September 10, 2008 9:37

Marillion to give away new album

Rockers' next album will be available as a free download

Marillion are set to make their next album, 'Happiness Is The Road', available to download free.

The album, which is set for a conventional CD release on October 20, will be available on peer-to-peer file-sharing sites. When the songs are first played a pop-up box will appear, asking for the downloaders' e-mail address.

The band said that the system was designed to encourage fans to buy gig tickets and merchandise, making money for the band that they might have missed out on by fans not paying for a full album release.

Keyboardist Mark Kelly told BBC News: "Everybody's aware of the effect of peer-to-peer file-sharing on CD sales and the music industry in general.

"Up until recently we've felt fairly immune to that because the fans have been really supportive of the band and, I suppose, because of the age demographic, they do tend to prefer CDs to downloads."

Kelly added that he still expected fans to buy the physical album when it was released, pointing to the fact that Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' album went to the top of the charts when released on CD despite being available online before.