Musician Zaki Ibrahim wants you to help her pay for her next album

Zaki Ibrahim has a relentless performance schedule. At least for a singer who has no recent new material to speak of.

But her frequent appearances remind music lovers of her talent, a necessary measure if she is to succeed in a crowdfunding campaign to make possible a follow-up to her last full-length album, 2012's Every Opposite .

Ibrahim launched the campaign on GoFundMe.com before leaving Toronto for Joburg in December, targeting C$10,000 (about R100,000). The campaign is yet to launch in South Africa, but she has high hopes for the generosity of her local audience.

"My integrity as an artist is important," says Ibrahim. "If I am going to put something out, I want to do it right, and that costs money. I'm a completely independent artist, and the cost of recording, the artwork, mastering, publicity ... these are costs a recording label would usually absorb."

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Born to a South African father and British mother, Ibrahim grew up in Canada and South Africa, and spent some time living in Europe. Her music reflects a range of influences as diverse as her upbringing, fusing hip-hop with soul and jazzy hints.

Her voice glides effortlessly over beats reminiscent of '90s neo-soul, but also feels right at home on cascading melodies, like those in the contemporary disco jaunt Draw the Line, the lead single on Every Opposite.

Artists Ibrahim has worked with include Tumi Molekane, the acclaimed rapper who now goes by the name Stogie-T, and Tiago Correia-Paulo, who oversaw production on Every Opposite.

Ibrahim and Molekane began working together a decade ago, when Molekane was with the hip-hop outfit Tumi & the Volume. Ibrahim and her Toronto-based partners facilitated three Canadian tours for Tumi & the Volume. She also worked with Correia-Paulo on the award-winning score for the film Otelo Burning and has collaborated with Erykah Badu, Saul Williams and the UK-based Hyperdub family, Young Fathers and the Roots.

Despite her credentials, she admits to a twinge of self-consciousness about asking strangers for money .

"I was nervous about it at first because it feels a bit strange saying: 'Hey, I have this project, and I'm asking you to give me money to make it happen.' You don't want to be asking people to give all the time, but you also have to be real about it, and not act like you have all this loot that you don't have."

block_quotes_start You don't want to be asking people to give all the time, but you also have to be real about it, and not act like you have all this loot that you don't have block_quotes_end

Still, Ibrahim is not the only artist to choose the crowdfunding route in an increasingly unpredictable recording industry. Signing with a big label is no longer essential to success, thanks to the many online tools that allow artists to be fully in control of their work.

Crowdfunding is technically easy; anyone with a computer and access to the internet can set up an account on a platform like GoFundMe.com, Kickstarter, or the South African site ThundaFund. Artists register with the platform, and to solicit donations they can post a preview of what they are working on, usually in the form of a video.

Backers, as those who donate funds are called, then pledge money to help the project become a reality. They are often given an incentive - with Ibrahim's first round of crowdfunding on GoFundMe.com, for example, backers got free tickets to a show she played in Toronto.

A notable success was the Kickstarter campaign run by US hip-hop legends De La Soul, which resulted in last year's release And the Anonymous Nobody. But many music crowdfunding campaigns have fallen flat. A prime example was '90s supergroup TLC, who two years ago launched a campaign to fund their first album since the death of member Lisa "Lefteye" Lopes in 2002.

Some critics described it as sad that one of the biggest bands in music history had gone the crowdfunding route. The group shrugged this off (remember their 1992 debut single Ain't Too Proud to Beg?), but there has been major backlash from fans who helped fund an album that now does not seem to be forthcoming.   

WATCH Zaki Ibrahim's Draw the Line music video

Local artist Dan Hampton, who records under the name Thomas Crane, knows the pitfalls of crowdfunding only too well. "It took about two years after my crowdfunding campaign ended to finish recording and to release the record," he says.

A part-time musician, Hampton's aim was to raise R15,000 towards Bone Tower, his 2014 album. Without a fan base as large as that of TLC, De La Soul, or even Ibrahim, Hampton approached the crowdfunding model as a way of giving family, friends and people in his extended social network "a platform to support what I do". Three-quarters of the backing came from his personal network.

"There's no instant gratification, so there's very little value for the average music-lover when it comes to contributing their money towards a music project," says Hampton.

Ibrahim, who is playlisted on radio in Toronto, estimates that friends and other people she knows accounted for about half of what she raised with her Canadian campaign. She is currently exploring ways to reward South African supporters when she launches the local campaign - one possibility is a "gift package" of some of her as yet unreleased music.

• Zaki Ibrahim will play at the And Club 'Tonght', a new party series curated by Kid Fonque, Maria McCloy and DJ Kenzerho in Newtown on February 4 at 9pm. Tickets R100 from Quicket or at the door. She will headline at the Cape Town Electronic Music Festival, February 10-12.