The Kaiser Chiefs are doing something interesting on their website, with their new album.

They are asking fans to create their own album from the tracks available, create the art for the cover and then ‘sell’ their album to as many people as they can. For a slightly reduced price, you can buy the album and then you can receive a kick back if people buy your version of the album.

Is this a cunningly clever social media campaign, capturing the cultural zeitgeist and harnessing its power or faintly desperate gimmick that speaks of a band lacking confidence in their new material?

Mmm, I’m not sure.

It’s something I’ve not seen before so I’ll be interested to see if it’s generating the right level of social media buzz required to get the word out that the Kaisers are back. It’s got the look of a well funded project too with a handsome set of assets to play with.

I’ll come clean, I do like the band. They’ve paid their dues, worked their way up on what I think is relatively modest talent combined with sheer determination and hard graft. The Kaisers’ last album was a bit of a flop and they’ve been away licking their wounds.

There’s a lot riding on this next record and although I’m not sure about the gimmickry of the site, I’m sure that the music will tell all.