So, just a year after their last pricing update, BeatStars has decided to change things up once again, introducing a new plan. In this post, I’ll explain what’s changed with BeatStars pricing in 2024, what the updated BeatStars Starter plan looks like, and whether it’s worth switching to the new Growth plan.
The BeatStars Starter plan has gotten worse. Here’s why
It seems like BeatStars spent the year watching users enjoying the new Starter subscription without rushing to upgrade to the Professional plan. As I mentioned in my previous post about BeatStars Pricing, the Starter subscription used to be the best choice for anyone who didn’t need a Pro Page.
But now, to push users to pay more, BeatStars is introducing new limitations for the Starter plan:
- You can no longer upload Trackouts (Stems) for your beats.
- There are now limits on the number of services and Sound Kits you can feature on your profile.
I also checked out the new pricing page and noticed another restriction: you’re now limited to just one Blaze Pro Player for your website. Just one! Based on that, I can confidently say the BeatStars Starter Plan in 2024 is effectively dead, and its restrictions make it impossible to recommend.
BeatStars Growth plan — the old Starter, but more expensive
At the same time, BeatStars has introduced a new subscription tier: Growth. Essentially, this plan offers everything you used to get for $20 a year with the old Starter Plan, but with Beat ID, PROkits and Lemonaide on top (no thanks), plus 2 submissions per opportunity. Not to be harsh, but the Opportunities section on the website has been pretty much empty almost for a year now:
The only useful addition to the Growth plan is unlimited license agreements and messages. And all of this will cost you $80 per year. A 300% price increase for the same set of features — now that’s a great business move!
The good news: you can keep your old BeatStars Starter plan. For now
It seems BeatStars is trying to roll out these changes quietly, not really wanting you to face the new conditions before it’s too late. They’re even didn’t make a post about these changes on their social media. So, as long as you keep paying for your current subscription, nothing will change for you.
However, if you cancel or switch plans and later decide to go back, you’ll have to choose from the new pricing tiers: Starter, Growth, or Professional. And speaking of these…
Which BeatStars plan should you choose in 2024 and 2025?
To sum up, here’s my take on the new BeatStars subscription levels:
- Starter ($20/year) — heavily limited and useless for most, since you can’t upload Stems. It’s also not an option for those selling beats on their own website (like myself) because of the restriction to just one embeddable player.
- Growth ($80/year) — the best option if artists find you mostly via the BeatStars Marketplace or if you sell beats on your own standalone website using an embedded player.
- Professional ($20/month) — only worth it if you want the Pro Page.
In other words, everything remains the same, except the bare minimum usable plan is now four times more expensive. Nice.