Jonas Tempel Leaves Beatport
Jonas Tempel, the founder and former CEO of Beatport, has officially left the company. Tempel built Beatport into the industry-leading, dance music online store and was credited with developing several digital music innovations in his tenure with the company.
Beatport officially launched in January of 2004 with about 80 labels and then literally exploded as digital DJing was gaining momentum within the industry and jocks needed a reliable source for content. The company was formed with a couple of Tempel’s good friends including Brad Roulier and Eloy Lopez, who is often credited with planting the original seed in Jonas’s head, but Tempel was the one responsible for spearheading the growth with savvy business decisions.
Tempel structured a deal with Native Instruments to have Beatport embedded into their mixing software Traktor. The German concern then took an ownership share in Beatport, which would allow the companies to work more closely together and ensure a long term strategic relationship.
Unfortunately, at some point, Jonas’ relationship with NI soured and other developments inside the company left him less enthusiastic about continuing with the company he positioned as the defacto high-water mark in the industry.
Tempel has re-established himself at Factory Design Labs, a graphic design and branding concern he launched prior to Beatport, as Chairman + Special Projects.
