Wegen einer Unternehmensumstrukturierung der Muttergesellschaft SFX friert Beatport sämtliche Auszahlungen an Labels ein. Das betrifft zunächst Auszahlungen, die von April bis Juni 2015 verdient wurden.
So strukturiert sich SFX von einer “Listed Company” zu einer Privaten. Dahinter stehen die Pläne des CEOs Robert Sillerman von SFX, der die Unternehmung kaufen und privatisieren will. Um die betroffenen Labels zu informieren, ging gestern eine E-Mail mit wenigen Worten an die Betreiber.
“Since inception over 10 years ago Beatport has paid almost $200,000,000 to its label partners. Beatport’s parent company, SFX, is currently involved in a ‘going private’ process that has trapped certain earned label payments. This process will be coming to an end in the next few weeks, at which time all payments will be able to be made. Beatport prides itself on being the broadest and original friend of the makers of electronic music and will clear this one time obstacle very shortly. In the meantime, feel free to contact your label manager with any questions. Thank you for your patience and continued support.”
Hier der Screenshot der Email, die Ripperton bekommen hatte:
Zahlreiche Künstler teilten daraufhin diese Information. Labelbetreiber Morgan Geist postete beispielsweise “Konnte das Wort “Entschuldigung” in der Email nicht finden”. Auch Ripperton, von dessen Seite wir die Information erhalten hatten postete:
“All my life, I tried to be independent to do not feel any pressure like usual workers.
It was extremely hard to achieve and it’s still hard every day.
People may not get that we need to earn money. That we are not only doing music for free …or for the love of the music.
I (we) want to be free, paid and respected.
But it seems not to be common nowadays.
We have bills to pay, we have children, we have musicians and friends to be paid for their work. This is simply out of my understanding.
I am not happy but still want to thank everyone of you who paid for our music so far and please continue to do so. Or maybe do it on Bandcamp or even in a vinyl store…“