Full Length Albums for Free?

This past Valentine's Day, Angels and Airwaves released their third full length album, LOVE. On Monday after Valentine's day, I went searching for the album at various music stores. After getting nothing but puzzled looks from sales associates, I jumped online to their modlife page to find that it was available for free. I couldn't believe it.

While I had heard of bands doing this, most notably, Radiohead, I haven't heard of one recently. AVA were asking instead for donations to their charity. For a minimal donation, you can also get another version of their song "Hallucination" that was remixed by Mark Hoppus (Blink-182).

I think that this is an amazing move. This is going to give anyone who can get to a computer access to download their music. People are going to tell other people about how you can download their album for free and they will earn new fans. According to a recent interview with MTV.com, Tom DeLonge said that "We were really interested in the one thing that ties everybody together in a very scientific way but a spiritual way." He was referring to the theme of the album, love.

But what about itunes charts and album sales charts? The success of this album depends on the level of promotion that is done. Currently, the album and its supporting tour are advertised on altpress.com.

Do you think that releasing free albums is a good idea for bands? Will it enable them to make more money on the supporting tour and merchandise?