Artificial intelligence-driven music funding platform beatBread has reached a significant milestone, reporting that tracks by beatBread-funded artists and independent labels have been streamed over 10 billion times in 2023.
BeatBread, which launched in late 2020, says it has provided over 1,000 advances to artists and independent labels across six continents, ranging from USD $1,000 to over $4.5 million.
The Utah-headquartered firm offers advances on existing catalogs and new and unreleased music, offering growth capital for working artists and songwriters. Repayment occurs from a share of an artist’s streaming and airplay revenues, over a period determined by the artist.
Advance agreements do not impact touring, sync, or merchandise revenue streams, and they provide the flexibility for artists to choose marketing and distribution partners independently.
Last month, the company expanded its services to include publishing advances of up to $3 million for songwriters.
In addition to its direct offerings, beatBread extends its reach through a white-label platform powered by chordCashAI technology. Collaborating with over 20 independent distributors and labels, including Symphonic Distribution, UnitedMasters and Too Lost Records, beatBread enables these entities to offer financial support to artists under their own brand and within their digital experiences.
The company recently made updates to chordCashAI 2.0, its AI-driven funding engine, in a bid to make artist financing “transparent, accessible, and straightforward.” With the update, the company claims that more than 90% of artists who visit beatBread.com are now able to receive advance estimates from hundreds of individualized funding structures in under seven seconds.
Updates to chordCashAI 2.0 also include improvements to beatBread’s white-label “funding-as-a-service” product. Designed to empower independent distributors and artist service companies, this product now allows them to seamlessly integrate the chordCashAI engine within each artist’s distribution account. Advance offers can now appear alongside weekly stream counts, earnings, and other elements within an artist or label’s distribution dashboard.
“beatBread is a powerful alternative for artists seeking more flexible and transparent funding than a major label deal, as well as for independent labels and distributors.”
Peter Sinclair, BeatBread
“BeatBread is a powerful alternative for artists seeking more flexible and transparent funding than a major label deal, as well as for independent labels and distributors. Whether they’re looking for ‘funding as a service’ to provide capital to their own artists, or they’re seeking direct financing for their operations, beatBread now has a solution to power the growth of independent music companies,” said beatBread Chief Executive Officer Peter Sinclair.
“Our mission is to speed up the music industry’s transition to creator independence. We’re happy to celebrate this three-year milestone, but we’re still just scratching the surface.”
Last year, the company launched an “exclusive investor network” that adds funding from music companies and professionals, distributors and “high net worth” individuals to its existing pool of institutional capital.
Subsequently, earlier this year, beatBread introduced sliceNote, a platform facilitating fractional investing in independent musicians and labels. High net worth individuals, music insiders, and independent labels and distributors can now join qualified investors in investing in fractional shares as small as 1% of any given deal, ranging from $1,000 to $1 million per investment.
Music Business Worldwide
