Former Major Label Band Seeks Fan Funding

What do you do if your band gets dropped by Interscope Records (under the Universal Music Group umbrella) after your first album and you can't afford to record the second one, even though the first one sounded pretty good by a lot of people's reckoning? If you're Annie Hardy, the lead singer and only permanent member of Giant Drag, you put a Paypal button on your MySpace page asking fans to donate so that you can make your next album a reality. (Wired)

NIN: New Album Pulls In $1.6M In First Week

The online release of the new Nine Inch Nails album "Ghosts I-IV" resulted in just under 800,000 transactions in its first week, totaling $1.6 million in revenue, the band revealed. Orders include free and paid downloads, as well as online orders for physical products like various limited-edition vinyl releases, CDs, and a dual-CD box set. (Billboard)

Marillion Pre-Sale Pays Off

Veteran U.K. progressive rock band Marillion claims to have secured the equivalent of a $725,000 advance by appealing direct to its fans online. A spokesperson for the band says 12,011 fans have paid £29.99 ($60) for a deluxe version of the as-yet-unreleased double-disc set, providing an income of £360,000 ($725,000). The album will be self-released; the band controls its own publishing. (Billboard, Sound On Sound)

Fan-Financed Music Site Slicethepie Lands $2 Million

Slicethepie, a music discovery site where fans can invest in the recording of albums by their favorite artists, announced on Monday that it has raised $2 million in its third round of venture capital financing. Investors included Microsoft UK director Mark Taylor, Mears Group chairman and CEO Bob Holt, and Gavin Breeze, founder of Datacash. (Digital Media Wire)

Put Your Money Where Your Indie Rock Is

With CD sales declining and labels whining, it might seem crazy to view recorded music as fertile ground for investment. But for thousands of fans-turned-music-investors on SellaBand and Slicethepie, it makes perfect sense to gamble on a favorite band's future. (Wired)