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The Blackout have put the finishing touches to a new record deal that, while not ground-breaking, is certainly an unusual way of getting music out there, and could provide a model for more deals in the future.

The Blackout

will release Hope, the band's third album, on 4 April, having licensed the record directly from the band. The recording costs of the album were accrued through the scheme.

The deal is worldwide, and the famous indie label is excited by the prospect of working with the Merthyr Tydfil band. Rob Collins, Cooking Vinyl's director, said the band had so much potential, "it's frightening".

Craig Jennings of said: "We are really excited to be working with Cooking Vinyl, and the early signs are that this is going to be the perfect marriage. The job they did internationally on The Prodigy was inspirational and we also look forward to building the band with the label on a worldwide basis".

Depending on the success of Hope, there are options in place for further albums to be released by The Blackout on Cooking Vinyl.

Deals like this will, I think, become more and more common as the traditional artist-label relationship becomes less accessible. Labels are becoming more conservative and less eager to risk unproven new artists, running large rosters and spreading their resources thinly.

Instead of investing in an artist, paying for recording, promotion, distribution and so on, putting the artist out there and waiting for record sales and other royalties to come back, a label like Cooking Vinyl can through this kind of licensing deal, minimise risk but add their own expertise to the artist's work. Hope already exists courtesy of PledgeMusic and the devoted fanbase The Blackout have, but the band on their own would not be able to maximise the potential of that body of work.

Co-operative deals in which both parties have a more equitable stake in the success of an artistic endeavour could be a model which we see more and more in the future.

Alison Wenham, chief executive of , says: "We will see more of these types of deals happening in the future, most definitely. The model itself is not new; artists have for many years found alternative ways to records their music, either through friends, family or external funding.

"But of course getting to markets around the world requires a very different skill-set, which is where record companies' core expertise lies. I am pleased that there are now more imaginative ways to find funding using technological platforms such as the internet. The process of raising the funds helps to create the buzz, when it comes to something like PledgeMusic."

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