Help Your Favorite Unsigned Bands Get A Record Deal - Or Get Your Band Signed

Based in Amsterdam, SellaBand is a new idea giving bands and music lovers the opportunity to invest (or for the band, generate investors) in unsigned bands to the tune of $10. Once a band raises $50K, SellaBand will give them a record deal, record an album, and promote that album. Source: Each Note Secure

Not sure how this will play out, or if it's even a reasonable idea for US bands, but it's an option. A band could try to raise the money by itself, but finding 5,000 investors at $10 is ridiculous, and has legal and accounting connotations that are too complex for most artists to want to deal with. Selling CD-Rs and saving up gig money makes more sense. Even so, exposure through SellaBand is exposure, even if the attempt to raise the capital falls through.

Practically, it makes sense that, once a band hits the halfway point, at the greatest, investors will jump on board, thinking it's going to be a sure thing. Once you can dig up 25-50% of the seed money, others think your band is going places, and are more likely to drop the ten bucks.