Beatport Hype: What Labels Get for €9.99 a Month (2026)
Beatport Hype eligibility, the 15 qualifying genres, what the subscription includes, and the two traps in Beatport's own FAQ to check before you pay.
Quick Answer
Beatport Hype is a subscription programme for small electronic labels, launched in 2018, that puts their releases into a separate chart ecosystem where they compete only against other enrolled labels rather than against majors. Eligibility is capped: labels must currently release on Beatport, have sales under $25,000 in the last 12 months, and release in one of 15 named genres. It costs $9.99 USD, €9.99 EUR, £7.99 GBP or $14.99 AUD per month before tax, billed monthly, cancel anytime. Labels only — artists cannot enrol. With the subscription, Beatport's curation team listens to your releases, tracks become eligible for Hype charts, and reserved feature slots open on home and genre pages. Two things catch people out: Hype charts only include releases from the last 365 days, and several common dance genres are absent from the eligible list entirely.
Nine euros a month is not a budget decision for any label with a catalogue. So the question is not whether Hype is cheap — it is whether your label qualifies, whether your genre is covered, and whether the thing you get is the thing you needed.
Beatport documents all of this publicly. Not all of it is where you would look for it, and two of the more consequential rules sit in FAQ answers most labels find only after subscribing.
Everything below is sourced from Beatport's own support and product pages, verified 4 September 2026.
What Hype Actually Is
Hype is a paid accelerator programme for emerging labels. Beatport launched it in 2018 to support independent labels, and its central mechanic is a parallel chart system.
Enrolled labels' tracks become eligible for Hype charts, where the competition is other Hype-enrolled labels — all of which are, by definition, under the same sales ceiling. Instead of trying to outsell established imprints in a Genre Top 100, a small label competes against a field of comparable size.
The main charts still work the way they always do; we covered that mechanism separately in how Beatport charts work. Hype adds a second ladder, it does not replace the first.
Crucially, the two run in parallel. Beatport confirms directly that a track can chart on both the Top 100 and Hype at the same time if it has enough sales. Enrolling costs you nothing in main-chart eligibility.
Who Qualifies
Beatport's stated eligibility is narrow and specific: all labels currently releasing content on Beatport with sales of less than $25,000 in the last 12 months, whose content corresponds to a list of eligible genres.
Three conditions, all of which have to hold.
| Condition | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Active on Beatport | The label must currently be releasing content on the store |
| Sales ceiling | Under $25,000 in sales over the trailing 12 months |
| Genre | Content must fall in one of the 15 published eligible genres |
| Entity type | Labels only — Beatport states artists cannot join |
The sales ceiling is the part that defines the programme. Hype is not a growth tool a label graduates into; it is one you graduate out of. A label crossing $25,000 in trailing sales has outgrown eligibility, which is the intended outcome and worth planning for rather than discovering.
The 15 Eligible Genres
Beatport publishes the list. As of 4 September 2026 it reads:
Afro House · Dance / Electro Pop · Deep House · Drum & Bass · Electronica · House · Indie Dance · Melodic House & Techno · Minimal / Deep Tech · Mainstage · Organic House / Downtempo · Progressive House · Techno (Peak Time / Driving) · Tech House · Trance (Main Floor)
The Genres That Are Not on It
This is where a chunk of the electronic market discovers the programme is not for them, and it is worth stating plainly because no roundup seems to.
Beatport splits techno into more than one genre, and only Techno (Peak Time / Driving) appears on the eligible list. A label releasing raw, deep or hypnotic techno does not see its genre named there. Likewise absent from the published list: hard dance and hardstyle, psy-trance, bass house, breaks, dubstep, nu disco, and several others.
If your label sits in one of those, the eligibility question is answered before the pricing question. Check the current list against the genre your distributor actually files your releases under — not the genre you describe yourself as — because the filing is what the programme reads.
What the Subscription Includes
Beatport's published benefits, in its own framing:
- A guaranteed listen. Beatport states Hype guarantees its curation team will listen to the music released on your label. For a small label with no relationship at the store, this is the substantive item.
- Hype chart eligibility. Tracks become eligible for all Hype charts.
- Reserved feature slots. Home page, genre pages and editorial features are reserved for selected Hype releases.
- Improved feature chances. Beatport frames store features as the route that helps a label chart in the Hype Top 100 and break into the global charts.
- Track feature notification emails.
Read the verbs carefully, because Beatport chose them precisely. The listen is guaranteed. The features are reserved for selected releases and improve your chances. One is a commitment, the others are an opportunity to be considered. A label budgeting on the assumption of features has misread the offer.
What Hype Buys You Each Week
Beatport publishes the actual inventory, which is more concrete than the marketing page suggests: Hype picks features, two new-release tiles and one banner in each Hype genre reserved for Hype releases every week, social campaigns such as Hype label spotlights, and curated charts like "Best of Hype".
Two tiles and one banner per genre per week is a finite number of slots, shared among every enrolled label in that genre. That is the honest scale of the opportunity — real, and small.
Beatport is unusually direct about the limits in its own FAQ: Hype does not guarantee features or increased sales, and a lot of that work is still up to you. It describes the Hype Top 100 as working the same way as the global chart, still driven by sales, with the single difference that only enrolled labels compete in it.
