Page "Marillion" Paragraph 35

Happiness Is the Road, released in October 2008, again featured a pre-order " deluxe edition " with a list of the fans who bought in advance, and a more straightforward regular release.

It is another double album, with one disc based around a concept and the second containing the other songs that aren't part of the theme.

Before the album's release, on 9 September 2008, Marillion achieved a world first by pre-releasing their own album via P2P networks themselves.

Upon attempting to play the downloaded files, users were shown a video from the band explaining why they had taken this route.

Downloaders were then able to opt to purchase the album at a user-defined price or select to receive DRM-free files for free, in exchange for an email address.

The band explained that although they do not support piracy, they realised their music would inevitably be distributed online anyway, and wanted to attempt to engage with p2p users and make the best of the situation.