On a recent weeknight in Beijing, about 800 people gathered at a club in downtown Beijing to watch a performance by pop singer Li Quan and Li Daimo, a singer made popular by the 'Voice of China' TV show. At home, several hundred more participants were tuning into the concert live from their computers or smartphones.
最近某个周末的晚上，约800名观众齐聚北京市中心一家俱乐部，一同观看了《中国好声音》热门歌手李泉和李代沫的演唱会。与此同时，还有数百名观众在家中用电脑和智能手机收看了演唱会的现场直播。
The concert was organized by Xiami, a Hangzhou-based online music portal owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, in its first such initiative using crowd-sourced funding via Alibaba's Taobao online shopping platform.
这场演唱会的筹办方是阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. ,ALIBABA.YY)设在杭州的在线音乐网站虾米(Xiami)。这是虾米首次尝试藉助阿里巴巴的淘宝(Taobao)在线购物平台以大众筹资方式筹办演唱会。
Xiami first proposed the concert on Taobao in late November, saying it would go forward if organizers could raise at least 100,000 yuan ($16,520) from online ticket sales in about a month. Tickets ranged from 1 yuan to watch the concert live online to 280 yuan to see it in person and 2,999 yuan to request a song in the show.
去年11月，虾米首次发出号召，称只要在一个月内筹得人民币10万元（约合16,520美元）预购资金，就将展开演唱会举办工作。观众只需支付1元就可在线观看演唱会，也可花280元购买门票现场观看，还可支付2,999元参与歌手点歌环节。
The company said the project reached its fund-raising goal in less than 15 days, with more than half of participants choosing to watch the show online.
虾米说，该项目不到15天便达到预购资金目标，超过半数参与者选择在线观看演唱会。
Crowd funding is a practice by which a project or venture is funded by small amounts of money from a large number of people. The idea for using it in the music industry isn't new: In the U.S. ArtistShare, which launched in 2003, so far has fan-funded recordings that have earned six Grammy awards and 21 nominations. Meanwhile, Kickstarter, the world's leading crowd-funding platform that launched in 2009, has so far received pledges from 5.4 million people worth $933 million to fund 54,000 creative projects in areas like music, film and technology.
大众筹资是将许多人手中的小笔资金集中起来用于支持某个项目的活动。此次演唱会并非将大众筹资应用于音乐产业的首次尝试：2003年创办的美国ArtistShare网站已经有六首在粉丝资金支持下制作的歌曲赢得了格莱美奖(Grammy)，还有21首歌曲获得提名。而2009年创办的世界领先大众融资平台Kickstarter迄今已从540万人手中募集到9.33亿美元，用于音乐、电影、科技等领域共5.4万个项目。
In China, crowd funding for music and other creative projects is gradually catching on. The country's first crowd-funding website, DemoHour, was launched in 2011 and was followed by a dozen other similar sites, most of which fund creative projects. But the entrance of e-commerce giant Alibaba, with its massive audience, is expected to give a boost to such projects in the arts industry.
在中国，专注于音乐和其他创新项目的大众融资正在逐渐赶上来。2011年，中国首家大众筹资网站点名时间(DemoHour)宣告成立，随后十几家类似网站相继注册诞生，其中多数专注于创新项目的筹资。而拥有庞大客户群的电商巨头阿里巴巴的进入料将使艺术领域的创新项目大大向前推进。
'We are happy to see such a giant company start to get involved in crowd funding, as it may help to attract more capital to this market,' said Zhao Hongwei, CEO of musikid.com, a year-old crowd-funding website for music projects. The company has so far pledged about 1 million yuan, with 110 projects online.
乐童音乐(musikid.com)是一家专注于音乐项目的众筹网站，创办至今已有一年时间。乐童音乐首席执行长赵宏伟说：我们很高兴看到这样一家巨头公司加入到众筹行业中来，因为这将吸引更多资金进入这一市场。该公司目前已筹得约100万元人民币，拥有110个线上音乐项目。
Xiami's founder said he was inspired to start the venture because problems plaguing China's music industry, including notorious piracy, have made it difficult for local musicians to make a living.
虾米创始人说，他之所以启动这个项目，是因为一些困扰中国音乐产业的问题令本土音乐人难以维持生计，例如臭名昭著的盗版现象。
'When I talked to local musicians, I found they couldn't even earn enough money to cover their transport fee for tours, let alone compensation for their shows,' said Xiami CEO Wang Hao. 'I felt like we needed to do something to help musicians feel less lonely.'
虾米CEO王皓说：我和本土音乐人聊天后发现，他们甚至都赚不够巡演的车旅费，更别提举办演出的费用了。我觉得我们需要做些什么，让音乐人不那么孤独。
Mr. Wang, a 36-year-old Hangzhou native who himself played in a band during college, said he hopes Xiami can boost singers just starting out as well as help established musicians do something cool and innovative.
现年36岁、上大学时玩过乐队的杭州人王皓说，他希望虾米既能帮助那些刚起步的歌手，也能帮助那些有成就的音乐人做一些炫酷和原创的事情。
Encouraged by the success of their initial project, Mr. Wang said Xiami plans to regularly crowd-fund shows via Taobao, including small-scale shows with fewer than 100 attendees.
受首个项目顺利完成的鼓舞，王浩说，虾米计划通过淘宝定期举行大众筹资形式的演出活动，包括不足100人参加的小型演出。
But while most are positive about the prospects for crowd-funding in China, policy uncertainty concerns some pioneers in the field.
虽然多数人对中国大众筹资的前景充满信心，但政策上的不确定性还是让一些行业先行者感到不安。
'One can hardly draw a line between illegal fund-raising and crowd-funding now due to the absence of related regulation,' Mr. Wang said. 'I feel like it is a sword hanging above my head with the potential of dropping at any minute.'
王皓说，因为缺乏相关的法律法规，很难将非法集资与大众集资区分开来。他说：我感觉好像有把剑悬在我头上，随时都可能掉下来。
Illegal fund raising in China is a vaguely defined term that includes everything from running pyramid and Ponzi schemes to operating an underground bank that falls afoul of local officials. The offense can be punishable with the death penalty if the amounts involved are large enough. Small-scale loan sharking and other informal lending activity are tacitly permitted in China, as long as they are relatively small and low-key.
在中国，非法集资是个模糊的概念，它包括非法传销、庞氏骗局，也包括与地方政府官员勾结经营地下钱庄的行为。如果涉事数额巨大，违法者将被处以死刑。至于小规模高利贷以及其它非正式的借贷活动，只要数额较小且不张扬，中国官方就会采取默许的态度。
Social mentality is another headache. 'The atmosphere in China that encourages innovation and integrity is not as strong as that in the U.S., 'said Mr. Zhao of musikid.com, adding that investment capital may be less enthusiastic about pouring money into the China crowd-funding market than in other fields like group-buying websites.
社会心理则是另一个难题。乐童音乐CEO赵宏伟说，中国的大环境不像美国那么鼓励创新和诚信。大众筹资市场可能不会像团购网站和其他一些领域那样吸引那么大的投资热情。
'The general consumption mentality of Chinese people is more about how to save money instead of giving money to support others,' Mr. Wang said. 'It will take time for people to get used to this new method and for the market to grow.'
王皓说，大多数中国人在消费心理上更倾向于思考如何省钱，而不是花钱支持别人。要让人们习惯这种新的方式，要让这个市场成长起来，这需要时间。