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Live Music in Second Life

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the shake-your-virtual-groove-thing dept.

Kate Thompson writes "Alice Taylor at Wonderland writes that BBC Radio 1 is coming to Second Life, with a virtual festival and simulcast this weekend to coincide with Radio 1's One Big Weekend event. Second Life users can catch live performances in-game by acts including Muse, Razorlight and Gnarls Barkley. Pitchforkmedia.com also reported on the rise of live music in Second Life a couple of weeks ago, focusing on the launch of Muse Isle and the swarms of coffeehouse performers playing covers every night in-game."

13 comments

  1. Hmmm by wpanderson · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Interesting, this probably means the BBC are simulcasting Radio 1 in MP3 instead of "we know the casual user can't rip this" Real or WMA streams. Tut tut.

    --
    neuro at well dot com (when I post, it's my opinions, no-one elses)
    1. Re:Hmmm by Ex+Machina · · Score: 1

      grr, i wish i had mod points... this is not offtopic!

    2. Re:Hmmm by eggstasy · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm Eggy Lippmann in Second Life and I worked on this project, having made the pretty radio you see in that blog, among other things.
      I can tell you one thing - BBC Radio 1 is only streamed in WMA and RAM.
      Second Life supports inworld audio and video streaming, but not in these formats.
      You can set an URL as a property of a land parcel, and people on that parcel will get the URL from the server to stream from it on the client side... but it will only read MP3 and OGG streams.
      The way I got around this was by launching the user's browser... which is a horrible hack, but it was the only way.

  2. Just another market for commercials by fotbr · · Score: 1

    Ok, I don't know if the BBC does commercials on their radio stations. But if this was one of OUR radio stations clearchannel....it'd be enough to drive me away from the game. Any game.

    1. Re:Just another market for commercials by McAlvis · · Score: 2, Informative

      Nope BBC dont do commercials.

    2. Re:Just another market for commercials by eggstasy · · Score: 2, Informative

      Nobody forces you to listen to the stream. Streams in Second Life work on a per-parcel basis. Meaning, if you're on someone's land, you get to listen to the music they chose. If you're on your land, you get to listen to whatever you choose. In addition, streamed music is off by default, so when you're flying around you won't switch from stream to stream all the time.

    3. Re:Just another market for commercials by fotbr · · Score: 1

      Second Life seems to have a good solution then. But I maintain that if it was clearchannel or their ilk, it'd be the ONLY thing you could listen to -- maybe other "stations" but all clearchannel, etc -- there would be lots of commercials, and they'd manage to get it written into the TOS that any attempt to bypass commercials would terminate your account.

  3. About time by Trouvist · · Score: 3, Informative

    I don't play Second Life and I don't ever want to, but I think it's nice to see that the BBC is actually realizing the potential of online media compared to other corporations. Newspapers don't get it. Television studios don't get it. The RIAA and MPAA don't get it. Finally someone gets it. I'm personally glad that they managed to find a niche and work into it. Let's hope they do it with class.

    1. Re:About time by AvantLegion · · Score: 1
      The BBC's done good things with podcasting as well. And their Beethoven symphony MP3 downloads shattered all their expectations and really opened their eyes (and the eyes of the rest of the classical music community). I believe I heard on NPR (on a podcast version of one of their on-air show, natch) that the BBC expected 25,000 downloads of the Beethoven MP3s. They got 1.7 million.

      I don't know if they're quite sure of what they're doing, but they keep experimenting and giving things a try. They know enough to know that they can't just ignore the online space.

  4. Excellent... by grammar+fascist · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One less reason to spend time in the real world.

    Second Life may very well actualize many of the issues brought up by crappy "we're all actually living inside a computer" science fiction stories. The turning point will be when some judge hands down a broad ruling giving in-game money the same status as out-game money.

    --
    I got my Linux laptop at System76.
    1. Re:Excellent... by Elle-Beestings · · Score: 1

      In-game money does have similar status as out-game money in that it's openly traded with USD and you can pay your mortgage with the Linden dollars you earn in Second Life. Just a note to say that the future is already at hand.

  5. At least one sense will be gratified... by stinkbomb · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...because the graphics in Second Life make me want to gouge my eyes out.

    1. Re:At least one sense will be gratified... by Watson+Ladd · · Score: 1

      If only VRML caught on.

      --
      Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.-- Frontinus, 1st cent. AD