After a long PledgeMusic album fan fundraising campaign it pains us to report that PledgeMusic have suspended ALL funds for ALL campaigns worldwide. Over recent weeks, the news has been hitting main stream music press and has become a terrifying situation for us as a band as we were gearing up for a new album release. It is our understanding that artists' funds raised have been recklessly taken/spent by the crowdfunding platform. On Sunday 10th March, 2pm (AEST) we are holding a live Facebook video to answer any of your Questions and discuss what we know of the situation to date.
For Example: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/queensryche-pledgemusic/
After a long string of ignored emails and empty replies to our requests for more info, we finally received a call out of New York from co-founder of PledgeMusic, Benji Rogers. The call was to explain that "all funds are gone and there is no money whatsoever to dip from to pay out artists". This is a HUGE and inexcusable blow to every single artist to have an open campaign with PledgeMusic. For TRP, this has affected our album release and everyday lives, as we were counting on the funds held by PledgeMusic to help pay off the remainder of the album production debts, postage, merchandise pressing costs and much more.
We can confirm PledgeMusic have stopped taking pledges on their site. However, we are still able to send out group updates.
We've maintained transparency and a proactive approach throughout the journey through this album fundraising campaign and fortunately, 90% of the pledged items had already been sent to fans. This leaves us with mostly the new album/physical formats. Sadly, with the news that the band will not be receiving the outstanding amount owed by PledgeMusic, our hands are tied and sadly we won't be able to honour these items. We are deeply sorry that as well as the band, our fans are on the receiving end of this and we wish there was something we could do to change that. Unfortunately, the situation is out of our control.
To rectify the situation we have set up our own personal store for pre-orders of the new album and exclusive merchandise. We will have 100% CONTROL over this store with no 3rd party involvement from a financial standpoint. Our plan is to raise as much as possible to make up for what we've lost and get back on track.
We have a more detailed FAQ page regarding this situation HERE
You can find our new pre-order and exclusive merch store by heading to theredpaintings.com
Please help us share this post across the web and let people know how corrupt even the independent industry can be. Who can we trust?
TRP