Unknown Indie band enter the Dragons' Den - and walk out with a £75,000 recording deal

In a move away from tradition, where a band is wooed by a record firm and hopefully given a deal, Hamfatter asked the Dragons for £75,000 to produce their own album.

The band had just three minutes - the length of their latest single The Girl I Love - to convince the panel of Dragons that theirs will be a sound investment.

In return they offered the millionaire investors 20 per cent of royalties on all future albums.

The deal is done: Dragon Peter Jones with indie band Hamfatter

However, entrepreneur Peter Jones, believing he had an ear for talent spotting, bargained hard and secured 30 per cent of royalties for the band's next two albums.

The offer was a huge boost for the band who have admitted to playing the "toilet circuit" and turning down mediocre record company deals.

Under the business proposal the band will register Hamfatter Ltd as a company and collect the royalties themselves as well as retaining the rights to their songs and creative control over their output.

Band manager Jamie Turner said: "The bands on the big labels will be lucky to make perhaps 30p on an album. the record label takes the rest.

"We'll make about £3.50. It's the deal of the century."

Lead singer Eoin O'Mahony told how they pitched to the Dragons by explaining the breakdown of costs involved in producing an album. Their last was recorded on a budget of just £5,000, which included a promotional video.

In recent months there has been a significant shift in they way bands put out albums.

On Sunday the smash boy band McFly followed in the footsteps of Prince and gave away their new 10-track album free with the Mail on Sunday.

In recent months high-profile bands including Radiohead have released albums on the internet.

Radiohead asked fans to pay what they wanted for their album In Rainbows, with thousands opting to downloading it for just one penny.

Weeks later the album was released on CD and still went to number one in the album charts, proving the hard format is far from dead.