. . . Schneider, 44, financed her Grammy-winning album through an Internet-based music delivery service called ArtistShare that opens the financing of production to dedicated fans.

Schneider said she believed she might be the first artist ever to win a Grammy for an album distributed solely on the Web. But she said that other musicians had already approached her about trying similar experiments of their own.

"It's been very gratifying for me. It's a new way for fans to be closer to artists and artists to be closer to fans," Schneider told reporters after receiving her award.

"They (fans) came into the project long before I completed my CD," she said.

Schneider, who was ArtistShare's first participating artist, said she had funded the cost of her original budget before she started recording, an anomaly in recording, particularly with jazz albums.

The "Concert in the Garden" CD was limited to 10,000 copies, with 9,000 available for pre-order to participants and 1,000 held in reserve for later auction, through ArtistShare.

"This record cost $87,000 to make. I already made my money back," she said. "I'm not splitting the profits with the distributor, the record store and the record company. It's working so well for me". . .

It's an active affirmation of "The Long Tail" theory, so well articulated by Chris Anderson in Wired magazine last fall.

Maria Schneider's website is hosted by ArtistShare, a service allowing direct communication--even collaboration--between an artist and their fans.  Schneider's site includes its own free streaming radio of Schneider's work, which I'm listening to as I write these words.

How long do you think it will be until an artist wins a Grammy without selling a single physical copy of their work?