How to Pitch a Hype Release
Since features are decided editorially, the pitch is the part you control. Beatport publishes what its genre managers want and what wastes their time.
Include: three to five recognisable DJs supporting the track, footage of it being played at clubs or festivals, any premieres secured, radio coverage, your marketing plans and budget, and some numbers on your social reach.
Avoid: the "downloaded for…" list, which does not show a DJ actually played the record; "as usual" or "the usual", which nobody will decode; and full promo campaign sheets, which Beatport says are too time-consuming to read. Pick highlights, stay concise.
The reasoning Beatport gives is worth internalising: it wants to know that featuring your release means teaming up on promoting it. It also says outright that it will not decline a great release for a thin follower count — the numbers are evidence of effort, not a threshold.
What It Costs
Verified on Beatport's Hype product page, 4 September 2026:
| Currency | Per month |
|---|---|
| USD | $9.99 |
| EUR | €9.99 |
| GBP | £7.99 |
| AUD | $14.99 |
Prices exclude applicable tax, billing is monthly, and Beatport states you can cancel anytime. Enrolment runs through gethype.beatport.com using your Beatport account, and Hype status activates within 24 hours of subscribing.
Two Traps Worth Knowing First
Both of these are answered in Beatport's own FAQ, which tells you how often they come up.
The 365-day window. Paying for Hype does not put your back catalogue into the Hype charts. Beatport is explicit: Hype charts only include releases published within the last 365 days. A label subscribing to revive older releases has bought the wrong thing. Hype is a mechanism for new output, and it is only worth paying for in months you are actually releasing.
A genre can be eligible without having a chart. Beatport's FAQ carries an entry titled, in effect, I paid for Hype but there is no Hype chart in the genres my label releases in — the answer directs you to contact support. Meaning eligibility for the programme and the existence of a chart in your genre are two different things, and you can pay before discovering the gap. Check that a Hype chart exists in your filed genre before subscribing, not after.
The Honest Read
At roughly €120 a year, Hype is below the threshold where cost analysis is meaningful for any label with a functioning catalogue. The real questions are fit and timing.
It is worth it when you release regularly in a covered genre, are genuinely under the sales ceiling, and have no existing relationship with Beatport's curation team. The guaranteed listen is the item that is hard to obtain any other way.
It is not worth it if you release sporadically — you are paying monthly for a benefit that only applies to releases published in the last year. Nor if your genre is absent from the list, nor if you are approaching the ceiling, at which point the programme is about to stop applying anyway.
Beatport publishes case studies for the programme; the label Alula Tunes is quoted saying Hype grew its sales around 20% for one year, alongside a #30 Global Top 100 and #3 Techno (Peak Time / Driving) placement. Read that as a vendor's selected success story rather than an expected outcome — it is Beatport's own marketing, and no denominator is published alongside it.
What we would say from the campaign side: across the 2,400+ campaigns run by our founding team, programmes like this reliably deliver visibility and never deliver demand. A guaranteed listen is only worth something if the record survives it, and a reserved feature slot moves nothing if the release has no support behind it. Hype removes an access problem. It does not solve a promotion problem.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is eligible for Beatport Hype?
Labels currently releasing content on Beatport, with sales under $25,000 in the last 12 months, whose content falls into one of Beatport's 15 published eligible genres. Beatport states the programme is for labels only — artists cannot enrol.
How much does Beatport Hype cost?
$9.99 USD, €9.99 EUR, £7.99 GBP or $14.99 AUD per month, excluding applicable tax, billed monthly with cancellation any time. Verified on Beatport's Hype product page on 4 September 2026.
Does Beatport Hype include my back catalogue?
No. Beatport states that Hype charts only include releases published within the last 365 days. The subscription applies to recent output, not to reviving an archive.
Can a track chart on both Hype and the Genre Top 100?
Yes. Beatport confirms a track can chart on both the Top 100 and Hype at the same time if it has enough sales. Enrolling in Hype does not remove a release from the main charts.
What if there is no Hype chart in my genre?
It happens, and Beatport's FAQ addresses it directly by directing affected labels to contact support. Programme eligibility and the existence of a Hype chart in your filed genre are separate things, so confirm both before subscribing.
How long does Hype take to activate?
Beatport states Hype status becomes active within 24 hours of the subscription being purchased through gethype.beatport.com.
The Bottom Line
Hype is cheap enough that the price is not the decision. Whether your genre is on the list, whether you are still under the ceiling, and whether you release often enough for a 365-day chart window to mean anything — those are the decision.
For a label that clears all three, the guaranteed curator listen alone justifies the subscription. For everyone else, it is a monthly charge against a benefit that does not apply.
Across the 2,400+ campaigns run by our founding team, the labels that got the most out of programmes like this were the ones already running a release properly — Hype amplified an existing plan and did nothing at all for labels that treated it as the plan.
Either way it is an access mechanism, not a campaign. What fills the pre-order window is a separate question, and one how a label month is built walks through in full. Labels running several releases a month can manage that calendar and its reporting through Ōtocracy's roster tools, and the wider B2B picture sits in label marketing for 2026. For a read on where a release's audience is actually coming from before you pitch it, the free audit breaks it down source by source.
Eligibility, genres, pricing and chart rules above come from Beatport's own support and product pages, verified 4 September 2026. Beatport revises these periodically — confirm current terms before subscribing.