Kaiser Chiefs Surprise Fans With New Album's Release

The Kaiser Chiefs have opted for a more low-key approach by simply announcing on Friday, June 3, their new record 'The Future Is Medieval' is now available through the band's website.

But of course this isn't your average release, as fans will be able to pick and choose the songs that make up their copy of the album by paying £7.50 ($12.23) and selecting 10 tracks from the 20 available on the basis of a 60-second snippet.

Fans will also be able to customize their own artwork. Singer Ricky Wilson originally conceived the idea but after discussing the concept with friend and ad agency creative Oli Beale, the notion of fans creating their own Kaiser Chiefs album really took off.

Beale told The Guardian, "The more Ricky and I talked about it, the better it seemed. Then all these other ideas just kept slotting into the main idea."

One of those ideas was to enable fans to share their version of the album and earn £1 ($1.62) every time someone downloaded their personally-selected version of 'The Future Is Medieval.' However that part of the plan was far from straightforward.

Beale, whose company Wieden and Kennedy oversaw the project, explained, "None of us had any idea what a huge job this is. The mechanics of tracking the royalties of everyone who worked on the album and making sure everyone who sells on the album gets their pound -- none of that has been done before."

Watch the Video for Kaiser Chiefs' 'I Predict a Riot'