Marillion offers up free album

WHOEVER SAID ROCKBANDS are evil was seriously mistaken, as rock group Marillion are set to make their new album free as a download from file-sharing websites.

According to keyboardist Mark Kelly, this generous move is prompted by the changing music market, explaining that: "We're willing to try new things and we want to see what happens."

However this is one of those "you don't get something for nothing" deals, as when a user downloads this album they will be prompted for their email address.

This is no innocent move by Marillion, as the band aims to target the users email with offers of gig tickets and other merchandise in order to make some money back for the band.

"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," added Kelly.

However, as Kelly explained, the band is liberal, and willing to try new things in order to be exciting – they hope.

Others have already tried such moves, such as Radiohead, who made the dangerous decision to offer their album online for a pay-what-you-like price, other artists such as Prince and the infamous McFly have given away their CD with a newspaper.

Paul Williams, of Music Week, said Marillion are "pretty ground-breaking in terms of doing things differently and they have a very loyal fanbase."

"Most acts these days certainly don't make their fortunes based on the traditional way of selling recorded music," added Williams.

Look out for it soon on a P2P site near you. µ