Denver-based Music-download site Beatport has been sold to concert promoter SFX for a little over $50 million. Beatport head Matthew Adell, CEO of Beatport, confirmed the sale and told the New York Times that joining forces with SFX would help the company expand into live events as well as internationally in markets such as Brazil and India. “We already are by far the largest online destination of qualified fans and talent in the market,” he said, “and we can continue to grow that.”
Buying Beatport has allowed SFX to add nearly 40 million subscribers to its audience, and the deal is part of SFX’s strategy to the dominant major player in EDM, an industry the Times says is worth $1 billion annually. Earlier in the year SFX bought Voodoo Experience and ID&T (Dutch producers of Tomorrowland, Sensation and Mysteryland). In 2012, the company purchased Dayglow Productions, Disco Donnie Presents and are reportedly negotiating to buy Insomniac Events, the producer of Electric Daisy Carnival and Nocturnal Wonderland.