The Linden Dollar is in many ways ahead of its time, it’s a micro transaction medium that allows people in Second Life to purchase goods and services without having to signup to a new provider everytime they want new goods and services and of course those micro transactions mean people can spend pennies electronically, something the wider Internet is crying out for, particularly in the newspaper industry.
However due to its nature of being a license to use, rather than a real currency, it hasn’t gained the traction it could. Which brings me to broadcasting. We have in Second Life, Second Life broadcasters. People will setup their own shoutcast stream, play music, provide televisions that show inworld shows, but why don’t we have film direct from a film company or music from an authorised radio station? There’s scope here for companies to not only delve into new areas but certainly in terms of film, there’s opportunity for those companies to bring machinima to an audience outside Second Life.
Fandor are a company whom broadcast films, they have a subscription based model but unlike some of the larger companies, they look for films the mainstream companies won’t, from their blurb:
“At Fandor we believe our job is to connect amazing films with audiences who will love them. Most of our films fall outside mainstream channels and we love that, because there are plenty of places to watch those films online. We specialize in shorts, independents, film festivals favorites, classics and international films.”
Many Machinima films are shorts and they most certainly fall outside mainstream channels. Fandor are also San Frnacisco based and have at some point, maybe still at this point, employed an ex Linden. There’s potential here but I suspect the mechanics aren’t quite right for them to make a deal with Linden Lab to allow their films to be shown in Second Life, although getting films made in Second Life to Fandor may be less of a challenge, it might just not appeal. However going forward I think this is the sort of strategic alliance that does have potential.
One problem with a deal like this is that it’s no longer a one to one relationship, in Second Life it would be a one to many and many companies like to charge a premium for public broadcasting, for example a pub showing Premier League Football get charged a hell of a lot more than an individual household does and I suspect it’s these high prices that have prevented entertainment deals from happening in Second Life, which is a shame.
Music is in a similar boat, you’d think a small independent radio station would be chomping at the bit to broadcast in Second Life as an official partner radio station and at the same time having the potential to find the Second Life muscians whom could cross over to a wider audience, not all of them can but there are some outstanding musicians here. Again however, I suspect the mechanics aren’t quite right.
However in the long term, there’s a market for film, TV and music in virtual worlds, there are new markets to explore and new alliances to be forged in this digital age. Getting the mechanics right and the cost right is the important opening step, but it shouldn’t be impossible, one idea would be to include such packages in a premium plus package, that could work on an individual basis but it’s a no go in terms of sharing those streams or showing films in a Second Life cinema to wider audiences.
There are challenges in getting this right, but I do think it will happen in a virtual world one day, that day looks some way off yet.