As you may have read, PledgeMusic has been dealing with financial issues that have resulted in late payment to artists whose fans have pledged money via the direct-to-fan and crowdfunding platform. I am very disappointed to report I have had no direct response regarding my project. It now means that the release of my upcoming EP “Edge of Love” is being disrupted and delayed. An initial statement from the company was issued last month as an increasing number of artists went public about the late payment issues and the impact they are having on them. Up until now my first experience using PledgeMusic has been very positive. Thanks to my fans, I have had huge amounts of interest in the EP and was thrilled to have exceeded my target. As part of the campaign I offered special rewards such as signed guitars, CDs, handwritten lyrics and gig posters, as well as unique experiences such as voice and guitar lessons and VIP tickets to the EP launch. Unfortunately I haven’t yet received any payment or concrete information from Pledge and I am not alone. Many artists and managers with current Pledge campaigns are eager for news as soon as possible, so that they can decide whether or not to call off those campaigns and find an alternative way to take pre-orders and allow fan-funding. As an independent artist I am relying on these payments so I can fulfil all fan purchases – this has been out of my hands.
Here is the most recent statement from them: https://www.pledgemusic.com/blog/a-statement-from-pledgemusic?referrer=carousel_article_
There has been uproar from musicians who have been united in finding it unacceptable that PledgeMusic has failed to pass on the funds raised by fans to the artist. Lots of major artists have also been affected, including Jesus Jones and Fastball. The Cardigans, The Dandy Warhols, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Ladytron have also been running campaigns. The company is now looking for a strategic partner or buyer which could safeguard the future of the Pledge business, while also assuring that all artists currently owed money would get paid in full. I truly hope Pledge will meet its obligations. I will keep you updated as much as I can. Thank you so much for all your support and patience. It really does mean a lot.
February 6 – Following on from this, today I received a general message from Pledge reiterating what they have stated on their website:
Thank you getting in touch, and please accept my sincere apologies for the continued inconvenience.
As I’m sure you can appreciate we are experiencing a high volume of enquiries at the moment. We appreciate the frustration you must feel and sincerely apologise for any delay in responding to you.
Our team is working round the clock to get this situation resolved and we hope to have some positive news for you in the near future.
To update you on some of the progress being made:
● We are in discussions with several interested parties about a potential partnership with or acquisition of PledgeMusic. These conversations, if successful, would lead to a transaction which would allow us to meet all of our outstanding obligations.
● We are also in the process of appointing a third-party company to manage all artist payments going forward.
We do ask you for your continued patience even though we appreciate that this must be running extremely thin.
Once again, we do hope to have some positive news for you shortly and as soon as we do we will share it.
For the moment though, please accept our assurances that we are fully focused on resolving these issues and that your enquiry has been logged.
