Dance music streaming and download store Beatport has finally launched a mobile app. Currently on iOS, the app is available to all subscribers to Beatport LINK, the company’s DJ streaming product.
Watch the video
Watch this video where I give you a live talkthrough of the app and answer questions from our community.
Sporting Beatport’s new logo, the app is free, although you will require a subscription to Beatport LINK to use it. For DJs already buying into the company’s music streaming service, this is a huge leap towards a complete streaming solution, from discovery to performance.
App features
When you start the app, it asks you to choose your favourite genres, then opens with a search bar at the top, shortcuts to your chosen genres on buttons underneath, and the current Beatport Top 10 (or Top 100) listed underneath that.
It feels very much like a streaming service such as Spotify or TIDAL. You can play tracks, but also add them to playlists which you can build yourself. you can view the artist or artists, view the releases’ labels, or go to more from the same genre.
However, unlike Spotify and its ilk, you also get a waveform for easy skipping around the current track – a nice DJ touch.
Click the “My Library” tab next to “Discovery” at the bottom of the app, and you’re presented with two choices: My Playlists and Collection. My Playlists is playlists you’ve built in Beatport LINK, which are also available in any compatible DJ software or system. Meanwhile, Collection is tracks you’ve bought.
What’s missing?
You can’t currently buy music in the app, or even “Add to cart” to buy later.
Also, it’s not quite a fully-fledged streaming app. For instance, you can’t add tracks to a queue easily, there’s no way to simply “like” tracks to play later to decide if you want to add them to your lists, and no concept of track or artist radio. There’s not even a “shuffle play” option.
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So while it stops short of being a fully functional streaming app, it’s close, and marks a great start. It would be easy enough for DJs to add tracks to a “Liked”, “Shortlist” or “To buy” playlist themselves to add tracks of interest to, and then to buy them from the desktop app later, for instance.
Beatport says the next step is to release an Android version of the app, at which point more features will be added to the iOS version, too. But this is an exciting start.
• The Beatport App is available for free now on the iOS App Store. A Beatport LINK subscription is required – more info on Beatport LINK here.
Phil Morse
