Ukelele-wielding singer/songwriter Julia Nunes has announced a February 28 release date for her forthcoming album, Settle Down. The album was funded through the Kickstarter campaign with the generous help of fans, who donated over $77,000 to the effort.

Nunes’ successful use of the Kickstarter crowd-funding system shows the viability of appealing to an existing fan base as a path to funding, significantly decreasing barriers to entry for upstart artists. After submitting an application, projects are posted to the site and donors can pledge through Amazon Payments. Kickstarter takes 5% of the funds raised, Amazon takes an additional 3-5%, and the remainder goes to the artist. Nunes was able to raise $77,000 through fan donations alone.

Nunes is best known for her YouTube videos, where she has leaked snippets from the forthcoming album. Her original YouTube efforts have been featured on the site’s main page twice, and has since performed at four Ben Folds openings, and participated in charities like the Vlogobrother’s Project4Awesome.

Nunes  has recorded three albums of original work and one collection of covers. Settle Down will be her first studio recording effort since 2009’s I Think You Know.

Check out Nunes’ Kickstarter page, and video vignettes of two tracks, “He is Mad,” and “I Wasn’t Worried,” as well as Nunes’ appearance on CNN earlier this month: