There is precedent for what you describe: prog-rock band Marillion did this in 2001: <a href="http://marillion.com/band/bio2004.htm" rel="nofollow">http://marillion.com/band/bio2004.htm</a> (4th paragraph).<p>"[...] it was the revolutionary concept of asking their fans to pre-order and pay for the recording costs an album some 12 months in advance of its release that hit the headlines in 2001. Astonishingly, over 12,000 of their fans pre-ordered and an additional deal was struck with EMI to market the resulting ‘Anoraknophobia’ album."<p>Not sure if escrow was involved though.