Crowdfunding Disaster: PledgeMusic.com

**Gruno** · 01-28-2019

Anyone here ever use this service?

22:30 24 JANUARY, 2019

PledgeMusic Statement About Payments Backlog

PledgeMusic has always been committed to serving artist and fan communities. It was established by artists and was born of a need to change the way in which the traditional music industry operated. It was designed to help artists and their teams at every level.

That said, we deeply regret that recently we have not lived up to the high standards to which PledgeMusic has always held itself. We acknowledge that many artists have and continue to experience payment delays. These delays to artists are unacceptable--not only to them but to us.

While the company has made progress, we still haven’t reached our goals. PledgeMusic has been in discussions with several strategic players in the industry who have an interest in the PledgeMusic platform. We are evaluating a number of transactions with those potential partners, and we plan to announce details of this in the next 60 days. It is our expectation that payments will be brought current within the next 90 days.

As of now, we are working through the backlog of correspondence with artists and teams to clarify their payment plans and your patience is appreciated as we complete this task. Furthermore, we are also working to address the fulfillment issues that some of our consumers have experienced in turn, often as a direct result of artist payment issues. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, the passionate inquiries and messages of support on social media from fans are appreciated, acknowledged and understood.

We are deeply sorry that we have not lived up to the high standards to which PledgeMusic always held itself. We are committed as a company of passionate music lovers to get things back on track as quickly as possible.

Sincerely,

PledgeMusic

**moecurlythanu** · 01-28-2019

I think that's where I pre-ordered the Courtyard Music Group album & CD, but I'd have to look.

**Koreabruce** · 01-28-2019

They displayed their utter incompetence with the Fly From Here remix debacle. I deleted my account with them right after that was finally settled.

**Gruno** · 01-28-2019

Billboard article

excerpt:

In 2017, the electro-industrial band ohGr began recording its fifth full-length album, TrickS, while at the same time launching a campaign on the direct-to-fan music platform PledgeMusic. The service seemed like a good way for the independent act founded by singer Nivek Ogre -- a member of the band Skinny Puppy and a cult icon -- to cover recording costs, promote the project with behind-the-scenes updates and host online sales for pre-orders and specialty items. But the largest factor in ohGr's decision to go with PledgeMusic, says producer Mark Walk, was that it would provide "a safe place for supporters’ funds to be held while the project was being produced." Now, eight months after ohGr's campaign ended, the band is still owed nearly $100,000 and struggling to access money it needs to manufacture merchandise fans have already purchased. All hope for a lucrative album cycle has gone out the window.

Another:
Fastball ‘Just Got a Check for About Half’ the Money PledgeMusic Owes Them

**aith01** · 01-28-2019

Wow... I think I only used them once or twice, but after the Fly From Here - Return Trip fiasco, this is not really surprising.

Hope they get things on track and that the folks owed money actually get paid!

**JKL2000** · 01-29-2019

I supported Dave Sinclair's album through Pledgemusic, as well as the band Bad Dreams' last album and live album. I also bought the ELP box set through them. I initially ordered the Bruford box set through them but cancelled and went through Burning Shed instead. They always seemed like they were more about preorders than providing a platform to promote a project and keep supporters informed. Pretty crappy still.

**interbellum** · 01-29-2019

At the moment I have 6 Pledges, which haven't been completed. The Jack Bruce Tribute from Jeff Berlin is the one that takes the longest time now, but I don't think that's caused by the problems mentioned above.
The last couple of weeks I've pledged for Richard Wright/David Harris, Mike Oldfield (Killing Fields), Yuval Ron feat. Marco Minnemann, David Sancious and Archive.
In fact the Allan Holdsworth-pledge was the one that caused the most trouble, all others (about 25) were fullfilled perfectly, so I still have hope this will come to a good end.

**JKL2000** · 01-29-2019

^ You can cancel your pledges, just so you know. It seems possible that bankruptcy could be coming.

I haven't been burned by crowdfunding, aside from a Kickstarter campaign that is YEARS overdue, but involves a piece of equipment that's kind of complicated. The project's communication hasn't been great, but every once in a while they do check in. It's never terribly encouraging but they could come through.

**interbellum** · 01-29-2019

Here's some recently posted news: https://medium.com/@lovingyourwork/t...s-dd2977df2cb7

**interbellum** · 01-29-2019

Originally Posted by JKL2000

^ You can cancel your pledges, just so you know. It seems possible that bankruptcy could be coming.

I haven't been burned by crowdfunding, aside from a Kickstarter campaign that is YEARS overdue, but involves a piece of equipment that's kind of complicated. The project's communication hasn't been great, but every once in a while they do check in. It's never terribly encouraging but they could come through.

Thanks, yes I know. But a couple of the campaigns start collecting the money from the Pledgers when it's reaching the 100% goal, so I'm not worried that much.

B.t.w. one of the most terrible campaigns was indeed from Kickstarter: Animusic 3 ("3,284 backers pledged $223,136 to help bring this project to life."): https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...animusic-3-dvd

**polmico** · 01-29-2019

Hmmm.

