Sound Royalties Commits $3M in Advances to Artists Impacted by PledgeMusic's Financial Troubles

Last month, Billboard reported that music crowdfunding site PledgeMusic has been missing payments to artists, with the outstanding sums owed ranging from $50 to $100,000. Now, music-finance firm Sound Royalties is stepping in to help those artists affected by PledgeMusic's financial troubles, committing $3 million in advances to help fund their creative projects.

“We care about the impact these issues have had on creatives,” said Sound Royalties founder and CEO Alex Heiche in a statement. “Numerous hard-working bands and artists have not seen the money promised to them, and they may never see it. As advocates for musician rights, we could not sit idly by; we needed to help these creatives.”

Reports began trickling in that PledgeMusic was struggling to pay some of its artists on time last October, and the list of creators who have reported problems with the startup includes electro-industrial band ohGr, rock group Fastball, instrumental world music band Incendio and folk-rock duo HuDost, among others. In a statement to Billboard on Jan. 24, the company noted that it was expecting payments to be brought concurrent within the next 90 days, and co-founder Benji Rogers recently announced he will return to the company on a short-term basis.

With $3 million now set aside for those impacted, Sound Royalties, which aims to help creatives fund their projects without losing ownership of their copyrights, is offering its signature royalty advances at an interest rate of 4 percent for one year. The company is encouraging musicians impacted by issues at PledgeMusic to contact Sound Royalties by phone (1-844-4ALL-MUSIC) or email (info@soundroyalties.com) for more information. 

The advances are unrelated to PledgeMusic and a representative from PledgeMusic declined to comment.