Turning Back the Clock to Artist Patronage

A few years ago Robert Hunter-lyricist for the Grateful Dead- suggested that maybe it was time to turn back the clock a few hundred years and look at artist patronage again. His reasoning was that with the music industry's revenue model on life support –a new model of financial remuneration for the artist was needed and perhaps it was time to dust off the old practice that dates back to the Renassance. To date there are a few sites on the Internet that are employing the 21st century version of the patronage approach to raise funds for recording projects. Public Enemy is teaming up with www.sellaband.com for a project in which they hope to raise $250,000.00 for their next project. Its a great idea that has the potential of creating an incredibly strong bond between the artist and their "investing" audience. Shareholders meetings could be real interesting.