A much bigger soap box
The Internet is changing the way musicians do business. Downloads and MP3 players are subtly altering the traditional musical transaction. Will CDs disappear like the 20th century's vinyl discs and tape cassettes?
American musician Cylindrian Rutabaga launched her last world tour from her bedroom. She played live gigs to people all around the world - and didn't need to leave her own house to do it.
It's fast becoming the most effective way to showcase your musical talents to the entire world - and local bands are taking advantage of their 'Second Life'.
In 2003 San Francisco based company Linden Lab launched an online three-dimensional world. The service, known as Second Life, is hosted on a large array of servers known as 'the grid’, acts as a social networking and communication tool that allows its residents to interact with each other in a user-built 3D environment.
Users of the service design ‘avatars’, humanoid polygon based characters, to act as their Second Life appearance.
Users can design products and services to sell, play a part in Second Life's own economy, design their own clothes and appearances, build stores, set up businesses and clubs, create artwork and more.
The most interesting feature of Second Life however, is that solo artists and bands can perform live shows to large audiences, entirely in an on-line environment.
Users of Second Life can design and build concert halls and stages on which numerous performances take place each day.
One such performance is by Cylindrian Rutabaga, real name Grace. A self-described ‘soulful acoustic folk’ musician, Cylindrian has been performing on Second Life since February this year.
“It certainly has become a popular outlet,” explains Cylindrian. “The number of musicians in Second Life has grown rapidly since I started performing. There are musicians that cover all sorts of genres of music,”she said. "In the last eight months the number of musicians in Second Life has grown from maybe a dozen to over a hundred.”
Cylindrian also makes use of Second Life to promote and sell her music by providing audience members with links to her website, where they can hear her songs, as well as buy her CD.
No stranger to shows in the real world, Cylindrian says that Second Life is a great alternative to performing in person and an excellent training ground for new musicians not used to playing live shows.
“In order to use Second Life for holding online concerts, I use broadcasting software and link up to an Internet Radio service. Once I am connected to the service, the ‘landowner’ in Second Life connects to the URL of the service and I can be heard with a 10-15 second delay,” explained Cylindrian.
“The sound quality is quite superb in comparison to other avenues of online performing,” said Cylindrian.
It’s not just independent acoustic and electronic artists, either. Eighties pop icon Duran Duran announced earlier this year that they will soon begin performing live on Second Life, direct from an island custom built for their performances. Alternative rapper Talib Kweli is also expected to begin performing on Second Life later this year.
The Catch
While the benefits of online music sales and promotion seem limitless, there are some problems presented by the digital music age.
While iTunes and services like it grow in popularity, there have been numerous claims that online music sales are still grossly unfair to recording artists. The cut of each sale that goes to the artist is minimal and the option to only buy single songs means that artists are facing reduced album sales.
Apple it seems would agree; they recently removed from their website a claim that music sales through iTunes are ‘fair to the artist’. Critics of iTunes consider it to be a small victory.
Additionally there are numerous independent music labels that market their catalogues directly through iTunes. A recent article on ‘downhillbattle.org’ outlined that the benefits for independent labels selling online are short term and that they could stand to lose a large number of sales in the long run.
In regards to MySpace, the number of independent users and bands with websites number in the millions, meaning that new subscribers face stiff competition to get their music heard.
New subscribers to Second Life, who may be unaware of how performances work and are unfamiliar with broadcasting software, may find it difficult to get shows up and running.
Minor gripes aside, the benefits to online promotion and performance are plentiful. As wireless technology develops and more people are put in closer contact with both, the possibilities for on-line music are limitless.
Who knows? Maybe for next years season of Australian Idol, they won’t even bother with auditions. The judges can just look up an applicants MySpace and criticise their ability to sing on a message board, just like everyone else.
