Many games, for example, World of Warcraft, may follow specific themes or ask users to perform predefined roles. Other games like Second Life only provide a platform for the world and users can make what they want out of it.
Published in Chapter:
Live Music and Performances in a Virtual World
Joanna Berry (Newcastle University, UK)
Copyright: © 2009
|Pages: 5
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-014-1.ch116
Abstract
The introduction of the Internet and its rapid expansion in the 90s, coupled with technological advances in software and hardware, allowed the digitisation of virtually the entire value-chain of the music industry (Berry, 2006). The industry saw its traditional value exploiting methods, in particular CD sales, become less effective and in many cases obsolete. At the same time, new stronger and more direct relationships started forming between the artists and their audience, radically changing how many of the industry’s functions, such as its supply chain management, were undertaken. In this article, we discuss how information and communication technologies affect one aspect of the music experience, that of live and virtual performances. This choice allows us also to illustrate a change of attitude toward technology from all stakeholders, especially music labels. The article first presents a number of examples of “live” performances with “real” performers that were reproduced and repackaged using various multimedia technologies and then distributed through a number of online and digital channels. Following this, the article discusses the emerging phenomenon of virtual performances on Second Life and considers their potential implications.