Duran Duran to Perform Virtual Gigs

Sir Haxalot writes "The British band Duran Duran is to create a virtual island within the online world of Second Life, on which they will perform actual live concerts." From the article: "Three-dimensional versions of the band members - called Avatars - have been commissioned and will be revealed in September. The band hopes to perform their first virtual concert in the coming months. Rhodes added: 'We are hoping to give the crowd that come to the virtual concert a real immersive experience, so they can interact with us and react while we are stage.'"

Kudos

[Kesch]

They are embracing new technology and trying new distribution methods, good for them.

Re:Kudos

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, Duran Duran were the first band to sell a song for download.

Re:Kudos

[craXORjack]

On the down side, now they won't be able to play the Goldstein Bar Mitzvah which was a paying gig and this Second Life island is going to cost them at least $9.95 a month.

Re:Kudos

[Korgan]

Actually, they have an entire sim (64sq km of land on a dedicated server) which costs them US$199/mnth in land use fees. Just to buy the sim itself costs US$1500.

Also, I only pay US$6/mnth for Second Life. When you pay Quarterly or Anually the price drops significantly. US$9.95 is the most you'd pay for a premium account, not including any land use fees.

Having said that though, I am currently paying US$70/mnth just in land use fees on top of my US$72/yr subscription. This is all in land use fees for the var

Re:Kudos

[AcidLacedPenguiN]

please tell me you're making return on that investment :)

Re:Kudos

[Korgan]

Yes and no. ;-)

The land I have put commercial projects or shops or whatever on is breaking even and paying for itself. Thats all good. My "home" I still pay for myself, but I have no problem with that.

Where things fall apart is that I still end up spending like US$200-300 a month on toys and other things I see and want ;-) Well, admittedly thats coming down now as I start to build up a collection of things and struggle to find new stuff I want. But with so many newbies coming into SL, theres almost always g

Re:Kudos

[Threni]

> They are embracing new technology and trying new distribution methods, good for them.

A "virtual gig" though.... I mean, that's a DVD, right? Either I'm watching the band live, or I'm just listening to a CD. I don't get what's not a gimmick about the whole thing.

Re:Kudos

[elrous0]

Bands in Second Life usually perform live. But the "concert hall," as it were, is a virtual creation, as are their avatars. People come watch the concert and interact with the band from all over the world all at once in this virtual space.

So you're listening to them live, they're listening to and reading your feedback live, but you may be in California while they're actually in London.

If that doesn't explain it, you'll just have to check out second life for yourself. There are some good concerts/performan

Re:Kudos

[Threni]

> So you're listening to them live, they're listening to and reading your feedback live,
> There are some good concerts/performances there and some bad ones (much like real life).

Unlike real life there's apparantly an element of the band reviewing my feedback. That never happened with normal bands, so how will it happen with a virtual one?

Re:Kudos

[elrous0]

A running log is kept of all comments being typed in real time. So, if the badn can see their monitors as they're playing (or between songs) they can respond to comments, praise, questions, etc. This is the norm in live SL performances.

-Eric

Does anyone know?

[aschoeff]

...if they need any virtual roadies?

Re:Does anyone know?

[bcat24]

I think they'd be more interested in virtual groupies. :)

Re:Does anyone know?

[jpardey]

I doubt it. However, I'm pretty sure they have at least a few virtual groupies.

Re:Does anyone know?

[jpardey]

Hmm, odd... I didn't even see that. I blame slashcode!

A virtual island?

[Anonymous Coward]

A virtual island? Will there be an NPC named Rio who dances on the sand?

Oh come on...

[Fred Porry]

Are people actually paying for this? Okay, it may be great for fans, but...do you have to pay extra for this? It just makes no sense to me...

Re:Oh come on...

[Korgan]

No, you could attend the concert entirely for free just by http://secondlife.com/ss/?u=0e0a47b321633ec4bf7e7b 1232505838 [slashdot.org]">signing up for a basic account to Second Life.

There is no cost to access the game. The only time cost becomes an issue is if you want to own your own land. But theres nothing stopping you accessing events in the game, or creating your own items, or buying anything you might possibly want.

Re:Oh come on...

[Korgan]

Errrr fixed link [secondlife.com]

Re:Oh come on...

[27,000]

It is possible to charge players to access a sim. Considering the maximum player count in a single sim (40? 60?) I expect the band will charge to take advantage of scarcity. Even if they don't, there aren't many slots to see them in. At best you might hear them over SL Public Radio, unless there's some mad concert system in production.

Re:Oh come on...

[Fred Porry]

Uhm, okay, thank you. :)

Re:Hmm

[MustardMan]

No, they have actually sucked. Perhaps you meant to say they have virtually no talent?

Re:Hmm

[Reality Master 101]

Have you actually listened to their early stuff? (I'd guess the answer is 'no') They get a lot of crap for their later stuff, but they had some great songs early on. Rio was a great album (in fact, I'd say every song is good), and their early hit Planet Earth was really good, too.

Re:Hmm

[Karma Farmer]

They get a lot of crap for their later stuff, but they had some great songs early on.

If you think about it, you'll realize you believe that's true for most bands you liked when you were 13.

Re:Hmm

[Who235]

I wholeheartedly agree. 1983 was not a random date - that's when Seven and the Ragged Tiger came out.

I contend that was an even better record than Rio.

