Is this the future of music funding? Hip-hop legends Public Enemy aren’t the first band to turn to donation requests to fund a new album, but they’ve managed to raise an astonishing amount of money in a short period of time. The group used the website SellaBand to raise money for the record.

Fans opened their pockets and the money flooded in following the request, with $50,000 raised so far. Public Enemy is trying to raise $250,000 for the album, which raises the question: What are they planning on spending all that money on? Flavor Flav’s big clock habit? Clearly the idea of a cheap home studio set up is not appealing to Chuck D.

"SellaBand's financial engine model goes about restructuring the music business in reverse," Chuck said. "It starts with fans first, then the artists create from there. The music business is built on searching for fans and this is a brand new way for acts to create a new album with fans first, already on board."

[NME]