Bobby Long
Posted May 13, 2019
As many of you may already know, Pledge Music has filed for Administration/Bankruptcy. Due to this process many of the artists who ran their pledge campaigns, are now losing earnings from the company. Fortunately, for Bobby he was able to fulfill his pledges to his fans, which was important to Bobby as many artists were not so lucky. However, the pledges were fulfilled, the money owed by pledge is gone due to the bankruptcy. Bobby recently shared on his Facebook his thoughts in the matter and a thank you to his fans for always supporting him. We know that many fans want to do something to help, but right now it's just moving forward.
We are recommending to secure your privacy from Pledge, so that your information is not to be used or forwarded. We suggest to delete your accounts if it is possible. Here is the link to the Pledge Music site...
Here is the letter from Bobby and his Manager Sharon to his fans.
Hey Friends.
I apologise for the many spelling mistakes and terrible grammar. Like Billy Childish I'm keeping it in.
I just wanted to address the ongoing shit storm that has been Pledge Music. To be really honest its been a low blow. I just simply want to make albums and get to play in front of you nice people. Its always been about constantly creating and putting stuff out, good and bad, expressing myself and being true and honest. Just like my many heroes like Hemingway, Lemmy, Cohen, Childish and many more. I really believe in that. I felt like pledge music was a platform that further bound and elevated the relationship of Maker and Listener which is all that really matters. It allowed independent artist's to manoeuvre and create without needing to go into debt or to duck under the bar of what others thought they should be creating. So the whole thing has been a disappointment. Not only because it has effected my album release and maybe more but because it has marred the generosity and support of all of you. You don't deserve it and without you i wouldn't be able to have made 5 albums, 2 Poetry books and 3 Eps in the last 9 years (I'm forgetting some!). I have always felt so lucky to have you on side. I don't care about the fucking money. I care about how it has abused your kindness and how it has made me feel hopeless and a bit lost. That being said, Fuck them. Ill make more somehow. Also my managers Sturt and Sharon need praise for fighting for me and for keeping the spirit of Rock n Roll alive. Without them i wouldn't of been able to do create anything.
Anyway, Sharon has written something much more concise and to the point that clearly expresses how we feel.
Anyway, no time for feeling sorry for ourselves. we are the lucky ones and life is beautiful. I'm not sure what is next for me, i may take a bit of time to figure it out and then write another fucking record for myself and for you. Because thats what makes me happy and Artist create no matter what. My buddy Seramic learned that from his dad and i picked it up from him.
Love and see you soon! Onwards!!!!
"We, and many, many other artists, are still owed thousands of dollars that we will never see. In our case, we could have used that money to put toward making more videos, touring expenses and to create and manufacture new merchandise. We are perhaps among the lucky ones, having reached our fund-raising goal early enough to have received enough of the money raised to actually make the new album and even fulfill our obligations to our loyal pledgers. We were also among the very last artists to release an album before Pledge suspended the bulk of its operations and let go its remaining staff so those pledges for the downloads and physical copies of Sultans that you made through Pledge were actually reported to soundscan. All that said, I want to thank you all for supporting my music in this way and all ways. While the mismanagement and demise of PledgeMusic has left many, including us, with a very bad feeling, I know I couldn’t have made this album without your help, love and support, and that’s what really matters in the end. We have downloaded all of the data we are able to from our PledgeMusic account, so I would suggest you at least make an attempt to delete your own Pledge account if that is even possible. It seems to me that after squandering your money at many artists' expense their only remaining asset is your personal information.
Thank you x x x
