Jade Lily invited Kandi Valkyrie, Cylindrian Rutabega, Komuso Tokugawa and myself to speak about Music in Second Life – Past, Present, Future on Thursday morning. I thought I’d edit the transcript to highlight the conversation and post it here:
Introduction
Jade Lily: the topic of this panel is Music in SL, looking at the past, present, and future trends of how folks perform and consume music in second life
Jade Lily: so we’ll start with Kandi, who ran probably the oldest radio station in SL, before we even had audio streams
Jade Lily: then cylindrian will talk about current trends, and kourosh and komuso will offer their ideas about where music is headed into the future of SL
Jade Lily: thanks for coming, everyone, and enjoy!
Jade Lily: take it away, kandi! 🙂
Kandi Valkyrie
Kandi Valkyrie: Thanks Jadie!!! Welcome and good morning everyone!
Kandi Valkyrie: I guess I can give a bit of history on music. When we first had music in SL, it wasn’t really in SL. Back in November 2003 I decided to bring my radio station called SimKast Radio into Second Life.
Kandi Valkyrie: Me and about 7 DJ’s had been in world for a couple months, learning it and having fun. Back then it wasn’t like it is now, you would log in and MAYBE see a dozen green dots on the 12 sims we had.
Kandi Valkyrie: We had a “huge” (by then standards) event and had the first “live” radio braodcast in world. This was Nov 2003 and it was in our club in Hawthorn.
Kandi Valkyrie: It wasn’t so easy to have people stream in then because we didn’t have land streaming. We all had to have people log into the stations stream with winamp, media player or from the websites player. So was pretty hard to get people streaming who had just happened to come by. But we did it and it was a great time.
Jade Lily: when Kandi says “first” she actually means it. back then, SL was small enough that you could actually keep track of these things 🙂
Kandi Valkyrie: haha yes! our 12 whole sims which was our world. Very easy to keep track of anything back then, even things you didn’t want to.
Patchouli Woollahra: Simkast had a prior history of streaming on City of Heroes and The Sims, but SL was the first serious place that was worth Simkast’s attention if I remember correctly 😀
Kandi Valkyrie: Almost right. Yes we were in CoH … and I started the station in TSO 5 years ago now.
Lucinda Nadezda: Kandi – at that time, were you only streaming radio, or were live performances being streamed as well?
Kandi Valkyrie: But TSO, COH and MSN Gaming Zone was our biggest venues
Kandi Valkyrie: We are live radio, meaning we don’t just toss a bunch of songs in a queue and let it go. We talk every 3 songs, we do free commercials for promotions on places in SL and such.
Kandi Valkyrie: It was a GREAT asset to us DJ’s when they added the media on land option. Making our jobs amazingly easier but very competitive.
Kandi Valkyrie: I think back then we truly drove Jade crazy because she had this quiet little corner of the metaverse and then along came a bunch of DJ’s, we all took the name Valkyrie and it was never the same.
JueL Resistance: audiences really need and love to connect with the venue, on a personal level
Kandi Valkyrie: I have kinda categorized live radio into 2 catagories: streamers and DJ’s. Streamers is where someone will just toss a bunch of songs into a sam playlist and let it go. Hard to connect with the person behindn the music with that because there really isn’t anyone there unless they are chatting in world.
Kandi Valkyrie: Just remember that when you are listening to a LIVE DJ that they are in need of your feedback. They are there to play songs you want to hear. Contact them and intereact with them, makes their show better too.
Cylindrian Rutabaga
Cylindrian Rutabaga: Hey everybody…thanks so much for coming out this morning/afternoon/evening depending
Cylindrian Rutabaga: and thank you Kandi. 🙂
Cylindrian Rutabaga: I am going to start off by saying…that this is something very new to me…being on a panel…that is. Not being in front of people
Cylindrian Rutabaga: Also, you have to understand that with the growth of SL Music there is no way that I can possibly begin to touch on all aspects of what is going on in the community so I’m going to keep it to a few personal experiences and observations
Cylindrian Rutabaga: so, if i invariably leave something out…please do not take offense
Cylindrian Rutabaga: i have been performing music in SL for over two years now and have witnessed tremendous growth in the community
Cylindrian Rutabaga: This community is made up of listeners, performers of various levels, talents, genres, techniques and WOW…ii’m completely amazed.
Cylindrian Rutabaga: This is a musician and music appreciators paradise
Cylindrian Rutabaga: The community is not only vast but it is incredibly generous…not only for the purpose of selling music and attempting to make an income but primarily in the uses of Fundraising, Community Involvement, Encouragement, Support of one another as musicians and many dear friends have been made.
Cylindrian Rutabaga: I have witnessed the SL Community coming together in events such as Relay for Life, Raising funds for AIDS…and even the assistance with helping personal friends when they are in need.
Cylindrian Rutabaga: Collaborations between artists have been going on since 2005…but I’ve noticed many more happening lately.
Cylindrian Rutabaga: Juel and I have performed a few duets together lately…more regularly…and its great fun for musicians to work together.
Cylindrian Rutabaga: Also, Metajams was a concert that was performed in Dec 2006 involving artists using a Daisy Chain Stream from all over the world…Komuso and I were involved in that.
Cylindrian Rutabaga: It was really cool.
Cylindrian Rutabaga: The relationships that are built amongst musicians and listener alike are imperative to the development of a vibrant and thriving community
Cylindrian Rutabaga: and SL is the perfect playground for creative types to experiment.
