Modlife Allows Fans to Interact with Bands [Update]

[Update: Angels & Airwaves released LOVE on Modlife two days early. It is now available to download at Modlife.]

This article originally appeared in the February 12th issue of The Slippery Rock Rocket. It can be found at TheOnlineRocket.com.

This Sunday, the alternate rock band Angels and Airwaves will release its third album entitled “LOVE.”

Although releasing an album is not out of the norm, “LOVE” stands out because it’s being released for free on the Web site Modlife.

Modlife, which launched in November 2007, is a Web site founded by blink-182 and Angels and Airwaves member Tom DeLonge.

It’s intended to provide artists-not only including musicians but designers, filmmakers, athletes and charitable causes as well-an outlet to broadcast their work.

In addition, Modlife allows artists to interact with their fans in many different ways.

For starters, artists have the ability to broadcast live either during a concert or when they’re doing anything else and the artists feel like having a conversation with their fans.

In fact, it’s more than a conversation-Modlife is an online community of sorts.

Artists who frequently log in to chat or broadcast to their fans often find that fans will be conversing on their own before they ever enter.

So while Modlife simply seems like a site for browsing musical content, it’s really more of a social networking site than one would think, complete with unique user pages for anyone who wants to participate.

But it’s not the same type of social network like Facebook or Twitter.

Artists have several different options on how to utilize Modlife, from running their pages no different than they would any other Web page to releasing all of their content on it and bypassing other means altogether.

In addition to Angels and Airwaves, other bands currently taking part in the site are Forever the Sickest Kids, The White Stripes and The Raconteurs.

The While Stripes and The Raconteurs are unique examples, as both bands-in addition to The Dead Weather-are bands Jack White is involved with.

White’s record label, Third Man Records, has its own site with Modlife, The Vault.

The Vault runs exactly the same as all the other pages, except that the three bands are connected within and a user can subscribe to all three pages with one account.

Although not every artist on Modlife uses the site to its fullest potential, DeLonge and Angels and Airwaves have, going as far as dropping their record labels and running the bands exclusively from Modlife.

Angels and Airwaves has taken the stand that music should be free, and in turn, users should pay for other exclusive content such as concerts and video.

Although I didn’t have a subscription to its page, I signed up for one in time to be able to download its new album.

Certain music-related companies have also started using Modlife to their advantage.

Alt Press Magazine uses its page to provide free content to its readers, such as chats with musicians featured in its print magazine.

It also sponsors a tour, the Alt Press tour, and uses its page to provide backstage access.

Macbeth Footwear is another company utilizing Modlife, dropping its own page in favor of only using the Modlife page.

Macbeth uses its page to run free contests for users as well as advertising new products.

Although Modlife is currently only open to select artists and companies, soon the opportunity will arise for any artist or company to use the site.

This will enable smaller designers, musicians or anyone else to join and take advantage of advertising revenues or subscription fees.

Although Modlife is currently a site that only interests certain users, soon it will be open to a great array of creative content.