es

4. Take care of your social presence.

First things first, make sure that all the social networks you decide to use and promote your music and your brand are up to date. Remember to include links and details of all your other social networks on the social platforms you use, so your followers will be able to find all your information easily.

Beatport researches and supports artists who have a strong social media presence. Make sure your social networks are up to date; if they are not, it's best to close the account you no longer update.

5. Promote yourself.

Once you are ready, promote your music as much as you can, try to reach out to blogs, friends, and producers, start conversations with your followers and follow up. Try to have a list of DJs that you can send your music to. With tools like our Promo Pool, which we offer to our clients for free, you can send your tracks to the media and other DJs to get feedback and reviews, use these tools at your disposal to help you improve your productions! Ensure that all your releases get premieres from important portals within the industry, take care of your Soundcloud, every play counts, this doesn't mean that you are now going to pay for promotion services that offer fake plays because it will do you more harm than good. One of the best indicators for Beatport to evaluate the success of a release is the number of plays on SoundCloud, so you better grow your fan base on the platform. Build a strong network of contacts that support your music.

We are in the music business, so think outside the box, think of different ways to promote, and use all the tools at your disposal to make it happen.

6. Get more out of your music releases with Beatport HYPE.

If you are a small label you should consider Beatport Hype. But what is Beatport Hype?

Beatport HYPE is the ultimate promotion platform for smaller artists and labels on Beatport. HYPE allows you to grow your label and maximize exposure outside of Beatport's main genre charts and the dominance of the more established labels.

On average, labels subscribed to Beatport Hype have seen an increase of over 70% in sales of their tracks.

Beatport Hype is a paid subscription service for labels, and costs €9.99 per month but it can be canceled at any time. It is an optional subscription. Beatport does not require any label to sign up.

Larger labels cannot join Hype, so smaller labels have more opportunity for exposure. Labels are eligible for Hype only if they have sold less than $15,000 on Beatport in the last 12 months.

7. Beatport Exclusive and Pre Orders.

Something you should keep in mind when planning your release is that if you would like to have the support of Beatport remember that it is essential to set up the exclusivity period on Beatport. You have the choice between a 2 week and 4 week exclusivity period on Beatport, but we recommend the 2 week period. Also, remember to take advantage of the pre-release dates as every sale made in this period counts later when it comes to getting on the Beatport charts, but that's something we'll get into later.

8. Choose the best music distributor that fits your needs.

Music distribution is a crucial part of promoting your music. Many record labels when choosing a platform for music distribution make the mistake of signing with a digital music distributor paying more attention to the name than to the features and positive benefits they can bring to your project.

If you are an artist or a record label with a solid base, you won't have any problems finding a music distributor that will take you seriously, but if you are a small project and even worse if you are just starting, not choosing the right distributor can be very dangerous for your music.

FORWARD is a distribution service that gives you access to global distribution in one place, getting your music on over 150 music retailers and platforms, including Beatport, Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Google Play, and Amazon. Unlike other distributors, we charge a very small 15% fee and you keep 100% of the copyright, so you always maintain full ownership of anything you put online through FORWARD's distribution network. We offer analysis software with technology far superior to other distributors, so daily statistics and historical sales analysis is a whole different level.

Furthermore, we do not differentiate or categorize labels by popularity levels, we support all our clients on an equal basis trying to offer the best possible service, our success depends on the success of our clients so you can be sure that by choosing us as your distribution partner we will do everything we can to make sure that your label can have the highest possible visibility on Beatport.

9. Send us the release you want to promote in advance.

Well, now that you have done all the previous steps, how can you get featured on Beatport? Well, it's pretty easy, once you have planned all the promotions for your new release, use our Submit for feature form to send us the release you want us to pitch to Beatport. Be sure to send us your promotion plan, which portals will premiere your music, which artists and press have supported your release, and the best feedback for your tracks as these are key and necessary steps for Beatport to consider your release for featuring. Please remember that we ask that all releases you wish to submit for feature consideration must be submitted at least 3 weeks before the release date.

10. Conclusion.

There are lots of digital distributors out there and what might be the first choice for someone might not be the right choice for you. A good option would be to select us as your distributor knowing that we will do our best to squeeze the most out of your music but a little extra research before selecting your distribution platform is always helpful.

If it turns out that you are unhappy with your current distribution service, switching your distribution to us is not complicated at all. So take it slow before deciding which platform to use and remember we are here for you.

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