Beatport has frozen royalty payments covering the last three months

The company has said that the impending privitisation of its parent corporation SFX Entertainment has led to the delays, with payments originally due on 30 July.

However, many are still - understandably- displeased at the delays, with the royalties covering three months April-June. Music Business Worldwide reports that with some dance labels relying on the royalties for almost 90% of their income, it places a lot of people on shaky ground at best.

As MBW also note, a new change in business model, allowing users to upload their own music - much like Soundcloud - arrives very much a double-edged sword:

"...according to the terms and conditions of Beatport, it will only pay a measly 5% of income for plays of these user-generated streams. That’s for all rights, too. As stipulated in Beatport’s terms and conditions for UGC: '[This] royalty is your sole compensation and includes all payments due to you in connection with the Content, including any mechanical royalties, public performance monies, or other music publishing monies to which you may be entitled as a writer or composer.'

"For those artists uploading mixes onto the Beatport Mixes platform, a download will net them a little more – 10% of income – with the exact same contractual stipulations."

Swiss DJ/producer Ripperton spoke out on Facebook about the changes, urging people to shift from Beatport to Bandcamp or record shops.

All my life, I tried to be independent to do not feel any pressure like usual workers.It was extremely hard to achieve...

Posted by Ripperton on Wednesday, 5 August 2015