Marillion are to give their new album, 'Happiness Is The Road', away as a free download on file-sharing websites.

Fans who choose to download the album will be given the option of providing their email address before the download commences.

This will enable the band, who formed in 1979, to promote their forthcoming live tours.

Speaking to the BBC, keyboardist Mark Kelly said the group were “willing to try new thigs and see what happens".

"Everybody's aware of the effect of peer-to-peer file-sharing on CD sales and the music industry in general," he said.

"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."

He also acknowledged the impact that Radiohead, who last year allowed fans to name what price they paid for their latest album 'In Rainbows', had made on the music industry.

"People forget Radiohead were still number one in the album charts," he said.

"They also say they weren't very successful because they only got an average of £2 per download.

"But they wouldn't have got £2 per sale from [record company] EMI, so in those terms it was actually a big success, and they still sold CDs."

The band's album will also be available on CD from October 20th.

(by Jason Gregory)