Like so many other noted singer-songwriters, Jill Sobule has been dropped from a major label ... twice. And the indie labels she got involved with both went belly up. In this economic downturn, she didn't exactly want to run back to a traditional label, but she did want to record and release another album and to, you know, continue onward with her career. Enter the modern world -- through a website entitled 'Jill's Next Record,' Sobule raised more than $85,000 directly from her fans, who paid anywhere from $10 to $10,000 to see the project through.

"Originally I wanted to figure out a way for everyone to be stockholders and somehow have a piece of the pie, but the laws in the U.S. make it pretty much impossible," Sobule tells Spinner. "So the next thing I came up with was the patron system -- like the olde days. However, I made it where the donors would receive various prizes for the different levels of donation."

While $10 would've earned you a digital download, it turns out that $10,000 is worth a short vacation and a life-changing experience. Or so it was for one generous fan from the UK, who donated the ten grand having never previously even met Sobule. "I brought her to California, had her stay at a swank hotel, took her to a voice lesson for fun and brought her to the studio," says Sobule. "She stayed for a couple more days and we went to the movies." The fan liked it so much, she actually ended up moving to San Francisco.

The album, 'California Years,' was produced by Don Was and will indeed hit shelves on April 14, via Sobule's specially formed label, Pinko Records. In a way, it is the world's first fan-funded record label. If Cure frontman Robert Smith hated on Radiohead's 'In Rainbows,' just imagine what he would have to say about all this.