The basis of the lawsuit is that Beatport has been leveraging its considerable power and influence on the electronic music scene to “coerce” DJs into playing only at Beta for Denver gigs. The suit suggests that if DJs want full support from Beatport in terms of promotion they must to agree to play Beta exclusively. Specific cases include DJ Rap who it’s alleged was told by Roulier via her agents that her two labels would be pulled from Beatport if she were to play elsewhere in Denver, despite her apparently favouring a gig at the Church. Other artists named in the suit include Deadmau5, Sasha, Christopher Lawrence and DJ Dan.
As someone who DJs in Denver and has played at both the Church and Beta, I find it hard to believe that anyone would prefer playing at the Church or any of Regas Christou’s venues to Beta. Beta is known internationally for incredible sound, knowledge of dance culture and attention to detail while Regas’ clubs have a reputation for bad service, disinterested management and subpar sound.
Shure it’s a better venue, but I don’t see how freezing an already fringe/underground group of musicians out of the chance to make extra money playing other competing venues has anything to do with which club is better? It’s sickening if you ask me as a DJ and artist whosells tunes on Beatoprt (”Gunmen Dub” Sublife). I’m considering a request to have it removed idk, i’m sure the whole story isn’t out yet though!