Justin Baum

Beatport.com, one of the best places to purchase dance music on the web, recently launched a new 3.0 version of their site. I have seen some coverage of it here and there, but nothing that examined the update in detail. Being a customer since 2005, here are the changes that jumped out at me.

Look&Feel - The site generally looks and feels the same when you first poke around. This speaks to the fact that a lot of the work here is subtle refinements to what was already a very successful site experience. The brand remains intact with the re-launch. Some minor tweaks and improvements to button styles, typography and iconography give it a slightly updated appearance. I would like to have seen a deeper re-working of the brand and visual design as it is getting a bit stale, but thats just my opinion.

Improved Search - Some big wins here for the customers. No more selecting the content-type before searching. In version 2.0 we had to specify what we were looking for (track, artist, label etc) before hitting the search button. Beatport has made search much more robust and useful by allowing people to submit a search without selecting a content-type. In addition the search results can now be filtered by artist, releases, tracks, labels, dj mixes, and charts. There is also an "All" filter that displays an overview of search results across multiple content types. Quite useful.

New Content Filters - When looking at labels, artists and genres on Beatport 3.0 the left column of the site now contains "filters." These filters allow you to refine the releases and tracks you are looking at by artist, genre, label, content type and release date. The filters are contextual, meaning they change based on whether you are looking at a genre, artist or label. When combined with the new search, filters make finding what you want much easier on 3.0.

The Hold Bin - When looking at your shopping cart, aka "crate" you have the ability to discard releases and tracks to the hold bin. This is a nice touch. Its like new release day back at the local record shop when you ran out of cash and had to put some things aside for the next week. Im going to be using the hold bin as a maybe pile. I buy more tracks than I know what to do with, so any features that help me be more choosey are welcome.

The New Player - The new player now has a playlist attached to it that you can add releases and tracks to as you browse the site. The integrated persistent player was already a core feature and differentiator for Beatport, further improvements only solidify this. Unfortunately you cannot add your playlist to your crate. Each track in the playlist must be added to the cart individually.

Personalization - For version 3.0 Beatport has evolved their personalization feature called "My Beatport." Personalization is going to become a top factor in differentiation, customer loyalty and overall site experience as digital download DJ sites evolve in the coming years. The "My Beatport" feature allows people to add labels and artist as favorites and then easily identify which have updated with new releases. Two major improvements where made to My Beatport and its user interface...

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  The My Beatport module now has a history. You can view a list of updated artists and labels on a week by week basis. Moving back in the history shows only the artists and labels that updated on the selected week. This is helpful when you have to catch up after a long hiatus. The release week filter carries over to artists and label pages. This is a fantastic touch and echos the weekly habit of going to your local record store on new release day. Unfortunately you still can't see a list of all the releases from My Beatport on one page in chronological order. Maybe I am missing something? I would love an RSS feed of that list as well.
  
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  My Beatport can now be "un-docked" from the bottom left corner of the site and "re-docked" to the left or right hand side of the site for much more vertical space. This is accomplished by dragging and dropping the module. A slick touch. I love giving my long list of labels and artist more breathing room. My Beatport does not currently remember your docking preference. Hopefully they will fix this.
  





Search Engine Optimization - Here is one that will be good for business. Beatport has taken advantage of Flashes new found ability to play nicely with search engines. If I search for any label or artist on google and append Beatport to the search, the first result is generally for Beatport content. I don't know the history of Beatport's SEO work or if it coincided with the release of 3.0. They may have been showing up in Google searches for a while now. Regardless, its a great thing and an easy way to find content on Beatport.

Direct links - It looks as though all pages on Beatport are now linkable using a persistent button above the main content area of the site. The most effective way to encourage people to spread your content is by giving each content object a unique URL. For customers, you can finally link your friends to tunes on Beatport without a "send to friend."

RSS Feeds - For the segment of Beatport customers that use an RSS reader this is awesome. For Beatport it means I will be coming back when I see a new track in my feed reader. I live in GoogleReader, so RSS is something I have been patiently waiting for. Label RSS feeds help me stay up to date on whats coming out without actually going to the site. Unfortunately it is not implemented for every label (no DFA RSS, argh!). Hopefully this will change over time.

Since it launched in 2004 Beatport has created an application that delivers a ton of awesome content in a very unique experience, but that content is not delivered via web standards (html/css/js). Given the recent success stories of content focused sites like youtube, flickr, last.fm, and others this difference stands out a bit. I am not a big fan of Flash, nor am I a big hater of Flash. Flash definitely has its place. What Beatport has done with their 3.0 release shows that they want to play both sides of the field. Beatport wants to be a top notch "rich internet application," but they also want to reap the benefits of the traditional page based web. Simple things like spreadability (unique urls for content) and findability (showing up in google search results) can make or break ecomm and content sites. Even with the 3.0 release, linking to Beatport content from outside the site creates some dissonance in the experience. Stairing at a loading bar over and over again is a constant reminder that your entering a "rich internet application" and not a web page. Compare for yourself with the links bellow, you may feel that I am splitting hairs, or you may feel that you prefer one over the other.

In Frlagranti - LookLookLook (Beatport)

In Frlagranti - LookLookLook (Juno Downloads)

Big loads up front that require the user to stare at an animation is something that need to go away on the web. This is no easy feat, and no failing of Beatport's, it is a bigger technology question the web has to deal with. Stepping back into Beatports side of the ring, with that big load upfront comes a lot of nice interface nuances and a unique experience that probably accounts for a certain percentage of Beatport's success story. Beatport was successful before Google could see into their soul, and before all their content was linkable. Hopefully this proves to be true as other awesome stores like Juno, Bleep and Boomkat continue to improve their HTML based sites. While not a re-invention of the space, the new version of Beatport deserves some accolades. It is definitely very different than the competition and I hope they continue to focus on evolving their personalization features.

Side note: Beatport now has a few people on Get Satisfaction, the "people powered customer service site." Its a great alternative channel to talk about companies and their products.