Known for her Interweb-trailblazing ways, Imogen Heap has never shied from sharing her creative process, keeping her followers in the loop via blog entries, video diaries, and frequent tweets. But to kick-off the follow-up to 2009’s Ellipse, the Grammy winner is reaching out to fans in a way no other artist has before.

Heap plans to take some time recording her fourth album, rather than churning out a batch of new tunes in one headlong rush. Her goal is release a new song every three months, setting a timetable of roughly three years to ultimately compile a 12-track album. Kicking things off as only Heap could, she crowdsourced the first single, a project that began by soliciting “seeds” from anyone, anywhere — sounds, words, images, and video — that could be incorporated or otherwise used as inspiration.

“There’s so much going on in my life with touring, talks, and tech that this was both a necessity coupled with my passion for collaborative, spontaneous and creative projects,” Heap explains. “I also love the idea of turning the tables in that the seeds of the song begins with you, making a full circle when you experience it as a finished piece.”

On March 14, work began on “#heapsong1” (the Twitter hashtag offering another way to follow along). After daily live video blogging via Ustream, in which we could witness Heap’s new creative process unfold in real-time (compiling, composing, writing, re-writing), on Monday she unveiled the first fruits of everyone’s labor, a haunting yet hopeful tune now titled “Lifeline.”

Over 800 audio samples, 4000 lyrical word suggestions, 3000 photos, and 100 videos were submitted to create “Lifeline.” As she described to Billboard, “Somebody’s dishwasher door, somebody’s bicycle wheel, somebody’s egg in a bowl, somebody’s cat, somebody’s trumpet, have all ended up in some weird way on this song, and it’s really been a great adventure.”

Purchase Imogen Heap – “Lifeline” via iTunes. A complete “Lifeline” package (song, video, 3DiCD, instrumental version, and a “soundseeds and solos” version) is available via Heap’s website.