I've got the new Gang of Four album and The Stranglers movie pledged.

Guess I'll wait and see what happens.

**chalkpie** · 01-29-2019

I think the Tull string quartet album I bought was through this.

**AndiSexgang** · 01-30-2019

Originally Posted by polmico

I've got the new Gang of Four album.

Happy Now?

Is the new single Paper Thin on it?

**polmico** · 02-01-2019

^ I'd guess so. Still haven't received the album.

I get that you're saying that the new single isn't that good, and some the band's work has been dodgy, but there's still enough good on the albums for me to grab them. The live album they put out a few years ago still gets some spins around my house.

**interbellum** · 02-07-2019

Here's a statement from Archive, who were in the middle of a Pledge-project:

Archive - Pledge Music Statement 07/02/19
Pledge Music today announced that they have “suspended Pledging on all active campaigns until further notice”. The move comes in the wake of media reports in recent days concerning the financial difficulties that Pledge Music are currently facing, including this report on the BBC News website last week;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47015855

As you will know, Pledge Music is the crowdfunding platform through which we have been taking pre-orders for our “Live In Paris” LP & DVD, which was set for release later this year.

Unfortunately, in the circumstances, we have no choice other than to cancel the “Live In Paris” campaign with Pledge Music and trigger the refund of your orders – which Pledge Music is now obliged to make within 2-3 days according to the terms and conditions on their website.

To be clear, Archive has not received ANY money from Pledge Music for the “Live In Paris” campaign, ALL the money paid to Pledge Music by our fans is currently being held by Pledge.

We are deeply disappointed about having to take this action, but the “Live In Paris” project became totally unviable when Pledge Music stopped accepting orders for the planned release.

We sincerely hope that Pledge Music is able to get through their current financial difficulties and that any artist and fans owed money by the company get paid.

We also want to make clear that our “25” album pre-order campaign has nothing to do with Pledge Music and is completely unaffected by this situation.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support.

Archive

**polmico** · 02-07-2019

Update from the people making The Stranglers movie:
To the Army in Black,
We wanted to respond to many of the comments raised regarding Pledge’s recent announcements relating to financial challenges. We are working hard to establish all the facts in relation to this news, much of which we hope you can appreciate we are finding out about when you are!
We will be in touch as soon as we have solid details to share.
Thank you in advance for your patience,

David B and Go Boogie Films x

**interbellum** · 05-12-2019

Just received two mails from a company that run a couple of projects through Pledge Music (Zee and Mike Oldfield's The Killing Fields) stating the following:

Previous Orders Placed Through Pledge Music - FAQs

Further to the announcement of Pledge Music entering liquidation this week, Bespoke Editions would like to offer some information about any orders that our customers have previously placed with Pledge Music for these items.

Frequently Asked Questions

I already ordered and paid for this item through Pledge Music – will I still receive it?

Unfortunately, as it looks very likely that Pledge will go into bankruptcy this week all the funds which we should have received from Pledge Music to make the products you ordered have not reached us, and we are therefore unable to fulfil your order. Even if we were to ship the product to Pledge, they have no staff or shippers to deal with the orders.
(...)

Well, that's it then I guess.

**Mister Triscuits** · 05-12-2019

I pledged on John Zorn's The Book Beri’ah box set last year, and just recently got an email announcing that Tzadik never got a penny of the funds and they are now going to release a special series of vinyl collectibles to raise money to pay off their debt for the PledgeMusic project. I think a lot of us assumed the PledgeMusic was putting the money aside for the artists and that their operating expenses were paid by their own cut. As it turns out, they were running a bit of a pyramid scheme.

**TheH** · 05-12-2019

I crowfunded a lot of albums and never had a Problem but once.

I funded an Album by a Italian band who got the Money from the funder, but didn't deliver anything.
I know the Album is recorded mixed and mastered for years now still Nothing.

I'm waiting for 6 years now...

**polmico** · 05-12-2019

Fuck those guys.

**Proglodite** · 05-13-2019

http://aminbhatia.com/projects/albums/more-about-is25/

The only crowd-sourcing I did was for the blu-ray surround release of Amin Bhatia's Interstellar Suite. After many delays I finally received what appeared to be a BD-R of the release in really flimsy CD-wallet sleeve. Apparently at some point the rights were no longer available to him, and instead of refunding the crowd-sourced funds, he sent these things out. Now if he'd included the 'coffee table' book that's shown in the link above, I probably wouldn't have felt so 'cheated'... --Peter

**Baribrotzer** · 05-14-2019

Originally Posted by Mister Triscuits

......I think a lot of us assumed the PledgeMusic was putting the money aside for the artists and that their operating expenses were paid by their own cut. As it turns out, they were running a bit of a pyramid scheme.

A Ponzi scheme, it sounds more like. One point about a Ponzi scheme - someone can fall into it almost by accident, without ever intending to run a con game, by desperately trying to keep a failing business afloat and starting to get "creative" with the accounting. Carlo Ponzi (for whom it is named) may never have originally meant to run a con, and it's possible that Bernie Madoff didn't either.