The future of music production? Pledge Music on the brink.

[crashcris]

It looks like Pledge Music, the site that recording artists get their fans to pledge to buy their upcoming projects (sort of crowd funding for musicians), is in financial trouble.

In an age when so much music is streamed and artists get such little financial reward, Pledge Music offered a way for artists to generate the funds often needed to go into a studio and record and produce the final CDs or vinyl. However, it seems to be on the brink of collapse if the video by Danny Vaughn and more recently the article in Variety.com are to be considered.



PledgeMusic Advises Artists to ‘Suspend’ Their Campaigns

It's a real shame and could leave many thousands of customers out of pocket. Personally, I have 2 albums that I've paid for and are due for release. One is Sophie Ellis Bexter's and she's stated that whatever the outcome of Pledge Music, she'll honour all those people who've paid, the other is by It's Immaterial, so far I've not heard what's going to happen to their album (fans have been waiting 30 years for this album and now it might never see the light of day).

If this simple model for music artists can't work, then what's the future for the music industry?

 

[mjn]

Used Pledge Music a few times. As with most ideas, initially the costs were good, but recent offerings were expensive.

 

[Derek S-H]

Agree with Mjn - you really had to be a hardcore fan to stump up some of the prices they were asking.

I only ever bought one item from them: an enormous 13 CD Box Set Erasure compilation for £80. As expected, it has subsequently rocketed in price - from a fairly reasonable £166 on Discogs to a truly ridiculous £922 on Amazon (!).

I had a look at the website and they're back taking pledges again. They also make all the right noises regarding apologies to unpaid artists and securing future funding to continue as a business, but I wouldn't use them at this time either, not until they've paid all the money they owe.

 

[rpr]

Thankfully Danny Vaughn fans on the whole got refunds from Pledge and then were able to reorder from Townsend Music etc