Cylindrian Rutabaga: and collaborate
Cylindrian Rutabaga: I for one am deeply honored to be a part of and humbled by this incredible community
Cylindrian Rutabaga: it continues to challenge me as a performer, artist, and individual…and i thank all of you for being a part of it.
Kourosh Eusebio
Kourosh Eusebio: Hi Everyone! 🙂
Kourosh Eusebio: First, I want to say thank you to Jade for inviting me here and that I am excited to share the stage with Komuso, Cylindrian, and Kandi 🙂
Kourosh Eusebio: In regards to the future of music, I think I’d like to echo a bit of what Cyl and Kandi have said –
Kourosh Eusebio: if we want to see where things will go, it is seen in where SL enhances the experience
Kourosh Eusebio: this is all about people – technology as it continues to advance is about the bringing together of people in many ways
Kourosh Eusebio: here artist and audience have a shifting medium with which this can occur
Kourosh Eusebio: how that shifts is fascinating to watch
Kourosh Eusebio: so for example – we see the “titration of experience” for both the listener and the artist
Kourosh Eusebio: we see that we can discuss in chat or in IM – very personal or very general comments
Kourosh Eusebio: which is very different from the experience of a show in RL
Kourosh Eusebio: some of the most excellent support that I have noted is from chats I’ve received during the show, that I read after the show –
Kourosh Eusebio: as Komuso mentions, this is important
JueL Resistance: much more intimate in SL, the connections we can make that we always can’t in RL
Kourosh Eusebio: exactly, Juel
Kourosh Eusebio: so, also for the artist then – there is a certain point of introspection for an artist that helps to bring about creativity
Kourosh Eusebio: for me, sitting in my living room, in a meditative state seems easier than doing so in a coffee shop – though it can be done, it is entirely different
Jade Lily: space is interesting too. i can talk to anyone in the audience, whether they’re right next to me or on the other side of the room in SL, as long as they’re within 20 meters 🙂
zanna John: I find that to make coments to live performers is great because you then feel that you can get to know and interact with them which you can’t do in RL
Kourosh Eusebio: right Jade and zanna – this very titration makes a certain intimacy possible even in the midst of a large number of people –
Kourosh Eusebio: which I believe is a point that will accentuate as time goes on
Kourosh Eusebio: if it were possible to have more and more people in the room – 100, 1000, 10000,….
Kourosh Eusebio: to have an audience etc grow – this will become more important
Kourosh Eusebio: how does one connect with another – this is the fundamental line of development as I see it now
Kourosh Eusebio: the shape that this would take is anyone’s guess, but as things grow, as communities are formed with artists and within the audiences themselves – these aspects are vital
JueL Resistance: with large sims, i play on a 4 sim show on Bliss…harder to connect becuase people are scatted all over, i like CLose n Personal, means a lot to me as a performer
Kourosh Eusebio: very true, Juel – this also is one of my concerns as times
Kourosh Eusebio: right now the limit is very nice – things as they stand as Cylidrian had mentioned is a “musicians and music appreciators paradise”
JueL Resistance: Right Kourosh….the intimacy is wonderful, but it’s nice to have 80-95 people and CONNECT on an intimate level, which is difficult unless you own 3-5 sims
Kourosh Eusebio: but as things grow – I hope they continue to be – it is therefore this connection that needs to be focused upon
Kourosh Eusebio: but where I find most of my fun in playing is through knowing how the music affects each individual
Komuso Tokugawa: Scaleability of avatar support will happen, but audience initimacy between performer and audience is lost above a certain number, just like rl – so depending on the performance context the current “limitation” of SL avatars is not really a limitation imo.
Kourosh Eusebio: very good point Komuso – I agree
Kourosh Eusebio: that in some respects, it is this limitation, which maintains a certain beauty to the experience of music in SL
Kourosh Eusebio: if that is true or not, though can only be seen as things unfold
VxD Oh: If we was 1000 to chat, it would become quickly hard to read
Kourosh Eusebio: very ture VxD – strong shifts in interface would need to occur before that would become viable, but who’s to say it wouldn’t happen
Kourosh Eusebio: I think those are my thoughts at the moment – thank you very much for being here and for supporting music here in SL 🙂
Komuso Tokugawa
Komuso Tokugawa: I have a couple of points I’d like to throw out there for the future direction of Live performance in SL and the emerging metaverse
Komuso Tokugawa: SL Live music is one of the the killer apps of virtual community experience , a prime example of High Tech, High Touch – freebird covers aside;-))
Komuso Tokugawa: As a priority we need to broaden the awareness of live music in sl, it’s actually very small atm
Komuso Tokugawa: We do not need to be resticted to replicating RL performance scenarios such as playing on a stage in front of a bunch of dancing avatars. There is so much more we can do in terms of interactivity and audience engagement – it’s going to be very exciting. Grace’s musimmersion, parsec, and my own collab with Moshang call SynaesthAsia illustrate some possibilities here.
Komuso Tokugawa: Dizzy’s parsec collab I mean
Komuso Tokugawa: Commercialisation of the live music scene will happen, leading to more regular ticketed events in addition to continuing the free entry gig system – just like rl.
Komuso Tokugawa: But there are serious quality of service issues that need to be addressed to enable this
Komuso Tokugawa: and direct to avatar streams will enable some interesting applications
zanna John: If we all told one person on SL about live music a lot more people would come to the shows…I know as I have donr this and know of many that now come
Komuso Tokugawa: yes zanna
Komuso Tokugawa: we need a serious awareness campaign
Komuso Tokugawa: It’s going to be very interesting in five years time;-)
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