Startups click online Down Under

The Ai.Frame Robot is the first Chinese project to feature on Australian site Pozible, the third-largest crowdfunding platform in the world. Photos Provided to China Daily

Australia embraces online funding campaigns, with the entertainment industry in the lead

When popular Australian singer Kate Miller-Heidke left her music company Sony Music Entertainment Inc last year and announced she would finance her new album through crowdfunding, many in the industry thought she was mad.

The classically trained singer turned to the PledgeMusic platform and set up a site to talk directly to her fans and to seek their support.

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"After releasing three studio albums, a live album and a side-project album through a major label, I am now a fully independent artist," she said in a posting.

Within a couple of days Miller-Heidke had raised enough money to go into the studio to record her album O Vertigo! which is due for release later this month.

Fans pledged amounts ranging from A$20 ($18) to A$5,000.

So what did they get for their money?

"Supporters will be able to pre-purchase a copy of the album they'd help finance or take up a string of quirky offers money previously could not buy," according to news.com.au.

"Items sold included Miller-Heidke calling you for your birthday (A$100), an executive producer credit on the album (A$1,000) and playing an acoustic gig at your house for A$5,000," the news site reported.

While Miller-Heidke has not revealed the amount she raised, she told news.com.au "it was enough to fund the recording".

West Australian trio Eskimo Joe in February became the first group to get an album paid for by fans into the Australian Recording Industry Association's (ARIA) Top 20.

Eskimo Joe, who left the Warner Music Group label last year, went to Australia's first crowdfunding platform Pozible to ask fans to donate A$40,000 to cover the recording costs of their latest album Wastelands.

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