Public Enemy Looks to Fans for New Record

The legendary hip-hop group Public Enemy has decided to look to their fans to fund their new record. Earlier this year it was announced that punk band Rise Against and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine would be collaborating with Public Enemy on their next album. At that time, they announced that would be raising funds to record the new album through Sellaband.com. The band aimed to raise around $75,000 through individual investors. Front man Chuck D just announced that the fund raising has been completed:

We just received word that our fund raising campaign has completed. This is truly a great moment for us and we owe it all to our [fans] on SellaBand - our true 'Believers.' As the title of this entry suggests, it has been a long and winding road. We've had explosive starts, media attention, corporate troubles, media criticism, recalculations, and finally resurgence. When it’s all said and done, the bottom line is that we never lost faith in ourselves, our fams and the future of fan funding as a model.

The contributors were offered different options when deciding how much to offer the band, including a copy of the album, a download, and a revenue share along with more elaborate packages like a studio visit for $11,069. The album is still untitled and is expected to be out next year at some point. What do you think about the fan-funded record? Does it seem kind of cheap on the performers part, or is it a new way to gauge demand?