Marillion gathers their tribe of music fans with 'Happiness is the Road'

The British band Marillion is one of the first to engage its tribe of true fans to help the band raise touring and marketing dollars. In 1997, the band found they couldn't afford to finance a US tour, so their dedicated fan base took matters into their own hands. The fans raised over $60,000 online to bring Marillion over to the States. It was one of the first examples of how the Web could unify a music community to fund a major tour.
Following the tour, the band asked the fans if they wanted to help finance the recording of the next album and the fans responded by pre-ordering 12,000 copies. The band officially thanked each of them by name in the album packages.

For their newest album, 'Happiness is the Road' Marillion offered a $10,000 prize to the fan who created the most popular YouTube video of their latest single, "Whatever Is Wrong with You." In just a matter of weeks, over 190 different videos have been created by fans, some with tens of thousands of views. It's a very smart way to generate a lot of interest in a song very quickly.

Mark Kelly, Marillion's keyboardist, attested to the fact that the secret to their success is definitely attention to their fans. To date, the band have sold over 15 million copies of their music. Next year, there will be two international Marillion fan conferences, one in the Netherlands and in Montreal. And every year, the band issue a collection of unreleased tracks and exclusive material, pressed up on CD and sent to their Web Members absolutely free.