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Beatport Tips & Tricks: Changing Currency from Euros/Pounds to Dollars
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| Rebel Brown |
NOTE: I take absolutely no credit for this information, it has all come from www.nem0nic.com. Nem0nic is also a member of this forum and was a great help to me when I came across a few problems before he revised his procedure outlined on his page, so if you have any questions give him a shout and I'm sure he'll be willing to give you a hand.
I originally used this guide with the sole intention just to change the currency from Britsh Pounds to Dollars, but I also tried adding some Mashtronic tracks that Beatport wouldn't let me purchase as a UK member, but found out that they worked under the US proxy. This might have been a complete fluke on my part, so don't see this as a foolproof method to working around the territory restrictions.
I’ve been toying around with Beatport 3.0’s new territory enforcement to see if I could poke a hole in it. So far, it’s still much easier to just buy the tracks from a retailer who’s territory policies aren’t so draconian. Finding the right country, and then a working proxy IN that country is a pain in the ass. But I tripped over something I should have thought of earlier.
While it’s not so easy to get around the territory issue when adding tracks to your cart, I can VERY EASILY change the currency Beatport expects me to pay. So if you European folks are tired of paying more for the same songs, read on.
Just like when we used a proxy to change the apparent origin of our traffic to trick the territory enforcement, you can use a proxy to change your price. I’ve also found a better way than the old SOCKS program.
If you aren’t running Firefox, install it and keep it for proxy use. It’s plugin support is the bees knees. Once Firefox is installed, download a proxy plugin for it. I use SWITCH PROXY TOOL (found here - https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/125/ ). If you open that page with Firefox, it will install when you click the INSTALL link. Close and re-open Firefox and you’ll be presented with a new toolbar at the top of the page…
Don’t put anything in yet. Just shop from your own IP and put everything in your cart you want to buy. Then log out and clear your cookies (TOOLS>OPTIONS>COOKIES>CLEAR COOKIES NOW).
Now, open Google in another process and search for terms "proxy list". You’ll be presented with several proxy lists. I’ve been finding http://www.textproxylists.com/ a real good resource lately. Now, a word on proxy selection. For general browsing, the CoDeeN proxies are great for just hiding your IP. You can usually spot them in lists because they are almost always using ports 3124-3128. DON’T use these for Beatport, though. They don’t support signed content, and Beatport will only half load when you’re going through one.
Using Google as your start page, enter the proxy info and load Google. If Google loads, and the URL is google.com (not .co.uk, or .pl. or .de – you get me), you probably have an American proxy server. A majority of them are either American or Asian (you can see in the pic above I was using a Japanese proxy). By loading Google, you can also gauge the proxy’s performance. If it takes longer than 10 seconds to respond, I usually put in another IP address.
So, now that you’ve got your US IP address, log back into Beatport using the proxified Firefox and go to the check out page (using the button in the top right corner). You'll see the currency in your total. Before you press the CHECKOUT button in the bottom right, go to your proxy dropdown and select NONE - then press apply. This will reload the page, but at this point even unproxied you'll still have the same currency. This is because Beatport sets a session IP. So now that you're unproxied, press the CHECKOUT button and pay your bill. Once the cart is paid for, log out, clear cookies, log back in unproxied, and download the songs (download unproxied because traffic through any proxy is slower).
I won’t go into the dangers of using a proxy – you’re all big boys and girls and should be savvy enough to know yourself. I’m in no way responsible for any problems you might run into following the above. This information is for educational use and anything you do is at your own risk. I personally use a rotating list of strong passwords and change it every time I use a proxy. Yes, I’m serious. Use a post-it note and a password generator like this one - http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/ if you’re not sure what a strong password is.
Also, a lot of proxy lists populate their lists with bad IPs to make them look bigger. It’s a pain to find a good proxy sometimes. But you’ll find that some lists are better than others. Try different lists and stick with the one that works most often for you.
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EDIT #1: I've gotten a couple of people telling me that the procedure doesn't work. To that end, I reversed the procedure and bought a song from a European IP and paid a higher price for it. Screenshots are linked for size.
Here, I've already created a Beatport account and put a song in the cart. The card I associated with the account is verified good. Here's what it looks like when I log in all proxied up...
http://www.nem0nic.com/login.jpg
Now, let's try to buy the sucker! Go to checkout.
http://www.nem0nic.com/cart.jpg
All good so far. The price is still in Euros. Let's put in the CID number and check out.
http://www.nem0nic.com/done.jpg
Yup. Successful transaction. There's also a shot of the proxy I was using (you can also see the proxy loaded into Firefox in the previous screens). And just to make sure I paid too much for that MP3, heres a look at the bank entry for it.
http://www.nem0nic.com/charge.jpg
$2.57 USD converts to 1.99 Euro.
I think the problem some people are having is choosing the wrong proxy. The best proxies to use are anonymous proxies. Transparent proxies don't always hide your IP, and elite proxies strip out ALOT of data. CoDeeN proxies don't pass signed content, but are great for regular anonymous surfing (as long as you don't mind being monitored by Princeton). A good short explanation of the different types of proxies can be found on the front page of http://www.textproxylists.com/. A little knowledge will go a long way when doing this kind of stuff.
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Finally, be patient when trying to find a proxy that works. I probably tried 30 different proxies before I found one that would even load Beatport fully. |
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| Stu Cox |
Just a few comments on this...
I thought of doing something similar to get around the territory enforcement, obviously didn't try as hard as you and didn't have much success lol, although I was simply doing it to try and get a track which wasn't available in the UK yet (not on MP3 at least).
