On the 13th of February, Trinity Street, which had been significantly backed by Ingenious Media, the media financing powerhouse, bit the dust. It does go to show you that big money and big brand does not a good company make. Trinity Street were reportedly buying contracts away from their rivals, and ultimately that which was not economic forced their demise. Digital Stores, a much more low key e-commerce provider of music and character brand merchandise, has built a profitable business over the past 10 years with less than £750,000 capital. This is virtually unheard of in VC circles. Needless to say, they are cleaning up on Trinity Street's spoils these days.

On the 16th of February, Slicethepie, a financing platform for the music industry which enables artists to raise money directly from fans and investors, announced another £1million of equity funding from a number of private investors. What were their backers thinking?

Well, if the music labels are not essentially venture capitalists to the artists, then what are they? Slicethepie reduces the cost of taking an artist to market and has a unique mechanism for determining whether the masses will love the artist. It's called "wisdom of the crowds". While they may like different artists, it's been proven that people will have the same view of what quality is, which is different to taste.

Slicethepie will use its new bank account to draw in hundreds of thousands of new artists and audiences as well as deliver a bearhug of support to artists already financed through the site. Since launch in June 2007, over 2 million music reviews have been submitted on Slicethepie and 22 artists have been financed. Thirty more are being financed currently.

City people will understand instinctively what Slicethepie are doing as it's a financing ecosystem for unsigned artists. The firm runs an analytics service, SoundOut, which provides reports from consumer feedback on new tracks, a first for the music industry. Fans also have the ability to invest in artists, to trade those stakes, and to be a scout for new musicians. David Courtier- Dutton, the CEO of Slicethepie, is a former City lawyer turned entrepreneur, so his experience gave him huge insight into how to create a new ecosystem for financing unsigned artists.

Both Digital Stores and Slicethepie have adopted lean operating models and the CEO's check their egos at the door each morning. They don't take anything for granted, and don't have work/life balance. But they both stand to win out of 2009 which will be the biggest freefall in the old record industry's history.