Online music production marketplace BeatStars has been receiving a fair bit of media attention over the last few weeks for being the source of the track used for Lil Nas X’s global hit Old Town Road.
The track was produced by Netherlands-based BeatStars user YoungKio and Lil Nas X reportedly bought the track for $30, with the subsequent Billy Ray Cyrus remix having now been streamed over 300m times on Spotify.
If this one example isn’t enough proof of the way music marketplaces like BeatStars are shaking up traditional methods of hit making, then the company’s most recent news will be.
Yesterday (June 11) BeatStars announced that it has paid out over $50 million to the producers who license and sell beats on the platform.
The company earned over $20 million for its active producers in 2018 alone, a 100% increase over 2017.
The marketplace hosts over 1.5m active tracks, including 568,000 tracks uploaded in 2018.
Founded in 2008 by Abe Batshon, BeatStars boast over 340,000 active sellers, including profiles from multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning producers including Mr. Porter, DJ Green Lantern, and Statik Selektah.
Other huge hits to have originated on the site include Flipp Dinero’s Double-Platinum Leave Me Alone (produced by Young Forever Beats), and Queen Naija’s Platinum Medicine (produced by 30Hertz).
BeatStars currently has offices in Austin, Texas, Funchal, Portugal and Porto Alegre, Brazil.
“The $50 million earned mark for our creators is an amazing achievement for the community that we serve and the company we are striving to build,” said Abe Batshon speaking to Billboard.
“We hope to continue creating tools to empower music entrepreneurs like never before in the music industry and help foster a sustainable new economy for music producers and songwriters around the world, for years to come.”Music Business Worldwide