Elisa Bray: Caught in the Net

Los Campesinos! are the latest band to suffer from internet piracy, with the leak of their debut album. Cardiff's indie pop septet release Hold On Now Youngsters on Monday, but their album made its way online in January.

Another band makes history, as the internet helps them raise the funds to make their first album. You heard about Slicethepie in The Independent last year – it's the website on which fans "scout" talent among unsigned bands who post demos on the site, and then invest in the bands. More than 7,000 artists have signed up and nine have been financed, raising more than £150,000 between them. The Greenwich guitar pop four-piece The Alps are the first to make and release an album via the site. Having raised £21,000 from fans, they will release Something I Might Regret, produced by Dave Allen (The Cure, Depeche Mode) on 10 March. You might have heard the band on XFM, or Radio 1. They can look forward to royalties on album sales that can be up to six times higher than from a conventional record deal.

Guillemots have their album Red out next month and are looking for a female singer after their touring sax player Alex Ward took a break to work on solo projects. On their MySpace page, singer Fyfe Dangerfield wrote: "One idea is having a female singer who can ideally play something – sax, violin/viola... The main thing is finding someone with a really distinctive, uninhibited voice who could add some harmonies/noises to some of our songs, and obviously, someone who is able to be on tour a lot this year." Wannabe Guillemots can email samples of their voice – or voices – to mail@lunchtm.co.uk.