A Manchester-based circuit comedian is applying the ethos of the Free Fringe to his first stand-up album.

Michael J Dolan is streaming his full-length show for free - in the hope that enough people like it, and are willing to pay the £5 minimum it costs to download.

He recorded a version of his 2011 Edinburgh show Dress To Depress at the 18th Century Platt Chapel – also the home of Manchester’s XS Malarkey comedy club – in April and released it today.

Dolan said: ‘I'm not going to the Edinburgh Fringe this year on account of it being massively, unreasonably, and prohibitively expensive, so I figured I'd do this instead.

‘The show last year went really well, but the room only held about 40 people so I reckon in total only about 800 people saw it. I think I can get at least that many people to listen to me this way, and without it costing me literally thousands of actual pounds.

‘The record will work the same way the live show did at last year's Fringe, you can listen to it for free and then if you want to you can pay me money for it.’

The album is available to stream today, or to download from iTunes, Amazon or Bandcamp – the cheapest option at £5. Click here to listen or buy.

His model follows the success of big-name US comics, spearheaded by Louis CK, in offering video downloads of their shows for a small fee, so bypassing the DVD labels.