E025 Robb McDaniels - Beatport CEO

Robb @beatport is CEO of Beatport, who just pledged to donate 100% of Tuesday's music industry blackout day proceeds. Dance music is black music, and there's no way forward without acknowledging and taking direct actions to support that. Beatport is a platform for DJ's to download music. There was a time where corporate interests confused that, but Beatport is doing all the right things now since Robb took the reins with new investor backing. All the tech features are there, cloud storage DJ sets, livestreams during quar, stems, all supporting the core of independent and underground dance music labels and DJs. Beatport does only 5% volume from majors. Playlists are not a thing, it's handmade DJ charts. Nothing sits on their sales charts for long either, everything is fresh, and driven by the culture. As Robb says, nobody wants to play the same music as everyone else, so the ecosystem remains active and lean-in. It's a totally different kind of consumer behavior than what we criticize in the mainstream currently.