Ayreon is the brainchild of Arjen Anthony Lucassen, a dutch musician who writes and records virtually all of his music himself, employing instruments from various bands and solo artists such as a drummer, several vocalists and sometimes some wind-instrumentalists for his albums. Ayreon releases are almost always rock-operas with a common, science fiction style storyline, although there have been exceptions in the form of Actual Fantasy (not a rock opera) and The Human Equation (not science fiction, but still the same storyline)

Though many believe the name "Ayreon" came from Arjen's own name, it's purely coincidental: originally the ministrel from the first album was called Aries, but when it didn't fit the meters for the songs (Arjen himself mispronounced it A-ri-es (Note: This is how the Dutch do pronounce it)), it was changed into Ayreon to sound both old-fashioned (Ay) and futuristic (Eon).