Social music service SellaBand has won $5 million (Euros 3.5 million) in a Series A round from Prime Technology Ventures, also a Dutch company, reports TechCrunch UK. (SellaBand operates across Europe but is registered in Germany).

Music fans on SellaBand invest 10 dollars in an artist they want to back. If the artist gets to 5,000 ‘believers’ they get 50,000 dollars and then SellaBand steps in to get the band to record an album in a real studio. Each fan gets a limited edition CD. If the artist doesn’t reach $50,000, the fans can get their money back or give it to another artist. So far they’ve released albums from eighteen bands from eleven different countries. Last December SellaBand partnered with Amazon to offer a dedicated music store on Amazon.

We wrote early last year that this model seemed to be working quite well, and noted similar startups, with some being given a boost by Amazon – which seems to be deeply involved in changing the online music industry.