I'm not sure of the legality side, but on the moral side surely doing this simply to get tracks cheaper is just a half-way house between buying the track and illegally downloading it? If you're paying less for the track then the artist/label will be receiving less, which starts to (although I appreciate doesn't entirely) go towards negating the point of paying for it in the first place.
A lot of people don't seem to realise that Beatport don't make anymore money on the music as a result of the price increases (or if they do it's minimal) - that wasn't their decision, it was the labels pressuring them to increase their prices to fall in line with the other download sites... so if you try and break the system, it's not Beatport you're beating but the labels and artists.
Each man has his own morals, but personally for me that seems a bit daft when the main reason I pay for the music in the first place is to make sure the artists and labels get their due! |
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| Zoso |
| Can't say that I would be a fan of this. To each his own moral compass, I suppose. |
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| biegs |
But I think the point of this is not just to dodge paying the full price, its that beatport is charging their european customers about 30% more than american ones (as 1.00 EUR = 1.29033 USD), when as it is a digital service, shouldn't the worldwide prices be the same?
As an australian customer i pay the USD price anyway, so it doesnt really effect me. |
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| Boomer187 |
| so wait, beatport does a 1 ~ 1 conversion for different currencies? |
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| Freak |
I get around it by simply not using them.
Bunch of tossers |
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| Stu Cox |
| quote: | Originally posted by biegs
But I think the point of this is not just to dodge paying the full price, its that beatport is charging their european customers about 30% more than american ones (as 1.00 EUR = 1.29033 USD), when as it is a digital service, shouldn't the worldwide prices be the same?
As an australian customer i pay the USD price anyway, so it doesnt really effect me. |
That's not Beatport's choosing - more often than not, the label distributing a track in one country will be different from the distributing in another... labels and publishers in different countries charge different amounts for tracks.
CD albums are about twice the price in the UK that they are in the States, it follows with loads of things. All of the UK-based download sites (DJ Download, Trackitdown etc) were already charging £1.50+ per download before Beatport changed their prices and the labels put pressure on Beatport to make their prices conform.
The price can't be the same worldwide because different countries have different costs based on their local economy, taxes etc which the labels have to cover in their sales.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's my place to say whether people should or shouldn't do this, I just want to make sure you're aware that it's not Beatport you're beating, it's more the labels and artists. |
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| Protege |
| quote: | Originally posted by Freak
I get around it by simply not using them.
Bunch of tossers |
why do you hate beatport so much?
if someone can tell me how i can get smokin jo - want me off beatport thatd be nice. |
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| Freak |
| quote: | Originally posted by Protege
why do you hate beatport so much?
if someone can tell me how i can get smokin jo - want me off beatport thatd be nice. |
The aformentioned price fix, plus the territory restrictions do not help my opinion of them.
I hate flash websites
Their selection is (IMO)
Far better stores for house music (traxsource.com being a prime one) that havent half the hype of beatport, but work far better.
Their customer support is wank.
And I am playing devils advocate
I get stuff on vinyl ages before it is available to download the majority of the time.
p.s- http://www.junodownload.com/ppps/pr...ght=smokin%20jo
:) |
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| Stu Cox |
| Unfortunately most sites will be introducing territory restrictions sooner or later, again because of pressure from the labels... Juno already do it although it's less obvious to us Brits as most of their stock is from UK labels, I'm told certain other sites are under a lot of pressure to introduce restrictions too and will be bringing them in very soon. |
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| sleepydragon |
| quote: | Originally posted by Stu Cox
Unfortunately most sites will be introducing territory restrictions sooner or later, again because of pressure from the labels... Juno already do it although it's less obvious to us Brits as most of their stock is from UK labels, I'm told certain other sites are under a lot of pressure to introduce restrictions too and will be bringing them in very soon. |
thats stupid dont these retards realise that this will just encourage illegal filesharing. |
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| Stu Cox |
| quote: | Originally posted by sleepydragon
thats stupid dont these retards realise that this will just encourage illegal filesharing. |
It's simply to do with licencing... one label licences a track in one country and has control over selling it there, another label licences it in another country...
Imagine if you ran a label and you signed an import for sale in your country, only to find everyone in your country starts buying it online from another label in another country who don't even have rights to sell that track in your country - you're not gonna be happy are you? So what do you do? You tell the download site to make it so that people from your country can only buy it from your label, or to put it a more obvious way, people in your country can't buy it from a label in another country.
So why doesn't the label that signs the track in the first place just control the sales all over the world? With the digital age this is becoming more possible, but as we still have hard-copy sales it makes sooo much more sense for a label to allow a label based in the country in question to handle sales there as they'll already have the knowledge to be able to arrange pressing, promotion and distribution locally - the promotion side of this will always be true, even when dealing with digital-only sales.
But what's the difference between getting a track from another label online and ordering a hard copy import (for example Juno stock vinyl from international labels and allow any customer to buy them)? Well the main difference is that it's not actually that easy to get an import of a specific record - you either need to find a record store that orders it in or you need to get them to order it in specially, shipping costs are applied etc etc and it's quite hard to limit who can buy what. With digital music it's so much easier to get an imported track as the costs in actually getting the track to you aren't any higher but they CAN restrict who buys what, so to keep all of the labels involved happy, they do.
So basically, at the moment it's necessary. Doesn't mean I agree with it - ideally we'd have a system whereby net sales are always licenced separately from territorial sales, for example - but that's not the case at the moment and I hope this little rant helps to explain to people that a) it's not Beatport trying to rip them off and b) it's not the labels trying to rip them off - they're all just trying to keep a system which is fair for everyone involved. |
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