Beatport’s New Mobile App & The Impact Of LINK — with Laren Agius
In the latest of our series of interviews with music tech insiders, we sat down with Laren Agius, Head of Product at Beatport to get his scoop on Beatport’s powerful new mobile app and the impact of Beatport LINK.
Q: What was your inspiration for developing a Beatport mobile app?
Laren: Beatport has always been desktop-focused, however, nowadays DJs are on the move more than ever before, even during the pandemic, hence we have explored the opportunity to develop a mobile experience that is focused to help DJs dig for music while on the move. Being built on the LINK platform, the Beatport mobile app allows DJs to discover music and prepare playlists while they are traveling to their next gig, when commuting to work or wherever there is an internet connection.
When I joined Beatport back in 2019 we started focusing on developing Beatport LINK as a platform, building the path for the Connected DJ Booth. The mobile app is a step closer to our vision. Users are not just preparing a shopping cart — you’re also preparing a playlist that you can perform on any of the LINK Connected DJ Solutions such as Traktor, rekordbox and even the Denon DJ Players running Engine OS.
Imagine you’re a DJ who is on the way to a gig, and you’re on an hour-long taxi ride from the airport. You can efficiently dig for music, or maybe organize your playlists up to the last minute before performing without having to open your laptop, and download tracks on a USB Drive. While designing the user experience, we have considered every use case to help make the life of DJs easier.
Q: It’s a very cool app with an entirely new branding and identity. How long did it take to build all this?
Laren: In realistic terms, from when we started developing the iOS mobile app until we published it, it took more or less about seven months. Once we finalized the iOS app, we started working on the Android version which we are releasing in February 2022.
One thing to keep in mind though is that the build-up towards getting to this point was pretty much across the last three years with the launch of LINK. During this time we’ve been building and fine-tuning the underlying technology, ensuring that we can offer a reliable and robust solution.
We are planning to release an update every quarter, and user feedback plays an important role as we incrementally introduce new functionality. The latest major upgrade was the introduction of ‘My Beatport,’ which is one of the most sought after features by our users.
Q: How’s the response been so far and what’s been the most common feature request?
Laren: In general the feedback was very positive, however we did anticipate that frustration from Beatport users that do not have a subscription asking us “Hey, what about us?”
The reason behind this was due to legacy system incompatibility, however, we are working on a solution that will allow every customer to use the mobile app around the second quarter of 2022.
Q: When you talk about ‘My Beatport,’ do you mean that you can follow an artist or label to see their tracks, almost like an activity feed?
Laren: Exactly. This is probably one of the most important features and has been part of the Beatport ecosystem since its inception. For over 17 years ‘My Beatport’ users including myself have been following artists and labels, making it an important part of music discovery.
In addition to My Beatport, users are asking for ease of use features such as Chromecast or Airplay compatibility and auto-mix features, the same as we have on the Beatport DJ app. So that is something that we will introduce throughout the year.
Q: Is there a plan to eventually have LINK be a Spotify replacement for electronic music fans, in having their full catalog accessible via LINK?
Laren: That’s a very good question. As you know, Beatport has always been for DJs, as a music source. However, we are getting feedback that even electronic music fans want to be able to listen to our curated playlists. So that is something that we will evaluate depending on the feedback we receive. But we don’t see Beatport mobile or LINK becoming a Spotify replacement, as our vision is focused to set the foundations for DJs in the future.
Q: LINK as a product is expanding a lot and in the last two years you’ve laid all the groundwork. You now integrate with more than eight different DJ software platforms, have launched your own Beatport DJ App, and now also the mobile app. What’s left for you and how do you plan on expanding on top of what is already so encompassing?
Laren: When you look at the journey of a product, and this is something I advocate, you grow based on user feedback. The last three years have been focused on getting LINK connected to every DJ software. We’re going to keep integrating with other partners as we go along, making sure that DJs have access to music that matters, irrespective of where you are starting from.
What’s next with LINK — it’s a very open-ended question, so there are a lot of opportunities. We are working closely with our partners and the industry to find solutions to improve the performance reporting to the Performance Rights Organizations (PROs). Let’s use this example: A DJ is playing at Tresor in Berlin. As soon as the set is finished, the tracklist based on the history is immediately available and ready to be submitted. One of our missions is to make this a reality.
I think that was always the biggest challenge in the electronic music scene. When DJs perform, finish their set, and the tracklist rarely gets submitted, the performance royalties get lost in the ether. Hence the artist that created the track is not getting recognition or payout from performances.
Q: Are there going to be Hype charts on the mobile app and will Hype customers be able to have their own discovery page?
Laren: That’s something that we have on our roadmap. Hype tracks are available on the mobile app and the LINK ecosystem, however, it is not featured as it is on the Beatport store. We are aware of this gap in our product portfolio, and we are actively working on introducing dedicated spaces for Hype labels, making it easier for users to find their favorite content across the ecosystem.
Q: What excites you the most of the things that you are working on at Beatport?
Laren: What excites me about being part of the Beatport Group is the team culture and the contact with the community. It doesn’t matter if the DJ is a beginner or pro. We’re constantly collecting feedback and our team is committed to shaping the future of the DJ culture and the supporting community. What we’re doing at Beatport is making sure that we are setting a scalable future for our community.
Q: Will there be a technology in the mobile app that will work almost like Shazam for electronic music, allowing you to discover tracks on Beatport right away?
Laren: It’s certainly a possibility, so we’re thinking about that as well. There’s a lot of opportunities between ourselves and seeqnc, and we’re exploring all of the options. Having a track identification that works for DJs within your mobile app is going to be gold. As a DJ myself, you’re in a club most of the time and, “Whoa, this is a killer track, I don’t know what it is.” 99.9% of the time Shazam won’t recognize it because the sound is too loud, the microphone gets distorted, so there’s a lot at play. We want to introduce something that is designed to operate in a club environment.
In essence, our goal is to make Beatport LINK one of the standards in the DJ booth. I think this is the next natural evolution in DJing. We went from vinyl, to CD, to USB, and now there’s the next iteration where any LINK user will have access to their entire Beatport collection and playlists with real-time reporting, knowing that the artists and labels are getting royalties for every track played. We want to make sure that the community can grow with our product, rather than see us as competition or a reduction in revenue.
A big thanks to Laren for sharing such detailed insights into the strategy and development process at Beatport! Make sure to download the Beatport iOS App or Android App and stay tuned to the Songstats Lab for more on the latest exciting developments in the music industry!
