Album Funding

[WaldoMcFroog]

Who was the first band in the world to finance their album through their fans?

[andy hughes]

This is another of those Questions where a musical trend may evolve, and then people will look back to see where it all started from. In the UK, the plaudits will doubtless be awarded to Marillion who have recorded and released their 'Anoraknaphobia' album entirely from financial contributions from fans via their website. The band have decided to utilise their massive fan base even further, sending a free copy of their new single to each member who buys a copy, requesting that it be sent to the local radio station with a request to play it! An inventive method of climbing over the multi-million pound corporate stranglehold on the nation's radio musical output. Possibly the first fan to finance a demo session leading to a record deal was Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour, who fronted the cash for Kate Bush to put voice to tape - if Floyd retire, maybe Dave has a future career in A & R? It's a thought!

[Angry Bear]

Pre paying for recordings is not a new Idea, there were a number of bands using this method of financing their early releases.
however more recent;y former marillion frontman Fish has financed both a tour of the US and a live album from the tour and also his most recent studio Album 'Fellini Days'
His former band Marillion decided they liked the idea and used it as leverage to resign with EMI who had dropped them some years previously.
They were also rather naughty and launched a publicity campaign to tell everyone that they were doing something that nobody had done before (They forgot to mention where they got the idea)