FINANCING Carcass crowdfund album cover with ebook offer

Grindcore/death metallers legends Carcass (a vegetarian band who have developed considerable notoriety for their album art) have launched a modest crowdfunding appeal to cover the cost of a new sleeve design - yet another great example of the web 2.0 "former audience" and that rapid blurring of audience/producer, as well as an example of how the economics and financing of the industry are being transformed by disruptive digital platforms such as this.

Note that they're offering exclusive ebooks as part of this - another means by which artists can monetise their work is tabulating their track arrangements for fans to learn and play; ebooks don't pose the challenges of high production and distribution costs, and publishing does not require a book deal - it can be added to platforms like Kindle and then offered through the likes of Amazon, as well as directly through artist websites (self-publish, self-distribute).

Exclusives are managed in many ways: limited edition digipaks or vinyl with remixes, demos, live recordings, bonus DVD etc or even collectible cover, and book/lets are fairly common too; new album only with a concert ticket (Prince, RIP, did this), music and extras exclusive to website subscribers (Metallica a great example) ...

It also demonstrates convergence - I came across a plug for this on a Facebook group via my phone; good viral marketing.