Former Disney exec Troy Skabelund joins beatBread as Chief Financial Officer – Music Business Worldwide

AI-driven music funding platform beatBread has appointed Troy Skabelund as Chief Financial Officer.

Skabelund has held various finance leadership roles in a series of tech businesses over recent years, after more than a decade spent in key finance roles within the digital and interactive divisions of The Walt Disney Company.

At beatBread, Skabelund will oversee all financial strategy and operations — including capital efforts, financial reporting, financial planning & analysis, compliance, and risk management.

He will report to John Haller, beatBread’s COO and co-Founder, and be based at the company’s Utah offices. beatBread’s other office locations include Los Angeles, New York, Miami and London.

Since launching in November 2020, beatBread says it has paid advances to almost 500 artists and labels across multiple genres, six continents, and a broad range of career stages, via its chordCashAI technology.

Advances offered through beatBread, according to the platform, range from $1,000 and up to $3 million or more per artist, with larger advances offered to artists and independent labels through the beatBread investor network.

beatBread advances funds on existing catalog, as well as new and unreleased music. The company notes that “advance agreements leave touring, publishing, synch, and merchandise revenue streams untouched”.

beatBread also offers a white label platform to independent labels and distributors powered by its chordCashAI technology. beatBread has partnered with more than 20 independent distributors and labels, including Symphonic Distribution, UnitedMasters and Too Lost Records.

In 2023, beatBread launched sliceNote, a platform to enable fractional investing in independent musicians and labels. Qualified investors can invest in fractions of as little as 1% of any given deal and can join music companies and insiders in a consortium to invest $1000 to $1 million in any artist or independent label.

“We’re planning for and adding significant scale at the company as we expand our reach and continue to deliver against our mission to empower artists and the independent ecosystem as a whole.”

John Haller, beatBread

John Haller said: “We’re planning for and adding significant scale at the company as we expand our reach and continue to deliver against our mission to empower artists and the independent ecosystem as a whole.

“Troy has deep management experience across many different large, fast-moving organizations, and his understanding of finance’s role in growth is important as we move forward. We’re excited and fortunate to have him join the team.”

“For the last two decades at Disney and elsewhere, I have helped to grow innovative businesses and bring their content to the world. Now I am grateful and excited for the opportunity at beatBread to help music artists in the same way.”

Troy Skabelund

Troy Skabelund said: “For the last two decades at Disney and elsewhere, I have helped to grow innovative businesses and bring their content to the world.

“Now I am grateful and excited for the opportunity at beatBread to help music artists in the same way. From the very first conversations I had with the beatBread team, it was evident that there was something important happening here that could really transform the music industry over the long-term.”

In March 2022, beatBread launched an 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.Music Business Worldwide