Public Enemy may have set tongues wagging when they announced two months ago that fans would finance their next album, but the boys from Long Island haven't had much luck convincing their supporters. Despite asking for $250,000 (£153,000) in early October, the hip-hop group have only amassed about $70,000 (£43,000) through Dutch website Sellaband.
Initially, Chuck D et al hoped that 10,000 hip-hop heads would each buy a $25 (£15) share in the group's 13th album to cover the cost of recording and promotion. At first, all appeared to be well – the scheme raised $50,000 from 700 fans in just a couple of weeks after the announcement. But Chuck D's goal seems a little, er, optimistic now. At the time of writing, just 917 "Believers" have pledged money, and though these are probably the group's most dedicated (and affluent) supporters, Public Enemy are less than a third of the way to their target.
Part of the problem may be that unlike a similar (successful) project by Patrick Wolf, Public Enemy is not putting an emphasis on supporters' potential to make some coin. The Sellaband site mentions that investors stand to earn up to 33% of the album's profits – but this is never elaborated upon. Instead, Public Enemy focus on the project's "incentives" – ie fancy, often expensive versions of a record no one has yet heard.
Pledge $25, for instance, and receive a numbered CD. Promise $250 and get a CD, T-shirt – and your name in the album booklet. $500 earns an autograph, $1,000 is worth a three-year backstage pass, and $10,000 entitles you to a studio visit.
In an interview earlier this month, Chuck D said Public Enemy's goal with the project was to "take a worldwide audience and tell them that this is a model of actually involving themselves as fans, participants and investors in something that they already know as proven". It seems, unfortunately, that the "something" isn't quite proven enough.