Music funding platform beatBread has been making a bit of noise in the music industry over the past few months.
In February, the company raised $34 million in a seed round led by Fintech-focused venture capital firm, Deciens Capital.
The following month (March), beatBread launched a new Artists Advocacy Council featuring the likes of Mike Caren (Artist Partner Group) and Dave Dederer (Label owner and founding member of The Presidents of the United States of America) as founding members.
Today, the company reports to have closed its biggest deal yet with an artist, announcing what it says is a “seven figure artist financing deal” with singer-songwriter Elley Duhe, and Not Fit For Society, her management company and independent label.
Since launching in November 2020, beatBread claims to have made advances to almost 400 artists and labels “across multiple genres, six continents, and a broad range of career stages”.
The company says it is working with artists across more than 30 different distributors including Ingrooves, The Orchard, DistroKid, United Masters, Symphonic, Horus Music and Too Lost.
Advances offered through beatBread range from $1,000 to as much as $2 million per artist for a limited share of existing catalog revenues, with options also available for unreleased music.
beatBread says that advances are repaid from a share of an artist’s streaming and airplay revenues, over a period of the artist’s choosing.
UnitedMasters partnered with the Utah-headquartered firm in August last year, to offer qualifying artists advances ranging from $1,000 to $1 million.
The likes of Symphonic Distribution, Horus Music and Indie Amplify have also all recently inked agreements with the company.
BeatBread says that its ChordCash tech engine evaluates artists’ streaming and social data to generate advance offers which – when combined with a “streamlined” verification and documentation process – leads to advance funding landing in artists’ bank accounts within days.
Elley Duhe has racked up more than 21 million listeners on Spotify and has secured more than 500 million streams for her hit single Middle of the Night, which reached the Top 10 on Spotify’s Global Top 50.
She has also recorded collaborations with artists including Zedd, Gryffin, and Snakehips.
“We are excited that Elley and her talented team chose us to fund her ongoing career development, and look forward to watching her continued growth.”
Peter Sinclair, beatBread
beatBread CEO Peter Sinclair, said: “Our mission is to empower artists, independent labels and other music projects, as they continue to grow.
“This latest deal with Elley and Not Fit For Society demonstrates that beatBread is a powerful financial tool for artists with global chart success.
“Artist choice is our North Star – we give artists and labels full control of their marketing, distribution and management decisions without having to sacrifice ownership.
“We are excited that Elley and her talented team chose us to fund her ongoing career development, and look forward to watching her continued growth.”
“Although we’re not against major labels, independence just felt like the way to go.”
J. Hill, Not Fit for Society
J. Hill, CEO of Not Fit for Society said: “Although we’re not against major labels, independence just felt like the way to go. After multiple major label negotiations, we felt like they didn’t fully align with our ideas and vision for Elley.
“beatBread is the most transparent and flexible team we’ve worked with. We had one quick conversation with them, and constructed a deal that kept open all her options for the future.“
“beatBread understood our overall vision and didn’t hesitate to make this a reality with us.”
Tabari Francis, Not Fit for Society
Tabari Francis, Co-Founder of Not Fit for Society, added: “Our DNA as managers and executives is rooted in an independent mindset. With the current climate in the industry, you have to know when it’s time for a major label deal and when it’s best to stay independent.
“For Elley, we all wanted to stay indie but still be able to make major moves. beatBread understood our overall vision and didn’t hesitate to make this a reality with us.”
Music Business Worldwide