In the highly unlikely event that Australian soap Home And Away feature an episode where legendary character Alf Stewart is stocking up on the latest releases at Beatport, spare a thought for wife Martha – for she’ll be in prime position to hear various swear words when he finds out they’re about to get more expensive.

As of Monday 14th August, Beatport are raising their prices – and anyone in Australia is likely to be tempted to utter Stewart’s infamous “stone the flamin’ crows” catchphrase when they see they’re being hit harder than anyone else. They’re getting a 20% rise in how much they have to pay – this compares to 15% for the UK, 13% for Beatport’s US customers, and just 7% for those in Europe.

Explaining themselves, Beatport stated that “Recent economic factors have significantly increased costs for both Beatport and the community of tens of thousands of artists and labels that provide us with music from around the world. This price increase has been made in consultation with them and will provide them with a much needed boost in revenue, as well as enable Beatport to invest in improving customer experience.”.

Does Ears To The House know what Beatport refers to by “improving customer experience”? We’re not totally sure – hopefully, it means more investment in innovations such as DJ streaming and less to do with oddly timed interventions on political debates.

The result of all this is that customers in Europe – by which we presume they mean Eurozone countries – will pay 7% more from next Monday, followed by American customers who face a 13% hike in what they pay.

British customers might be somewhat miffed to discover they’ll be facing a 15% increase – over twice the rate of their European cousins, but it looks set to be the Australian market who’ll get hit by the biggest rise. Those in Oz will, from next week, be spending 20% more than at present.

Beatport also cite the fact that “we haven’t raised prices since 2005” in their own defence – which is an odd one. On the one hand, it was their own decision not to increase their prices over the years – but it’s also true that everyone’s costs seem to have gone up dramatically of late.

How much will this impact their sales, and will labels be any better off as a result of the decision? That remains to be seen…