On Monday evening I went to First Monday, a music industry networking night run by Sybill Bell, who manages the rather excellent Post War Years.

Much of the talk was not about doing label deals, but how to raise money for the artists to do it themselves.

Recording and distribution seemed not to much of an issue for them (one manger had an act who have already made £4K from selling their demos on iTunes), but the big problem was finding money needed to pay for marketing.

With VC funds all but dried up, managers are looking for other ways to raise funds. One manager was investigating whether to sell shares in the band to friends, family and fans, but was worried that they could end up owning nothing if they had to sell too much of the bands equity. A pretty scary option when you consider the success rates of the majority of bands and artists.

My suggestion was rather than selling equity in his band that he looked at other ways of getting friends, family and fans to invest. Playing for your fans in their own homes can offer something really different, and this personal approach is more likely to generate money than playing endless unsigned nights at local pubs and clubs. However, some fans are happy pay for even greater access to their favourite band or artist. Former Nine Inch Nails drummer Josh Freese got one fan to pay $20,000 dollars to spend some quality time with the drummer and his rock star pals! However, he also offered up a whole range of other special packages to his fans at a range of price points (in this case from a $7 CD to a $75,000 package that includes Freese writing, recording and releasing a 5-song EP about you and your life story), a strategy that can be adopted by any artist.