Beatmixed

Last week Serato launched WhiteLabel.net, a DJ “white label” music service for Scratch Live owners. While various forum threads have been quick to discount it as “yet another” online DJ music store, I believe that such a conclusion is just plain wrong. WhiteLabel.net is potentially the future of record and music pools. Let me explain why.

Back in the early 90s, I had a brief stint as the chart coordinator for the BADDA Record Pool. My main role was to compile and process the pool’s top 100 chart. Members were required to submit their own top 20 chart each week along with individual track feedback. It was a rather tedious job aggregating this information, but I certainly learned a lot about how DJs “fit” into the marketing machine known as the music industry.

In order for a pool to receive promotional product (a.k.a. “service”) from a record label, it’s important that their member roster is composed of qualified, working DJs. Acting as a conduit between qualified DJs and record labels, the record pool provides a service that would simply be unmanageable for most labels to do in-house. Pools maintain the grassroot DJ relationships, collect chart information, and report aggregate information back to the labels. In exchange for this service, labels provide free promotional product to pools. A monthly membership fee charged to DJs by the music pool provides it with a sustainable business model.

WhiteLabel.net is essentially the digital equivalent of a record pool. While Serato doesn’t currently qualify members like a record pools does, it actually doesn’t really matter. No need to be too picky — in the digital age, we’re not dealing with limited runs of promotional vinyl that need to be carefully distributed to just the right tastemakers. Since it’s all digital, the cost of duplication and distribution is next to nothing. And should the promotional tracks fall into the wrong hands (ie. not a DJ), they’re not much use without the Scratch Live hardware interface (the “SL1″).

WhiteLabel.net and Scratch Live form an “ecosystem,” much like Apple’s iTunes Music Store and the iPod. High bitrate versions of the promotional tracks play only in Scratch Live when the SL1 interface is connected. If you play the tracks in a normal MP3 player, you’ll hear a low bitrate version instead. And since it’s a closed DRM system that works only with Serato’s DJ software, the labels have some level of “proof” that the person in possession of their promotional track is a DJ. Further, there’s nothing stopping Serato from collecting information in the future to better screen and qualify who gets what tracks from the labels. Because they also control the playback software, providing track play statistics to labels is also certainly conceivable. 

It’s not all puppies and kittens for me, though. I despise DRM so I do find this whole thing hard to swallow. I must admit, however, that from an academic standpoint I find this DRM scheme absolutely intriguing. The SL1 interface is no longer simply a glorified sound card — it’s a ”DJ dongle” which unlocks promotional tracks for DJs. The DRM will likely put off some people, but for most it will be tolerable as the tracks are all correctly tagged, have BPMs and overviews already calculated, and most importantly are free.

Despite my general misgiving about DRM, I think this is a great move on Serato’s part. The success of the service will depend greatly on the relationships it is able to forge with labels. Let’s hope that the folks over at WhiteLabel.net have hired on a few former pool directors to help spearhead this effort. It certainly has the potential to be something big.