Emmy the Great idea

Published on November 30, 2010 by The Editor · No Comments

Fraser McPherson applauds Emmy the Great inspired way of funding record production

Singer-songwriter Emmy The Great has come up with a creative way of trying to get around the money woes that are plaguing pretty much every industry at the moment.

Emmy, real name Emma-Lee Moss, has asked her fans for donations to fund her new album through the revolutionary music site pledgemusic.com and has succeeded in securing the money to pay for studio time and a producer.

Fans who made pledges ranging from £8 to £500, were offered incentives from a free digital download upon the album’s release to the slightly pricier private performance in their own front room.

According to Emmy’s pledgemusic page she chose the unconventional funding method to cut out the middle-man of the record industry as much as possible and says we’ve always tried to work outside of the traditional record label model.

Pledgemusic also has a charitable streak where a percentage of the overall total raised is donated to worthy causes such as Amnesty, Water Aid and the Enough Project.

The site’s concept closely links the artist to their fans with an almost social network style model and in an age where many music fans would rather find a free download in the darkest corners of the internet than buy a CD it’s reassuring to see there’s some who are willing to give a little back.

London-based Emmy The Great’s last album was 2009′s First Love. Her folksy yet contemporary pop being critically hailed for its articulate word play and mature spin on the tired pop genre.

It’s always refreshing to see a musician who eschews the traditional views that you have to be on a big label to be heard or need a multinational pumping out your albums and it’s even more refreshing when the fruits of that labour are as high quality as Emmy’s work…