Beatport Hype: A Comprehensive Guide for Independent Labels

If you’re running an electronic music label, you’re likely present on Beatport, the leading platform for electronic music. You might have also tried breaking into Beatport’s Top 100 charts with a new release, only to watch it disappear into the void of the platform's endless catalog.

The reason it's so difficult is not necessarily because your music isn’t good enough, but rather because you’re competing with countless artists, from bedroom producers to globally renowned labels like Drumcode or Defected Records. On top of that, the platform is flooded with thousands of new releases each week, making it challenging to stand out and break into the charts unless you're backed by an established label with a solid budget for music promotion, or already have serious momentum.

That said, there are ways around this challenge that can, at the very least, increase your chances of ultimately getting featured on Beatport. One key approach is promoting your release on Beatport Hype, a platform where independent labels get a realistic chance to gain visibility and boost their discoverability.

But what exactly is Beatport Hype, how much does it cost, and is it truly worth the investment? In this comprehensive guide, we'll answer all your questions and show you how iMusician can help you access the platform, so you can take full advantage of its benefits.

Beatport Hype is a promotional program designed specifically for independent and emerging electronic music labels. It gives them access to a separate chart ecosystem where releases compete only against other smaller, eligible labels, rather than major imprints.

“Beatport Hype is an accelerator program which provides you the opportunity to grow your label by giving you an exclusive space alongside eligible labels, with more visibility opportunities.” — Beatport FAQs

Here's how Beatport Hype differs from the main Beatport experience. When you browse Beatport, you're looking at the main Top 100 charts. These charts consist of tracks released by every label on the platform, regardless of its size, popularity, or marketing budget. Competition is fierce, and chart positions are largely determined by sales velocity, promotional budgets, and strong marketing strategies. For a small label, cracking these charts often requires sheer luck, or major investments into marketing.

Beatport Hype, on the other hand, operates on terms that are friendlier for independent labels. The platform was built on the observation that tracks from smaller labels easily get lost among releases with massive marketing budgets and established fanbases. By launching Beatport Hype, the platform establishes a fairer, more level playing field, giving smaller labels the space they need to be discovered and to build sales momentum.

Beatport Hype provides a dedicated infrastructure, including the Hype homepage, genre-specific Hype charts for everything from techno to drum & bass, and featured sections that highlight new Hype releases. Since only subscribing labels appear in the Hype charts, competition is significantly lower.

This provides the most obvious benefit: easier charting. When your competition pool shrinks, your odds of landing a chart position increase dramatically. A track that might have been buried in the main techno chart could realistically hit the top ten in the Hype techno chart, and that visibility matters for building your label's reputation.

Charting on Beatport Hype also creates a vital growth cycle: higher chart positions drive more visibility, which drives more sales, and so on. This chart success is valuable for promotional materials and building your label's credibility.

More than just charts, Beatport Hype provides highly targeted access to industry tastemakers. This exclusive visibility puts your music directly in front of professional DJs, radio hosts, and festival bookers who constantly scour the Hype section, specifically looking for emerging artists, underground sounds, and undiscovered heat. These professionals may end up playing it in their sets, feature it in playlists or social media posts, and use their influence to propel your track to the main Beatport charts.

To sum it up: if you're serious about building a label presence on Beatport, giving Beatport Hype a try is surely worth your time and money. That said, there are a few basic eligibility criteria you need to meet to subscribe to Hype. Let’s look into those next.

Beatport Hype is a label-centric platform, which means that you need to have a registered label on Beatport with its own dedicated page. If you’re an individual artist (for example, a solo producer releasing under your own name) without a label, you'll need to launch one first, even if it only releases your own music.

To keep the platform focused on smaller, independent labels, Beatport has set up Hype with clear eligibility requirements in mind. Only labels with sales less than $25,000 in the last 12 months are eligible for Beatport Hype. Their music must be available on Beatport before they subscribe to Hype, and it must fall into one of the following genres:

• Afro House

• Dance / Electro Pop

• Deep House

• Drum & Bass

• Electronica

• House

• Indie Dance

• Melodic House & Techno

• Minimal / Deep Tech

• Mainstage

• Organic House

• Progressive House

• Techno (Peak Time / Driving)

• Tech House

• Trance (Main Floor)

So, if you're running a label out of your home studio, releasing a few quality tracks per year, and trying to build a name in your genre, you're exactly who Hype was built for.

Learn more about how to upload music to Beatport with iMusician!

