Why a musician starts an SL career?

First of all he has to trust in his music and he must think to share something new with his audience.
This is the story of Swina Allen whose gig I attended last week at Bogey Beach.: in his music you can find some bluesy roots, but actually it is affected also by some rock influences (Carlos Santana and Weather Report above all) and even some innovative jazz (Joe Zawinul, Waine Shorter e Jaco Pastorius): the result is an original sound, a kind of smooth jazz and chillout.
 As soon as Swina started his second life he opened a club the Italian Mood (yudasin 22, 99, 45) suddenly it became a sort of musical workshop hosting many live musicians’ gigs of different genres. But Swina felt to be mainly a musician and so he decided to get in the game!
He started playing all around in SL gathering a nice crowd of fans.
After the gig I asked some question  to the artist, and he kindly answered me: first of all I asked him what he feels in performing in SL and he said “ well, it depends on what do you expect: I guess that the main thing is not the music in itself ,but first of all the feelings you get across, keeping the people  with you till the gig ends it’s the strongest emotion and sometimes it’s not necessary to be technically perfect: in SL you may get an immediate feedback  and it is well shown by the generous tips of the avatars attending your performance!”
When I asked Swina  how  does he create his songs he told me that usually he starts with a drums pattern and after he adds some new parts (pads, synths) using only some virtual instruments(VLS);sometimes he edits the tracks with a little of quantization but only for the attack  putting together some sampled chorus and voices. Finally he adds also keyboards and then he refines the whole with the acoustic guitar.
I asked him what does he expect from SL:”The great advantage in SL is that it may put you in contact with many other musicians from all over in the world: you may listen easily to their music and maybe  it will be possible  starting a collaboration sharing experiences.
Technology seems to be such important for this artist and so I asked him what he thinks of:”Technology may help: today a musician may have his own studio without any huge investments; digital music did this revolution: it helps the autonomy both for creation and production Of course promotion is not so easy even if web 2.0, social network and web radios. And of course SL itself is able to spread music all around!
If you want know more about Swina and his music you can go to his blog http://swinaallen.blogspot.com

Via press release from Macciej Schumann:

In January 2008 Slang Corp. is going to publish the first issue of  SL'ang Life magazine, which will appear in English and will be delivered to subscribers all over the word by post. The magazine is free of charge and delivery costs! In order to receive a brand new 48-page (A-4 format) issue every month, visit Sl'ang Life’s virtual island and subscribe by filling in a form on www.slanglife.com.

Grand opening of Slang Life’s island, designed and created by the first officially registered Polish developer – aHead agency, took place on December 1st at midnight. Huge demand for a magazine on SL Published in RL, drew crowds to the island long before the opening celebration started. After official speeches of the Board of Directors, avatars were invited to an exclusive fashion show by Beatrix Kohime, and then to a party DJed live by - Annette Paster. Photos of the event (and instructions on how to receive them in a form of a photo album) are available on the island.

From an exchange post by IntLibber Brautigan:
(Edited for style and clarity)

Brautigan & Tuck Holdings (ACE: BNT) is proud to announce that it has signed a contract with a major Nashville talent firm to produce, inside Second Life, the "Second Star" talent contest for country singers and musical performers. The contest winner is guaranteed to receive a recording contract with a major label, and perform a half-time show at a National Football League regular season game.

"Now that BNT has conquered the estate and security fields, and is setting new standards in the SL capital markets, we are moving forward with our further plans to grow the company and become a major SL development company," said BNT CEO IntLibber Brautigan. "As we are a registered full-service SL Developer and are poised to remake the capital markets, it’s only natural that we start building more RL corporate relationships and creating mainstream media events."

Performers within SL will be able to register for Second Star in the next few days. There is a registration fee of L$2,500 to enter, and contestants must submit a URL of prior performances/recordings for evaluation. In addition, contestants will be scheduled for a mandatory live performance before judges and an audience at venues in and around BnT sim.

Register at: http://www.bntholdings.com.