What the Genre!? vs Beatport genres: who decides what a track is

Beatport is a store for DJs, and every track on it carries a genre from Beatport's own list. What the Genre!? answers the same question for any track, Beatport or not, and lets listeners say when the label got it wrong.

Each release on Beatport is delivered with a genre and a sub-genre that must match Beatport's taxonomy. Labels or their distributors pick them at upload.[1]

Beatport changes that list from time to time. In 2016 it added sub-genres such as future house and big room, worked with artists, DJs and labels to define them, and moved more than 500,000 tracks into the new genres.[2][3] It later added a leftfield house and techno genre for underground labels.[4]

The label chooses. A label can have reasons to file a track where it will chart, not only where it fits, and buyers cannot vote on it.

Only what Beatport sells. A track that is not in the store, from a record shop, a Bandcamp page or an old pressing, has no Beatport genre at all.

One genre per track. A record that sits between deep house and minimal gets one of the two.

Any track, from any release: Satisfy by Calvin Harris or Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim.

The subgenre is voted by listeners, no account needed, and each vote can carry a one-line reason in the discussion under the track.

Every subgenre has a history. The house line and the techno line date each one and cite where it came from: start with deep house or big beat.

Buying a track to play out: Beatport. Settling what a track actually is: search for it here.