Music financing platform beatBread has deployed over $100 million across 1,700 funding agreements since its founding in 2020.
The platform announced Tuesday (December 9) that it has extended advances to artists and labels in 42 countries.
The catalog of music tied to these deals has accumulated 67.6 billion streams since inception, with 13.6 billion streams linked to agreements signed this year alone.
beatBread 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.
“beatBread has always believed that artists should never have to choose between access to capital and control of their work.”
Tracy Maddux, beatbread
beatBread Interim CEO Tracy Maddux said: “beatBread has always believed that artists should never have to choose between access to capital and control of their work.”
“These milestones aren’t just big numbers, but proof that our work is more important than ever as independence continues to be under threat. Our responsibility as a team is to keep building and to keep expanding access for the independent music community that Peter championed from the very beginning.”
Maddux was appointed interim CEO less than a month ago. He previously served as CEO of CD Baby and Chief Commercial Officer at Downtown Music Holdings.
Maddux succeeded Peter Sinclair, beatBread’s late co-founder and CEO.
The $100 million milestone comes almost two months since beatBread announced that it launched a new fund that will deploy $100 million to labels and distributors seeking alternatives to traditional industry financing.
The Global Independence Fund (GIF) represents an expansion of beatBread’s existing business model, which provides capital to independent music operations.
The company established the fund in partnership with several trade organizations representing independent labels, including AIM, AIM Ireland, WIN and IMPALA.
beatBread previously raised $34 million in a seed round in 2022, before closing a $100 million institutional fund later that year.
In 2022, beatBread launched an “exclusive investor network” that brought funding from music companies, distributors, and ‘high-net-worth’ individuals into its existing institutional capital pool.
In 2023, the company launched multi-million dollar advances specifically for songwriters, and added publishing administration services through partnerships with Kobalt and AMRA last year.
In February of this year, beatBread said it had paid advances — covering both existing music catalogs and new, unreleased material — to over 1,300 clients across six continents, with funding amounts spanning from $1,000 to over $10 million.
Music Business Worldwide
