The transaction brings Beatport back into the rapidly expanding market for producers and establishes a large presence in the United Kingdom
Today, Beatport announced that it has acquired UK based Loopmasters, which includes its consumer brands, Loopcloud and Plugin Boutique. Beatport has been in the business of selling “soundpacks” to its massive marketplace of DJs since 2010, but began a partnership with Loopmasters in mid-2019 to resurrect its product portfolio for the producer community. For the last eighteen months, Beatport and Loopmasters have launched a number of strategic and marketing initiatives that brought both companies to this logical conclusion of a full combination. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Robb McDaniels, CEO of Beatport, stated “Matt Pelling and the entire Loopmasters team are world-class people who have built amazing products for the producer community that simply belong in our ecosystem. The phenomenal growth of Plugin Boutique, the leading global seller of virtual instrument plug-ins, and the recent launch of Loopcloud, an innovative subscription service for the samples market, are a testament to the talent of their team, and we couldn’t be happier to welcome them to the Beatport family.”
Loopmasters was founded in 2003 by Mr. Pelling to sell soundpacks to the professional audio market and function asan online store for music composers and producers using computer- based Digital Audio Workstations (DAW). The company launched its Plugin Boutique division in 2012 to provide a destination for the best music software companies to sell their VST Plugins, Virtual Instruments, Synth Presets and Music Plugins. “We have been very impressed by the power of the Beatport brand with the global DJ producer marketplace, and have thoroughly enjoyed working closely with the Beatport team over the past few years,” commented Mr. Pelling. “Everyone at Loopmasters strongly believes that the combination of these two great companies will deliver an unparalleled, end-to-end content supply chain for music producers for many years to come.”
Mr. Pelling and Gareth Halsall, Plugin Boutique’s General Manager, have signed multi-year contracts and will continue to lead Loopmasters. Mr. Pelling will report to Mr. McDaniels, and Loopmasters will maintain its offices south of London, where most of their employees reside.
The transaction is strategic and accretive for Beatport, which has been profitable every quarter since 2017, when Mr. McDaniels took the helm as CEO. Beatport has also seen phenomenal growth of Beatport LINK, its new integrated streaming subscription product for DJs, as well as solid traction for Beatsource LINK, its new service targeted towards the open-format DJ community. The addition of Loopmasters and Plugin Boutique provides Beatport with a suite of services for DJs and Producers that is unparalleled in the music industry.
The global market for soundpacks and plugins has exploded over the last few years as more producers are able to create songs from their home studios using less expensive software and digital tools. As the world’s top seller of these products, Loopmasters is uniquely positioned to offer a best-in-class product to Beatport’s massive community of 36 million annual visitors who are passionate about DJing and producing.
The companies plan on accelerating the full integration of Loopcloud and Plugin Boutique into Beatport’s retail properties, while also launching more marketing and promotional programs in 2021.
