The music industry was recently rocked by news of the shutdown of PledgeMusic and its impending bankruptcy, which has left artists, bands and their fans in a panic. Fans have been left with unfulfilled pledges and artists left with empty pockets from not being paid. One company directly affected is Texas-based apparel, merch, e-commerce and fulfillment group Bandwear, who until the collapse was a longtime fulfillment partner to PledgeMusic and left with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of unpaid invoices.
As a company that can directly relate to the frustrations and losses of PledgeMusic artists, Bandwear is stepping in to help those artists/bands left in a bind, by offering to host and rebuild campaigns and online stores for any current campaigns that have been affected. Additionally, the company is committed to assisting artists through this very tough financial time by offering extremely discounted pricing on both manufacturing and fulfillment in an effort to help fulfill the end commitment to their fans. Recent campaigns by Bandwear include clients Frontiers Records and platinum-selling alternative rock bands 311 and Blue October, among others.
“Thanks to Bandwear we’re running an impactful and efficient 311 new album pre-order campaign, giving fans a chance to buy bundled options of the album first, while providing incentives with prize giveaways and behind-the-scenes content (photos, videos, news); all of which helps build buzz for the new album launch. Bandwear is well-versed in the d2c process and has done an admirable job in running our store page, sharing our content, handling all customer-service correspondence, and providing product fulfillment in a professional and diligent manner.” – Peter Raspler (Manager @ YMU Group for 311)
An important task that all current and former PledgeMusic artists need to deal with immediately is the capture of all their pledger data from the crowdfunding platform. Bandwear is assisting any artist to retrieve their data from the platform at no cost to the artist.
REBUILDING CAMPAIGNS AT NO COST
In light of the current issues at Pledge, many artists are transitioning their campaign to the Bandwear Online Store E-Commerce Crowd-Funding/PreSale platform to immediately continue to offer their music and merch to fans.
***BANDWEAR IS OFFERING TO REBUILD ONLINE STORES FOR ANY CURRENT CAMPAIGNS AT NO COST***
MANUFACTURING AND SHIPPING ITEMS
Bandwear is also working diligently with artists/management offering significant discounts to manufacture products needed for current campaigns (CD, Vinyl, Merch), as well as providing fulfillment and shipping of unfulfilled orders to fans, passing along our volume discounts on packaging and postage to ensure fans receive the items they ordered.
Bandwear’s sole focus during this crisis is the artist and the fan. Bandwear wants to assist artists in getting back on their feet in building a sustainable long-term merch and crowdfunding business.
For inquiries on how Bandwear can help artists and bands dealing with the chaos left by the crash of PledgeMusic, or looking to launch a new campaign, please contact Jim Cocke at [email protected] or call 214-473-4532.
