Beatport looks to be pivoting away from the mainstream, with their latest genre, ‘leftfield house & techno’.

Despite building a reputation for being the home of EDM and big room dance music over the years, the online music store is now aiming to put more “focus on growing more underground labels”, and adding this genre to their plethora of genres how they plan to do so.

This new genre will include features from established underground imprints such as U.T.T.U, Distant Hawaii, Lobster Theremin, The Bunker New York, Dekmantel, Perc Trax and smaller labels like 1080p.

In an official statement from Beatport, they explain the reasoning behind this new genre as such:

“After focusing on reclassifying the house genres last year, separating the commercial music from the house and deep house sections, Beatport are now looking to focus on growing more underground labels with the introduction of ‘Leftfield House & Techno’.

70% of the tracks sold on Beatport fall squarely in our House and Techno genres so we wanted to do something to highlight the high-quality underground releases that people could miss amongst the 25,000 new tracks that appear each week.

The solution is this new category – where labels like Hessle Audio, Trip, Ilian Tape, Acido, Leisure System, Workshop, Lobster Theremin, Uncanny Valley, Dekmantel, Modern Love and Livity Sound will now be found. This move will make it easier for music lovers to discover new tracks and for labels to reach new fans.

Beatport have worked directly with smaller, boutique labels to make an area on the site which will shine a light on off-kilter, lo-fi, avant-garde house and techno.

This move furthers cements our commitment to supporting the independent, forward-thinking labels that are the foundation of our scene.”