JIM CARROLLon music

Is fan-funding really the way forward for music?

YOU –­ YES, YOU –­ are going to save the music business. You, the average music punter , reading this while skiving off work, are going to be the one who keeps the blighted, damned and played-out music business in clover. So, how do you like them apples?

You know that fan-funded campaigns are having another moment when pronouncements like this appear in august publications (and The Ticket). While there’s nothing new about fans becoming patrons of the arts in this manner, the huge growth of fund-it-yourself sites such as Kickstarter, Pledge Music, Sellaband and, in Ireland, FundIt, means becoming a modern-day Medici is only a click away.

Yet for all the happy-clappy stories that have accompanied this trend, the long-term prospects remain unclear. Can fund-it-yourself really become a viable, sustainable form of support for a cultural sector such as music or will it be just a chosen few who can avail of its advantages?

Some see FIY music projects replacing the traditional unbalanced relationship between a record company and a band, but you could argue that many acts availing of this option would never have landed a record contract to begin with.

Then, there’s the inevitable FIY fatigue factor to contend with. Will returns diminish as fans tire of desperate tweets, Facebook updates, emails and Pinterest posts about fund-

raising campaigns? Will those who funded the recording of an album such as, for example, Julie Feeney’s third album be prepared to wait a year to actually hear it?

FIY is definitely a welcome development for non-mainstream cultural projects, but no-one yet knows who the real winners will be when fan-funding becomes a routine rather than a novelty.

New Music

TWINSY

Self-proclaimed “D-list supergroup” from Australia already producing high-fibre electropop tunes such as Water Bombs and Back of My Car to get excited about. The trio cite The Avalanches and Hot Chip as influences but it’s their own energetic thump that will really attract a crowd.

Facebook.com/twinsymusic

SLOW SKIES

Lots to savour on the two tracks we’ve heard to date from Karen Sheridan, also a member of previously buzzed about trio Kasette. Both Oscar and especially Walk Me Home match her voice with subtle, folky, memorable melodies.

Breakingtunescom/slowskies

CHIEF KEEF

The 16-year-old Chicago rapper behind the hypnotic I Don’t Like cut is enjoying a lot of label love thanks to a Kanye West remix and his Back from the Dead mix-tape. Probably best for all concerned, then, if the Chief doesn’t land any more spells of house arrest for unlawful use of a weapon.

Facebook.com/thefamouschiefkeef

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