WTF is Traxdrop?

Charting on Beatport is great for status. The microscopic revenue from streaming platforms caneventually lead to a decent revenue stream. Fine. But as a producer, you need to share your music with other artists, DJs and tastemakers. Currently, the only way to do that is through WeTransfer (or equivalent) - which means expired downloads and leaked links - or Dropbox (or equivalent) which means you have no control over who accesses your music and no visibility over who downloads it.

In the music industry today, in particular within the plethora of genres and obscure subgenres that make up the dance/electronic scene, there is simply no living to be made from music sales. Releases are now merely a means to generate bookings. And bookings - if you’re lucky and/or crafty enough - can earn you a living.

So where does Traxdrop come in? Well, we provide a way to quickly and securely share your music with other artists, DJs and tastemakers. Yep, we’re here to help you give your music away. Not to anybody though - to those who matter the most. Those people who will help you boost your profile and exposure, and drive your bookings in the process.

Keep selling your music on Beatport and Bandcamp - sure! Charting is good for kudos. It helps make your music seem more official. But Traxdrop lets you give your music away more promiscuously, whilst retaining full control - you know who's downloaded what, and can be safe in the knowledge downloads links aren't being leaked.

If you’re not on promo lists, you might share tracks with other producers and DJs more informally through Facebook Messenger, etc. Probably sharing WeTransfer links that expire too soon. Or possibly Dropbox links you quickly loose track of. Or you might hand out USB drives or even CDs at gigs.

Traxdrop aims to help producers, artists and labels quickly share many tracks - potentially your full back catalogue - with those who matter most. The same ones who will go onto to play your music, feature your music in mixes or charts, and support you on social media with those invaluable likes, comments, shares, reposts and so on. Traxdrop is about expanding your circle of contacts and growing a casual army of supporters to help you boost your profile and drive your exposure. And ultimately, this will drive your bookings. 

We believe the current promo model is outdated. The days of sharing forthcoming releases with a few select top DJs to showcase a label's music and boost sales are gone. The platforms fulfilling this need are equally outdated - hindered by slow file upload, clunky metadata input and poor user experience. More crucially, DJs hoping to download any promos face star ratings, choosing their favorite track (’do you like the extended or radio mix better?’), and having to type in some crap comments that nobody is ever gonna read just to enable downloads. To boot, promos expire too quickly for the majority of busy DJs.

Traxdrop offers a streamlined, leaner experience. Distributing directly from Dropbox means no file upload. Rapid metadata input. Full statistics - both for downloads and streams. More importantly our access token model means label can quickly create a tiered system to share their releases with DJs and tastemakers. Labels can still share upfront fortcoming releases with a small trusted network of high-profile DJs - the traditional model, streamlined. But equally, they can share a full back catalogue with a wider network of DJs and older releases only with an even wider circle. In this way, labels can expand their army of casual supporters - the ones driving those invaluable likes, shares and reposts on social media platforms. And ultimately, boost their profile and sales. 

Traxdrop is the creation of Ben Fraser: a producer, DJ and designer. Ben is working with mastermind web developer Adam Fearnehough to put together a seamless experience.

It's up to you - but we offer an easy and secure way to share your music. Here are some options that Traxdrop's powerful features allow:

• as an artist, use Traxdrop to quickly share your back catalogue with DJs and artists who support you - you might prefer to let labels send upfront promos to exclusive distribution lists though.
• as an artist, use Traxdrop to share your latest unreleased material with a very small circle of trusted artists and DJs.
• as a label, use Traxdrop to share promos of your new releases quickly, without worrying about expiring download links, written feedback and ratings. Those are helpful for some labels, but ultimately mean less downloads for many. To boot, your back catalogue can stay available for selected DJs and tastemakers. We are putting together an awesome set of additional features for labels - so watch this space.

Yep! You can register for free and start sharing music with producers, DJs and whoever immediately - all with the security of an access token. We promise to keep free accounts free forever!

It's completely secure yes. Our API checks that only users who have the access token you've given them can download your music - and the actual download link remains completely hidden at all times. So unlike using Dropbox directly or WeTransfer, users cannot copy a download link and share it.

We also use magic links so you log in more securely without a password.

You'll get access to some pretty cool features if you do. You'll be able to share as many tracks as you like, as well as releases (EPs, albums and compilations) - so that users can download many tracks as a conveniently zipped bundle.

Also, you'll be able to create as many access tokens as you want - and make them auto-expire if you like. Even better, you can control which tracks/folders each token has access to.

Finally, you will be able to access statistics so you can see who has downloaded and streamed what music when.

We'll also be adding many more useful features...this is really only the start!

In order to log in, you provide your email and we send you a log in link via email. It's modern and more secure than having yet another password to remember.

We only share your email with artists who have given access to their promos if you chose to.

We totally get that you don't want to receive unsolicited email. We promise to not send you any spam. We also promise to not sell your email address to any third party. Your privacy is paramount.

We will only send you email if you tell us it's okay to do so, for things such as notifications for new music from the artists you're tracking.

We only share your email with artists if you chose to - there is a setting on your account page to hide it if you prefer.