Malachi Barton Steps Out of the Disney Frame With Debut Single 'Stay for the Credits'

Malachi Barton released his debut single 'Stay for the Credits' on Friday, August 28, 2026, the same day he discussed the track in an interview with Billboard. The song arrived on all major streaming platforms, following an announcement on his official Instagram account the evening prior.

Barton is best known to audiences for his work across Disney's screen properties — he appears in 'ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires' and the newly released 'Camp Rock 3'. His Spotify discography already lists soundtrack singles from both: 'Snow Angels (From "ZOMBIES 4: Dawn of the Vampires")' from 2025 and 'Tomorrow (From "Camp Rock 3")' from 2026. 'Stay for the Credits' is his first release that is not tied to a Disney film.

The song is rooted in a personal frustration. Barton told Billboard that 'Stay for the Credits' was inspired by the experience of being judged based on how people perceive him online rather than getting to know him as a person. It is a debut single that draws directly on the gap between a public image shaped by social media and the person behind it.

Barton also named his musical references in the Billboard interview. He cited Malcolm Todd, Frank Ocean and Mac DeMarco as inspirations for his sound. He pointed to Joe Keery's musical project Djo as an example of an actor who has built a parallel music career — the kind of balancing act Barton is now attempting himself.

That balancing act will be on stage soon. Barton will join the 2026 Worlds Collide Tour, which kicks off in September in Palm Desert, California. He performed primarily 'ZOMBIES' material on the previous year's iteration of the tour; this time, his set will include songs from 'ZOMBIES', 'Camp Rock' and his own new single, giving audiences their first live look at the music he is making outside the soundtrack framework.

For a 19-year-old actor whose Spotify page so far reads as a list of Disney film credits, a standalone single is a step into different territory — one where the chart and streaming numbers, rather than a film's release calendar, will measure whether the audience follows. The first data point, whatever it is, will be somebody's early signal about what comes next.