But since then,

Re:Hmm

[Reality Master 101]

I wholeheartedly agree. 1983 was not a random date - that's when Seven and the Ragged Tiger came out. I contend that was an even better record than Rio.

I liked Rio more than 7RT (though that was a good album too), but I agree that it was all over after that. They should have just let the band die.

Re:Hmm

[bladesjester]

Personally, I like Duran Duran, but I decided to be kind of minimalist when it came to buying the cds and just got the greatest hits album. It had basically everything I wanted from them. I took that route with a few bands that I had a lot of stuff for on tape and lp just because, while I liked them, I didn't want to deal with all of the filler.

On the upside, their greatest cd makes for really fun driving music =]

Re:Hmm

[ObitMan]

On the upside, their greatest cd makes for really fun driving music =]
damn you! You've found me out!

Re:Hmm

[bladesjester]

Duran Duran is a staple in my driving music selection. It's right up there with Placebo, ZZ Top, Tom Petty, and Garbage.

Re:Hmm

[SinGunner]

And to think that's longer than you've been alive. "Woah."

Re:Hmm

[Quantum Fizz]

Maybe virtual Barbarella [imdb.com] will show up, destroy the evil Duran Duran, and help rid the world of the scourge of crappy music.

Re:Hmm

[apflwr3]

Does Second Life take place in 1983?

Seriously - Duran Duran has virtually sucked for virtually 25 years.

I know you're trolling, but that does beg the question-- will the Duran Duran avatars be modelled after their 40-50 year old bodies today (complete with wrinkles) or will they be the pretty-boys from the Rio video? Not that I particularly care, of course... Ahem...

This kind of this could literally give a "Second Life" to musical acts whose careers ended when their looks started to go.

I Know A Guy Who Runs FOH For Them....

[Black-Man]

And he swears he's never seen some many hot late 30-somethings show up for a gig in his life than at a Duran Duran concert. Of course I ask him if he hit on any of them... "I'm running sound for them dude".

He also said they had an army of laptops running Logic during the show. So... they might as well put on a virtual show, sounds like they already are!

Publicity

[Thanatos69]

Are they just doing this to create publicity for themselves or is SL paying them to do this to bring in the older crowd?

Re:Publicity

[elrous0]

Actually, the SL crowd generally skews older than other online "games." I'd put the average second lifer in their mid-late-thirties, though I've attended second life events where the age range of participants ran from 18 to 70.

-Eric

Re:No one cares

[Tyger]

I find it ironic that someone named "Karma Farmer" is trolling.

Re:No one cares

[Spazntwich]

Maybe he's more like American farmers, and hoping to be paid karma to not post.

Interaction

[bahwi]

/dance

Anyone hear about....

[Nexzus]

the new processor from AMD optimized for playing 80's MP3's? It's called the Duron Duron.

/Yeah, I shamelessly stole it from Bash.org [bash.org]

Duran Duran, huh?

[FusionDragon2099]

I hope I get a good view...

Re:Duran Duran, huh?

[abandonment]

nah, you'll still be expected to pay $50 and get nosebleed seats...wonder if they'll sell virtual binoculars so you can actually see the 5 pixel animations too?

lol

Re:Duran Duran, huh?

[FusionDragon2099]

It appears you did not get the subtle reference to the James Bond film for which Duran Duran did the theme song for.

Interaction

[_Sprocket_]

Rhodes added: 'We are hoping to give the crowd that come to the virtual concert a real immersive experience, so they can interact with us and react while we are stage.'

Interact and react. In Quake or Unreal Tournament sense? Duran Duran Deathmatch.

Re:Interaction

[Anne_Nonymous]

>> they can interact with us and react while we are (sic) stage

So there'll be a minigun included with the ticket price then?

Aha!

[DuranDuran]

I for one welcome my virtual gigs!

Re:Aha!

[Anonymous Coward]

No, not a-ha, it's Duran Duran. (sorry, bad 80s humour)

Aha?

[Junta]

No no no, they did Take On Me, these guys are one of those other groups from back then.

The Gorillaz did this with holograms

[FauxReal]

The Gorillaz did a virtual performace using holograms [centripetalnotion.com] at the European MTV Music Awards show in Nov 2005.

Re:The Gorillaz did this with holograms

[Russellkhan]

And your point is....?

Re:The Gorillaz did this with holograms

[Rob T Firefly]

The difference here appears to be that (apart from guest rappers) the Gorillaz' singing and music was done off a recording. I believe Damon from Blur once mentioned that none of the actual band members were even in town at the time. TFA isn't clear on this point, but it seems Duran Duran will still be playing and singing live, and just broadcasting the live feed into the game.

so what's different?

[cyberbian]

I bet they've been performing virtual concerts in their minds for years now...

It's probably just bad boys experiencing the reflex.

/cluck

[Ulrika Zugzwang]

I'll be there with my Chicken Hat on! :D ~Ulrika~

Oh great

[QuantumFTL]

One more thing to add to my iptables block list...

Ordinary?

[frantzdb]

This sounds like anything but an Ordinary World.

That's fine..

[Si]

As long as they don't mind being paid virtual money.

No, the cat does not "got my tongue."

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

> "The British band Duran Duran is to create a virtual
> island within the online world of Second Life, on
> which they will perform actual live concerts." /shout "Free tickets at loc 9232.18, 8108.77!"