Digital download store
Beatport has decided to discontinue its affiliate program.
In a message sent to labels and artists today, Beatport Management informed affiliates that the company had "made a business decision to shut down" the program, and asked that "all banners, buttons, text links, product images and store fronts" be taken down.
When reached for comment, Beatport's VP of Marketing Shawn Sabo confirmed the e-mail's contents, adding that "The affiliate program was not driving the relevant leads we had anticipated to [the site]. Moving into 2009, we have a plan to work with and support electronic music portals around the globe. We will be contacting these portals directly with Beatport's new offer."
Sabo also pointed out that the company's decision was to a lesser extent also driven by a desire to rid itself of associations with fraudulent mp3 blogs and forums that gave away releases for free, then drove traffic to Beatport from banners and text linking to the retailer.
This story was updated at 21:30 on 23 Oct 2008.
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