aaamusic | On 11, Oct 2010

London – October 11, 2010 –PledgeMusic (www.pledgemusic.com), a leading international direct-to-fan platform for raising funds for musicians to record and tour, today announced a partnership with Sonicbids, the website that helps bands discover and book gigs, that will integrate the PledgeMusic campaign engine directly into the Sonicbids dashboard.  This will give artists the opportunity to find gigs through the Sonicbids platform and also to create and manage a fund raising campaign to support both their recording and touring activity in one, easy to manage, place.  PledgeMusic will make the first pledge at $50 for any Sonicbids artists that start a campaign. A successful campaign would mitigate the cost of certain festival and gig submissions for artists, including the upcoming SXSW festival.

“We are really excited to partner with Sonicbids to be able to offer a full 360 degree solution for artists that doesn’t involve any of their rights being given away.” said Benji Rogers, founder of PledgeMusic. “Sonicbids and PledgeMusic share a dedication to helping artists succeed and this partnership makes perfect sense for both companies.  Together, we are able to provide a huge benefit to artists – whether they’re working with one of us already or just signing up.”

As part of the partnership, Sonicbids artists will also have access to the PledgeMusic widget, which can be placed on any webpage and will allow them to collect email addresses and other demographic information in exchange for a track.  The statistics and analytics that the reporting tool provides can be especially valuable for creating targeted marketing campaigns in regions where a band will be playing.

“The PledgeMusic widget will add even more value for our members by helping bands solidify their relationships with fans. Artists will now have the ability to raise funding for demos, singles, EP’s, albums, tours, PR & marketing and much more within their Sonicbids account,” said Sonicbids Founder and CEO Panos Panay.  “It’s important for us to partner with companies that are as passionate about empowering musicians to build sustainable music careers as we are and our partnership with PledgeMusic certainly symbolizes that.”

For more information, please visit www.pledgemusic.com or www.sonicbids.com. 

About Sonicbids
Sonicbids is the website the helps bands get gigs and promoters book the right bands. Our community includes more than 275,000 bands and 21,000 promoters and licensors from all around the world. With festivals, clubs, colleges, music licensing and much more, Sonicbids offers a diverse range of gigs for every kind of musician. In fact, last year alone, more than 71,000 gigs were booked on the site. The company was founded in 2001 by Panos Panay and continues to focus on its core mission of empowering the artistic middle class. Get a gig or book a band at www.sonicbids.com. 

About Pledge Music
Pledge Music was founded by musician Benji Rogers to give artists a DIY option for pursuing and augmenting their careers. The company was designed to be transparent and open, while benefiting artists and fans. Artists will get the funding and promotional support that they need, the fan will get the music and artist interaction that they want at the price that they want to pay, and charities who have scant fundraising resources will receive a percentage of the money raised.