Beatport will pay labels royalties it initially said were trapped due to the purchase of its parent company, SFX Entertainment.
The major online electronic music marketplace told those affected that the payments will be made next week in an e-mail, saying "we deeply regret any hardships this delay has placed on members of the creative community—especially independent labels and artists, who are the lifeblood of electronic music culture and who have been long standing partners and suppliers to Beatport since 2004. We are truly sorry this has happened, and that we allowed payment distribution to get caught up in unrelated matters."
The apology follows an uproar after label owners and industry types took to social media when informed that second quarter royalty payments would be temporarily frozen during the restructuring process. Just yesterday, it was revealed that said royalty payments had been made to major labels, leaving independents in the lurch. Beatport disputes this account saying "some payments were made before the hold went into effect, and those included payments to major labels and some labels participating in the new Beatport streaming service. This was not preferential treatment in any way, but we understand how the optics may illustrate just the opposite."
SFX Entertainment CEO Robert F.X. Sillerman, who is moving forward with plans to purchase the company he chairs, offered the following statement:I regret that unrelated elements made Beatport delay some payments for the first and only time in its more than 10 year history. The way we handled this was inexcusable and should never have happened. The thousands of creators who have made Beatport what it is today deserved better, and I am deeply embarrassed, both personally and professionally, by what has happened.