Business in Virtual Worlds, Virtual World Platforms

New Site Promises the “Music Lifestyle” in a virtual setting

Music Mogul is promising an engaging virtual world experience although it gives better press than its Web site, but regardless, it’s another attempt to bring 3D immersion to consumers by focusing on a narrower niche than the all-encompassing ’social chat.

Behind the music-focused world is iLemon, developers of Habbo Hotel, who will develop the site. Here’s what Calvin Ng, CEO of iLemon had to say:

We are excited to be developing the Music Mogul world, and believe it is an important step toward bringing virtual worlds to a broader audience, and making connections between the virtual world and the real world through the global appeal of music.

The main selling point of Music Mogul is twofold:

For aspiring artists, the site will give them the tools (not quite sure what those would be, though) to “audition, promote, and perform live to a global audience.” For fans “there is endless opportunity for entertainment, including live karaoke, game arcades, in-world concerts, and more.”

Virtual karaoke? Could be a blast. Or, if you’re like me, it could be even more painful virtually than in reality. Having said that, we’re starting to see talent signed from within virtual worlds. Game arcades featuring your favorite stars? Very 1970s-pinball game. And in-world concerts? This is still uncharted territory, at least for big-time acts (and of course those pesky questions about concurrency).

Users will be able to create a living room (a ‘crib’, of course) where, using the micropayment system, fans will be able to buy clothes and decorate their living room. There are four music industry heavy hitters involved in this site, including a veteran R&B producer, a veteran of Vivendi Games, and two others, so something could come of it.

As virtual worlds continue to chip away at the edges of consumer use, single-purpose content spaces, games, leveraging off existing sites like Facebook - different recipes, but perhaps a more ubiquitous metaverse.

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