the dance music industry begins to adapt

as mighty labels such as hooj choons, strictly rhythm, and nervous shut down, and 12" record stores drop like flies (or become ghost towns compared to just a couple years ago), it's nice to see a site such as beatport give it a go. while it's just getting started, and the lack of selection is obvious after your first search, the big strong point (and one that apple should pay serious attention to) is that new releases are ripped at 320 kps. So, not only will the highs, mids, and lows not sound compressed as shit (i'm talkin' to you itunes), but the files will probably sound decent played at club volume through a final scratch set-up.

if this is successful, this should also prove to be beneficial to the artists and labels in the long run. i can think of no other genres besides house and techno where 99% of new releases are out of print after their first or second pressing. so, if you suddently want a record that was released, oh, three months ago, you have to basically cross your fingers and hope there's a stray beaten-up copy at satellite or head on over to ebay. neither the label nor the artist benefits from this.

of course, if sites such as beatport do catch on, the need for record labels dwindles substantially. but that's a whole other discussion.