Beatport sold music. Beatportal put editorial and community sections beside it.
The site carried electronic-music news, reviews, podcasts, event listings, radio streams, and photos. Registered Beatport users could submit material instead of only shopping.
That list made Beatportal more than a page of company announcements. It had several recurring sections and opened parts of the publishing flow to the existing user community.
The store already had the catalog. It told a customer which releases existed, what they cost, and how to download them. Beatportal had room for the rest: artists, clubs, events, opinions, and the music people were playing.
The public description connected the new site to the same DJs, labels, producers, and fans using the store.
It was also another public site in the Beatport environment.
The site accepted registered-user submissions and published several kinds of media. Those were the functions visible from the outside.
A team put Beatportal online beside the store. I was responsible for Beatport technology, not writing the news and reviews.
The store and the community site did different jobs. One sold the file. The other gave the file more context.
They also remained separate destinations. Beatportal had its own name while staying tied to the Beatport account and audience.
The public sections were concrete: news, reviews, podcasts, event listings, radio streams, and photos. Registered users could submit material.
By late August, Beatportal was live with a broad list of things people could read, hear, see, and submit.
Beatport now had a download store and a separate community publication beside it.