SFX Scores Beatport

Robert F. X. Sillerman’s electronic dance music holdings have grown once again with news of the purchase of download store Beatport.

Beatport claims to be the largest resource of music and tools for DJs, offering more than 1 million tracks for sale to its nearly 40 million users, and the site didn’t come cheap. Sources reportedly close to the matter told the New York Times the deal was for more than $50 million.

“Beatport gives us direct contact with the D.J.’s and lets us see what’s popular and what’s not,” Sillerman told the paper. “Most important, it gives us a massive platform for everything related to E.D.M.”

As for Beatport, the sale could help the site expand into live events and other countries like India and Brazil, company CEO Matthew Adell told the Times.

Sillerman pledged last year to invest about $1 billion in electronic dance music and companies that stage EDM events, though some of his other recent deals haven’t been so closely linked to what’s quickly become the genre du jour for the concert industry.

SFX acquired New Orleans’ Voodoo Experience, Dutch dance promoter ID&T, Hangout Music Festival producer Huka Entertainment and two Miami Beach nightclub operators – Opium Group and Miami Marketing Group – last month.