SL Live Radio (Radio Cher)

http://www.myspace.com/radiocher

On any one night,
particularly weekends,
more than a dozen live musicians perform at various venues throughout SL. One radio station features live, often unheard outside of SL, music of these artists. Some are rising stars; some are seasoned professionals. But all offer a world of entertainment, from oldies to pop to alternative tunes, to virtual listeners.

SL provides its musicians an opportunity to try out new material, to reach new audiences with niche styles, and to test their talent on the virtual crowds that gather for many of these events.

In general, there appears just as many women musicians, as men, perform in this second space. SL Live Radio was designed to create a home for these SL artists. 24/7, SL Live Radio plays the music of SL artists exclusively, and the station is available freely as a URL on an avatar’s property or as a Web stream online in RL. The owner and programmer is Radio Cher (Cher Harrington), and she posts one of the most detailed SL live music event calendars on her Web site. Her site states that the station has 2,500 unique listeners per week, representing 60 countries. As of August 2008, 190 artists are represented on her station. The artists have agreed to share their music under the Creative Commons License. Cher, a dj for five years, and a former promotions director for radio, also runs another streamed station that airs soft rock.