I love the SL music scene, which is why I’ve continued to be a part of it for three years of live performances on a regular basis. But people shouldn’t continue to kid themselves that things will go on forever in the way they have been. With the amount of songs by other artists being performed every single day (hundreds? thousands?), the actual licensing cost would be astronomical. Linden Lab will not pony up to pay that bill, and the artists and venues are already in a money-losing situation as it stands… they’re certainly not going to pay licensing fees themselves in addition to tier, stream rental, music equipment purchase and upkeep costs, and so on.

I think the best we can hope for is that it continues on the path it current has gone. A “breakout star” might end up being the worst thing possible for the SL music scene as a whole, as it will just call attention to the topics that have continued to be pushed under the rug. I don’t blame the platform for this: LL certainly didn’t envision this as being a challenge for them when they were developing SL. But you can’t have the cake (“music is a killer app!”) and eat it too. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when Linden’s hand is inevitable forced to the point they’ll need to make a policy statement or a TOS addendum about the legality of playing cover songs in SL. If you don’t think that will ever happen, I’ve got a L$1 bet that says you’re mistaken.

After performing in NINE virtual worlds… that’s right… NINE… only Active Worlds is the one that could accommodate a large capacity/attendance, not Blue Mars.

Second Life, if done right, can accommodate as many as wanted, as long as you’re willing to shell out the money for more sims. Longrange (aka members of Orbital) performed live in SL years ago, and used 12 sims. It worked.

I’m sorry, but I get frustrated, or annoyed, when they blame the platform, any platform for hurdles or limitations, that in essence are only perceptions. I’ve performed live in Second Life for close to four years now. I have also tried ALL of the other platforms to perform in. All I can say is: It’s not the platform causing the problems for music performance, and it’s not Linden Lab.

On avatar audience of 200 and more people together in one (small) space; world of warcraft, eve-online, lord of the rings online crumbles down to lag, (crashing servers) or a 1-fps dia show is my previous experience. (I guess a slow computer doesn’t help as well)

Wondering what virtual-enviroment scores best and/or is build around large crowds performance in the same area/town-square.
Where people can walk, talk/type. And have like there personal avatar style and cloths/equipment.

I’m a big believer in Blue Mars – it’s a professional MMO developer platform, basically, where you can create your own world and not have to worry about hosting or ‘back-end stuff’. This does NOT, however, make it a de facto community nor one in which you’ll easily hop from world to world as the ecosystem builds out.

They have also not once met their stated deadlines for any kind of release and have so far been 6 – 12 months behind on what they originally estimated, which doesn’t instill tons of confidence, but it’s very early days.

Instead, I recommend checking out the years of piled up blog posts from SL musicians and performers. Crap Mariner’s blog, Grace’s blog, my blog, Slim Warrior’s various comments on forums, Zak Claxton’s blog, many others.
The music blogs regarding Second Life (and virtual worlds) cover many topics with many varied opinions in regards to music in Second Life.

Opinions are like Avatars… everyone’s got at least one, and most people have a lot.

PS, Hamlet, were you paid to post about Skye Galaxy? Since there was no disclosure, I’m assuming you or Willow weren’t. But someone doesn’t just pop into SL, and within 2 months, have a full on massive following, videos, press releases, etc without money buying it.

PPS, I’m mildly offended at the NWN title: “…Destined to Become Second Life’s First Breakout Popstar” …it’s as if the past 4 years of breakout performers were overlooked because someone woos the ladies with a Coldplay style melody and a cute avatar. Frogg & Jaycatt, Flaming Moe, Cylindrian Rudabaga, Slim Warrior, Zak Claxton, Max Kleene, The Poppinjays, Dexter Ihnen, Bluez Preacher Man, Winston Ackland, Von Johin and so many more… there are so many breakout music artists from SL history that made it. To me, its the dedication and commitment one puts into continuing to perform for the SL community that makes the SL performer… not a press kit and a bunch of ladies swooning.

Some great SL musicians turned up to perform, and the island was frequently packed for their performances, which in turn generated interest in the island, which in turn resulted in repeat shows and more people spreading the word to come.

All of which was well and good, but on occasion, the stream dropped, due to lag or technical issues; lag was a problem; even by upping the sim limits to max avatars, there were folks who couldn’t come in.

While Blue Mars is still out of my personal reach, technologically speaking, it does seem as if many SL residents are at the least checking out the opportunities, if not leaving SL for it. And if the engine even works half as well as promised…that’s an increase in the avatar audience of 450 at the low end, and thousands at the high end.

If the point of the game is to increase the number of ears on your work–ears that may then later buy your work, if recorded–then more is better and SL can’t begin to compete.

If the point is to reinforce social connection and involve live performance in the process, then SL’s doing fine, but needs to consider more ‘off-site’ action for major concerts–the live performance at W stage, then ‘listening centers’ on X, Y, and Z sims where folks can ‘tune in’, so to speak, without further crowding the W stage.

What one has to ask is how blind can blind be when your cult hero “Cory O.” goes to BMI and theres NO by product of 3d/ or vr worlds tech offered as any “product/service change” …?

mainstream still waits… but of course it took a “rock band” to get the beatles digital;)

If one could fill a room with a few hundred a night and do 3 weekend shows…, one could make a living….
but it depends on what “cut” the “room owner” demands…..

If someone making a machinima to record a live gig or indeed do a music video within a virtual world for a performer who only performs virtually, and that results in someone deciding to try out virtual worlds, then reportage like this can only be a good thing.

There is only so many ways in which a film maker can record a live gig, either in the real world – I hope that the way I give images to great musical talent does them justice in some way.

This is why we need the showcase back on the secondlife.com homepage, and also why the music community need to push their craft from behind the walled gardens of virtual worlds. The people they play to are already fans – in order for music in ANY virtual world to grow, we need to get the message out that performers like this exist.

The music scene in Second Life should be one of the main thrusts of external marketing for Linden Lab