Progressive composer John Zorn is owed $197,559 for a completed PledgeMusic campaign that he was never paid for. “The Book Beriah,” a box set of 11 albums to be released on his own Tzadik label. features different groups interpreting his compositions inspired by Jewish folk music.
PledgeMusic.com Limited is in the process of filing for Administration, the UK version of a bankruptcy.
“This is a lot of bread for us, it really is. After three years of work on this project, with dozens of musicians, and hundreds of hours of recording and mixing. Then to have this happen, my first thought was: ‘Why are they doing this to us?’,” Zorn told NPR Music.
With some help from fans and others who worked on the project, Zorn is footing the bill so that everyone that contributed will recieve what they ordered anyway.
“For a small label like Tzadik, that’s an enormous amount of money to have lost,” said Sarah Robertson, co-founder of the music manufacturing company A to Z Media,who worked on the project with Zorn. “And I personally took it pretty hard, because I had recommended John to do this, to work with Pledge.”
“I think it’s mismanagement of funds,” she says. “The money should have been held and then paid out to the artist. Not to pay operating expenses. Where has all that money gone?”