TOM DELONGE TALKS RADIOHEAD AND HAS CURE FOR INDUSTRY ILLS

Tom Delonge, Ex-Blink 182 and current mastermind of Angels And Airwaves, talks Radiohead and a cure for the music industry ills.

With a change in the air in the music industry in full effect, Tom Delonge, formerly of Blink 182 and current mastermind behind Angels And Airwaves thinks he has the answer. Physical industry sales have plummeted, and although digital sales have increased, it doesn’t nearly make up for the lost sales. Radiohead experimented by asking fans to pay what they want for download of their new album, In Rainbows, but they eventually signed on to release a physical version, which this week debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Delonge talked about Radiohead’s interesting experiment.

“Radiohead giving the record away for free is cool because it created a lot of press and got people talking, which is good because the music industry hurts. It didn’t solve anything. It was good for them. (Angels And Airwaves guitarist) David (Kennedy) always says it best. It’s cool that they did that, and they were able to do that. But for younger bands and smaller bands coming They need help. They can’t give away their records for free, yet.”

Delonge says he has what he thinks is the answer in Mod Life.

“We have some ideas of what we think is working. We started a thing called Modlife, which is an operating system of sorts which is an operating system of sorts that helps bands and artists and anybody of that like broadcast various parameters of their art. We just launched the beta version of that with our album in November, and it’s been absolutely, astronomically a success.”

Tom actually has a lot personally, emotionally and financially invested in the project.

“It allows bands to give away their music away for free if they choose, but be connected to the fans basically through the best technologies that exist right now. Yeah, my company, I started it, and we spent a lot of capital, resources and energy and passion on this because we really believe we have an answer for the music industry. So, we’re going to look for about ten of the world’s best athletes and musicians over the next ninety or something days, to launch the next versions of it with and then the world will get it around spring/summer.”

Angels and Airwaves recently played the Guitar Center’s Drum Off competition earlier this month, and they’re slated for a nice run of dates throughout 2008 in support of their new album, I-Empire.