VNUE, Inc. today announced that its Chairman and CEO released an update to shareholders as follows:
Dear Shareholders and VNUE followers:
So much has happened this year, although a lot of it has been behind the scenes, I thought it would be helpful to provide a short summary of the progress that has been made in 2021, as I have done in past years, and also to set the stage for 2022.
First and importantly, I know many of you are eagerly awaiting the close of our acquisition of StageIt (Stageit.com). This has taken longer than we thought, mostly due to complexities in accounting matters and the required independent audit. We had hoped to complete this prior to end of the year, but I feel more confident than ever that this deal will finally close within the first two weeks of January, hopefully even sooner. There have been no issues with our acquisition plan whatsoever, and StageIt continues to operate and generate significant revenue.
Needless to say when the transaction is completed, this will be a watershed moment for the company, further crystallizing my vision of a company that has multiple artist-centric technologies and platforms, that combined, provide a complete suite of products and services to artists, labels, and creators such as writers and publishers.
In other news, also I am sure you are eagerly awaiting, Soundstr has reached the point where we are actively in discussions with numerous groups, large and small, including radio and brick and mortar venue groups, and in fact several more Soundstr Pulse units were recently deployed to a number of radio stations. More units are being prepped to go out as we speak. Progress has been made to the point where Soundstr Live Identification is over 75% accurate – which is a significant feat and a huge step up from, well, zero. And recorded music identification is near 100% for all practical purposes.
The combination of being able to identify both live and recorded music via our Music ID Sampling Services, Music Identification Streaming Services, and our Soundstr Live Identification Services, does indeed set the stage for VNUE to be the largest and most accurate aggregator of music consumed in public spaces in the world. We are building a music rights and data marketplace that will offer a variety of packaged products: The Soundstr Marketplace™.
As you know, in 2016, I stepped into the role of CEO of VNUE, and went to work addressing a multitude of challenges that we faced as a young company. As a going concern, the company was behind in its SEC filings, did not have what I would consider to be viable technology, had zero revenue, several prior legal issues, and very little resource. Additionally, there was a substantial amount of old debt on the books. Within a relatively short amount of time, we brought technology, revenue, and world-class talent into the company.
Of course, it didn’t help that COVID reared its ugly head in the middle of our progress and sucked nearly two year’s worth of business off our books. But, as a silver lining, this helped us focus on Soundstr development, and to identify opportunities like StageIt, and unlike many other companies, we survived.
As of today, we only have a small amount of convertible debt on our books, and we have been 100% current on our filings since we were able to catch everything up in 2017. As a fully reporting company, this is vitally important for investor trust and continued growth. Convertible debt reduction is something that the OTC Market Groups repeatedly told us we had to lower in order for them to approve our pending uplist to the OTCQB, which I was able to do through determined program of converting some of that debt and in other cases convincing our largest debtor and longtime investor to move his remaining debt to a “non-convertible” type of note. Within one year, we took this debt down from almost $2mm to where it is now, which is about $635K. Over that time our stock price has gone up and down, and after all that time and work, we are now just under a penny – which is the threshold to uplist to the QB. So as we continue to execute, we will patiently wait for investors to respond to our positive work, continue to set our targets on this goal – although we are also exploring more direct paths to Nasdaq as well.
Many of you know that we have also filed litigation against a former alleged “toxic lender.” These types of lenders prey on small companies like ours, when these companies have no place else to turn, and in our case, aggressive trading hammered our stock price down to almost nothing while apparently reaping them hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits off of relatively small notes. They seemingly profited off the backs of our hard work. It took a full year to recover our market value (and then some), but we did so without executing a reverse split or any artificial means – nothing but execution and sheer determination.
Well as it turns out, the SEC isn’t taking too kindly to schemes like these alleged “toxic convertible notes,” and has been finally cracking down to put an end to the practice. There have been several definitive actions by the SEC against these types of lenders in the last couple of years. Further, there have also been several positive decisions by the courts, siding with companies like ours, that indicate these types of lenders are predatory in nature and, in many cases, allegedly usurious and acting outright illegally. Importantly many are alleged to be acting as “unregistered dealers,” which is a direct violation of securities laws, and something we were completely unaware of when approached by what we thought were legitimate “investors.”
Most recently, a major alleged toxic lender lost their motion to dismiss the SEC complaint against them and their various entities, which means the SEC can proceed with their enforcement action wherein they claim that the group made more than $61mm in profits from selling OTC Markets Group issuers stocks received through convertible notes while not registered as a dealer. Of note is that the same attorneys winning these favorable decisions are indeed our attorneys representing us in our litigation. Bam!
Filing this litigation was not an easy decision on our part but there are two sides of a public company – running the company and its core competencies, and also running the business of being public and doing our best to protect shareholders. In filing the litigation, we hope to recover some of the lost value perpetrated by these lenders, and also help to put a rhetorical nail in the coffin of nefarious lenders who attempt to do this to others.
I will say these five plus years have not been a cakewalk, and as I have always said, it takes time and razor sharp focus to build a real company, and to set the stage for greater things to come. The new year, 2022, I believe is going to be our moment – the initial culmination of these years of sacrifice on the part the VNUE team and patience on your part – and I am very, very excited about what the future holds.
Thank you for your support over the years, and thank you for your belief and support in VNUE, in me, and my team! Happy New Year!
All the best,
Zach Bair
CEO & Chairman
VNUE, Inc.
Safe Harbor
This press release may contain forward looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve risks as well as uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those anticipated or expected, including statements related to the amount and timing of expected revenues, statements related to our financial performance, expected income, distributions, and future growth for upcoming quarterly and annual periods. These risks and uncertainties are further defined in filings and reports by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Actual results and the timing of certain events could differ materially from those projected in or contemplated by the forward-looking statements due to a number of factors detailed from time to time in our filings with the SEC. Among other matters, the Company may not be able to sustain growth or achieve profitability based upon many factors including but not limited to general stock market conditions. Reference is hereby made to cautionary statements set forth in the Company’s most recent SEC filings. We have incurred and will continue to incur significant expenses in our expansion of our existing as well as new service lines noting there is no assurance that we will generate enough revenues to offset those costs in both the near and long term. Additional service offerings may expose us to additional legal and regulatory costs and unknown exposure(s) based upon the various geopolitical locations we will be providing services in, the impact of which cannot be predicted at this time.
XXX