Prog pop band Maraton and Imagine Dragons share cover confusion

Norwegian prog pop outfit Maraton have pointed out that the cover of their single Blood Music is remarkably similar to Imagine Dragons’ cover for their song Bad Liar.

Maraton launched their track six months before Imagine Dragons released Bad Liar – with the only difference being the colours used.

Maraton have issued a good-natured statement on the situation, reporting that they paid artist beeple_crap a one-time payment to use the artwork titled Back Of The Rainbow and say that Imagine Dragons have “good taste” for using the same art.

Maraton say: “It might have come to everyone's attention that Imagine Dragons and Maraton has the same cover for our singles. Which one is cooler? Here's the story…

“Instagram is a wonderful place for art. We bought our artwork from an incredible artist called beeple_crap. We contacted him and asked him if we could buy the rights of using these photos for our singles and album. 

“After much consideration we found five pieces that really suited our music perfectly. It’s really not cheap to be a musician these days, and our budget was not something to brag about. 

“We payed a one-time fee for using his art, and didn't think much more of it. Suddenly we saw that Imagine Dragons had a new single coming up with the same artwork… six months after our release. 

“With no deal in hand giving us the exclusive rights for the photos, we can only say one thing. Damn! They got good taste!”

Maraton were formed in 2010 and say their music blends prog, rock and pop. Their new album Meta will be released on April 26.

BACK OFF THE RAINBOW #everyday #cinema4d #c4d beeple

A photo posted by @beeple_crap on May 2, 2017 at 8:33pm PDT

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.