According at a story on the BBC, Radio 1 has hired an virtual island in the parallel online world of Second Life (see this post for more on Second Life).
It doesn’t mention who the island has been hired from nor what the fee will be.
The island has been kitted out with a stage and the first concerts will be held there this weekend as part of the One Big Weekend festival, which – in the physical world – will be taking place in Dundee.
In a further head-twisting move, visitors to the island will be able to get a virtual digital radio which means they will be able to listen to Radio 1 with when they are in the game.
Already booked for the virtual concert are Gnarls Barkley, Muse and Razorlight. Apparently the gig will take about 400 virtual people and will be policed by "computerised bouncers".
"Avatars of some Radio 1 DJs and as yet undisclosed celebrities will als be circulating on the island, but Mr Heaf [interactive editor at Radio 1] says the festival is really for the Radio 1 audience."
Second Life has about 200,000 players, but I’m not sure how many of those are in the UK. It will be interesting to see how this exercise pans out for them. What it will certainly be is good publicity for Second Life…
If it was April 1st I’d be doing some serious double-checking – amazing! Hats off to the vision of
Daniel Heaf, the aforementioned interactive editor at Radio 1.
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