While subscribing to Beatport Hype makes your music eligible for features, securing editorial placement requires a proactive pitch. The process is managed through your distributor, not directly with Beatport.

Since most distributors have a specific internal form for pitching to streaming platforms, you must contact your distributor to learn their exact submission process and to confirm that you are a Hype-eligible label.

You must then submit your release and a detailed pitch through your distributor’s platform at least three to four weeks in advance of the release date, since Beatport's curation team works two weeks ahead of the Friday store update. Your distributor will optimize and forward it to Beatport's genre experts on your behalf. The final decision remains editorial.

Beatport Hype is an optional, promotional add-on that you pay for directly through Beatport, running about $9.99 per month per label. If you run multiple labels, each one would need its own subscription.

The big question is: does $10 a month stack up against other promotional tools in the electronic music world? Honestly, it's pretty reasonable compared to the costs of other promotional tools and efforts, particularly for labels managing multiple artists. For instance, Traxsource has its own Hype and Spotlight features but pricing varies and can run higher depending on the package, and although Spotify's promotional tools are mostly free, its Discovery Mode operates on a commission model where you give up a percentage of royalties.

Outside of platform-specific tools, most promotional strategies cost significantly more. Running social media ads for a release can easily eat up a few hundred dollars with no guarantee of results, and hiring a PR agency can cost up to several thousand dollars per campaign. In that context, spending $120 a year for dedicated chart visibility on one of electronic music's most influential platforms is relatively modest.

Of course, whether Beatport Hype is worth your money ultimately depends on your situation. If Beatport is your major sales channel and key platform, ten bucks a month is a no-brainer. However, if most of your listeners are on a different platform and you rarely see meaningful Beatport sales, you might want to invest that money elsewhere—unless you believe there’s much unexplored potential for you to make numbers on Beatport!

Nevertheless, we believe that, in terms of cost-to-visibility ratio within the Beatport ecosystem, Beatport Hype is one of the more accessible promotional tools available to independent electronic labels.

With all that said, it is important to set expectations correctly before investing in any platform, and Beatport Hype is no exception. So, let's look into some of its limitations.

One potential drawback is the recurring cost, which adds up to about $120 per year, regardless of your release frequency. While you can pause your subscription around your schedule, remember that paying for Beatport Hype does not automatically guarantee that your track will make it in the Hype Top 100 charts. Even with quality music, you still need to generate enough sales for your tracks to show up in the charts.

The same applies to getting featured in one of Hype’s curated sections. As Beatport explains: “Sometimes the genre manager just isn’t feeling it, or it might just be a particularly busy week with just too many good releases to feature,” even if you did everything right.

In other words, paying for Hype only makes your releases eligible for exclusive Hype features (banners, picks, new release tiles). Although the Beatport team itself sometimes picks a release to feature it, you’ll typically need your distributor to pitch your release to the curation team to secure an exclusive feature. The final decision remains editorial.

To sum it up, it is crucial to remember that Hype acts only as an amplifier, not a substitute for the fundamental work of building your brand and releasing quality tracks. Put simply, no tool can compensate for mediocre music, deficient mixing or mastering, or a lack of promotional efforts.

Beatport and Beatport Hype are part of a larger ecosystem for electronic music labels and artists, which is why it makes sense to look into some alternatives and complementary platforms.

• Traxsource: Known for its focus on house music, Traxsource has its own Hype and Spotlight programs. It is a strong alternative or complement if your music leans toward soulful, deep, groovy house.

• Juno Download: This platform relies on editorial features and staff picks to highlight releases. You can't pay to be featured, so gaining visibility here is based purely on the quality of your music, but it offers a high degree of credibility.

• Other Streaming Services: Platforms like Deezer (with its Flow feature), and Amazon Music (with its Breakthrough program) also offer editorial and algorithmic promotion, but they are generally less influential in the electronic music space than Beatport or Spotify (with its editorial playlists) for reaching DJs and tastemakers.

The bigger picture is that each platform serves a different purpose and reaches a different audience, which is why most successful labels don't choose one but rather use multiple platforms strategically.

Beatport Hype is one of the most accessible and cost-effective promotional tools available to smaller, independent electronic labels taking their efforts seriously. By offering reduced competition and dedicated visibility, it provides a crucial stepping stone for building momentum and credibility in the industry.

For a modest investment, Hype gives your label a tangible chance to be heard by professional DJs and tastemakers who are actively digging for new heat. However, its true power is realized only when used strategically as an amplifier for high-quality music and proactive promotion.