Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by arthurfm 3592 days ago
Not if you want lossless tracks. Beatport's lossless surcharge is absolutely insane.

A good example is 'Ils - Bohemia (Remixes & Exclusives)'. [1] This album consists of 35 tracks which in MP3 format is £18.35 inc. VAT ($20 USD).

However, should you want it in WAV or AIFF format (they don't offer FLAC) and the album suddenly costs £41.54 ($54.32 USD) due to the ridiculous £26.25 surcharge. After adding VAT @ 20% the total comes to £49.85! It would be over 7 times cheaper to buy the physical CD from Amazon [2] and rip it yourself.

I don't understand how Beatport can justify charging these exorbitant prices for lossless tracks? Even their MP3 prices aren't great compared to the competition. [3]

[1] https://www.beatport.com/release/bohemia-remixes-and-exclusi...

[2] https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0007XTOB6

[3] http://www.junodownload.com/products/ils-bohemia-remixes-exc...

1 comments

Their target audience is DJs, and a lot of their catalogue is only available there or on limited-print vinyls. If you can buy an album elsewhere or on CD, don't buy it on beatport.