a 2 i m

Featured Executive – Val Chan of Beatdapp

Val Chen is the Product Manager at Beatdapp, an innovative royalty tracking system that identifies and fights streaming fraud.

Name: Val Chan
Title: Product Manager
Time at Beatdapp: 1 year 9 months

What do you do at Beatdapp?
In my role as a Product Manager at Beatdapp, I work closely with external stakeholders to ensure our products fulfill the needs of our end users: DSPs, distributors, labels, and music organizations. In addition, I work internally alongside our engineering, data science, business, and design teams to orchestrate the work necessary to create an excellent product.

How do you hold yourself accountable?
I’ve found that accountability is best achieved by setting expectations and deadlines at the get-go, proactively asking for feedback from others to ensure I or my team is on the right path and lastly, openly and frequently communicating with relevant members to ensure everyone’s on the same page.


What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in this role since you started?
Adapting to change has been one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced working at Beatdapp. Having been part of a team that has grown tremendously this past year, I’ve found myself tackling a new set of different yet exciting challenges everyday. With growth also comes new hurdles in scaling our teams and processes to operate more efficiently, and my role has similarly evolved, and still is evolving, a great deal over this exciting time period.


What life experiences have shaped your career?
I am a self-learner at heart, and have always found myself in positions where I can build something from the ground up. This, paired with my personality as a generalist and people person, eventually led me to discover the world of product management. In particular, in early startups where I felt a strong sense of purpose and a potential to make an impact.


What is the proudest moment in your career so far?
I’ve always seen success in my role as synonymous with success for the company, so seeing Beatdapp grow to where it is now has been one of the proudest moments of my career so far. Behind the company growth also brought along many new challenges that I undertook and learned a great deal from. That wouldn’t have been possible without the support system and amazing team I get to work with everyday, and I’m immensely grateful to be part of the ride.


What is your connection to the music industry?
I have always been surrounded by music my whole life. From performing with friends in a band and on my own in school, to supporting friends as producers, performers, DJs, and bands, I’ve never not felt a strong connection to music.

Keep up with Beatdapp below!

About A2IM:
A2IM is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit trade organization headquartered in New York City that exists to support and strengthen the independent recorded music sector. Membership currently includes a broad coalition of more than 700 Independently-owned American music labels. A2IM represents these independently owned small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) interests in the marketplace, in the media, on Capitol Hill, and as part of the global music community. In doing so, it supports a key segment of America’s creative class that represents America’s diverse musical cultural heritage. Billboard Magazine identified the Independent music label sector as 37.32 percent of the music industry’s U.S. recorded music sales market in 2016 based on copyright ownership, making Independent labels collectively the largest music industry sector.

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