This article at Coolfer pulls together recent examples of musicians asking their fans to help fund new album releases. Jill Sobule raised over $80K from her fans, while the venerable Marillion raised over $725K. By the way, I was a huge Marillion fan during my college years, but I fell off the wagon not long after Fish left. Sorry.
I learned a lot when I did my own fundraiser and I'm eternally grateful to the folks who chipped in to make it happen. My advice, if you care (and you might not), is if you have any sort of fanbase, it's totally worth a try.
And if you don't have a fanbase yet, write a bunch of songs and give them away for free on the internet.