Dance downloads store and website Beatport is getting a new boss, after CEO Matthew Adell confirmed he’s stepping down – or at least back, into an advisory role. Which means stepping down, yes. “His vision and dedication has helped make Beatport the company it is today, and we wish him well in all his future endeavors,” as parent firm SFX’s spokesperson told Billboard yesterday. His replacement may be current COO Lloyd Starr, judging by his “I’m humbled by this opportunity to lead the evolution of Beatport into what is going to be an exciting future” quote in the piece. Beatport was bought by promoter SFX Entertainment for $58.6m in early 2013 (Bulletin, 27-Feb-13). When SFX filed for an IPO that summer, its filing document revealed some details of Beatport’s business: $48.5m of revenues and a net loss of $1.5m in 2012, with 40m unique visitors and around 200k DJs and artists selling music on its store (Bulletin, 27-Jun-13). However, in December, a number of Beatport staff were laid off. “The hard conclusion we had to make on Beatportis that we were spread a bit too thin. We had to make some hard choices, frankly, to restructure the team and get everyone focused on one vision,” said SFX president Tim Crowhurst at the time (Bulletin, 11-Dec-13).
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