AI-powered music funding platform beatBread has partnered with OpenPlay, a music asset and catalog management company, to provide “greater flexibility and freedom” for independent record labels.
The collaboration will give indie labels access to OpenPlay’s platform at no upfront cost. OpenPlay’s platform provides features such as metadata management, digital asset organization, and release scheduling.
It also allows labels to easily switch distribution partners, giving them more control over their music and leverage in negotiations, according to a press release on Friday (June 7).
To further support labels, beatBread also offers flexible financing options. Labels can compare and evaluate funding offers from beatBread and other partners within and outside its network.
beatBread CEO Peter Sinclair says the partnership addresses longstanding issues in the music industry that “have locked indie labels into suboptimal distribution relationships with captive financial terms, non-portable technology and limited leverage for music entrepreneurs.”
“A great distribution partner can make a big difference, but for too long, indie labels have had to pick distribution partners not only on the basis of their services but also on the size of their check.”
Peter Sinclair, beatBread
“I’m thrilled to partner with OpenPlay and offer improved choice and flexibility to indie labels. A great distribution partner can make a big difference, but for too long, indie labels have had to pick distribution partners not only on the basis of their services but also on the size of their check,” Sinclair said.
“That often meant missing out on a distributor with the best services and team fit to a label’s unique circumstances. The best check doesn’t always come with the best services.”
The executive added that beatBread will “never tell a label which distribution partner to choose, because that should always be up to them.”
“At OpenPlay, our core mission has always been to provide our customers with the greatest possible range of choices, as we firmly believe that choice is synonymous with freedom and control,” said Edward Ginis, Co-Founder and Chief Client Officer of OpenPlay.
“We don’t feel advances should be the deciding factor in a label’s choice of delivery options.”
“At OpenPlay, our core mission has always been to provide our customers with the greatest possible range of choices, as we firmly believe that choice is synonymous with freedom and control. We don’t feel advances should be the deciding factor in a label’s choice of delivery options.”
Edward Ginis, OpenPlay
“beatBread shares this ethos with us, providing capital to anyone who needs it, regardless of their distribution relationships. Their offering gives labels much-appreciated flexibility and empowers artists and content creators to make the choices that best serve their unique needs and aspirations.”
To mark the start of their partnership, beatBread and OpenPlay will host a workshop at A2IM‘s Indie Week in New York City on Tuesday (June 11). The workshop, which will take place at 4:00 pm at the InterContinental Hotel, will focus on maximizing leverage in distribution deals and explore the financing options and tools available to labels.
The alliance marks the latest for beatBread after the company inked a deal with Kobalt and Amra in April to offer publishing administration services to its artist clients.
beatBread, founded in 2020, raised $34 million in a seed round in 2022 and closed a $100 million institutional fund later that same year.
beatBread-funded artists and indie labels were streamed over 10 billion times in 2023.
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