December 5, 2006
Ninja Tune Launches Music Video Channel in Second Life

Here's another interesting bit of news forwarded from my colleague Geoffrey Long via Macworld UK: a British record label is finalizing plans to launch a virtual music video channel through the immensely popular virtual world Second Life. The channel will be called Ninja TV, launched by independent record label Ninja Tune. The channel will feature multiple hours' worth of content from a variety of UK artists, and any Second Life inhabitant can watch the TV station free, as well as purchasing the release through the digital shop for Ninja Tune.

Ninja Tune will launch its virtual music video channel as part of a new TV network from the UK design agency Rivers Run Red, which will be called Virtual Life.TV. According to their story, "The Ninja TV channel will be supported by leading UK digital music research firm Music Ally, which will be hosting an event in London in December to profile how Second Life can benefit the music industry."

Fans are already showing their support. A poster that goes by the name Intolerable Ginsburg at ALT + LIFE + ESC writes, "Ninja TV seems like a no-brainer for the Ninjas. The label's website has tons of videos up, and I've seen plenty of folks in-world already linking their video streams to the Ninja videos."

Ninja now joins a growing number of interesting extensions into Second Life. Back in October, I wrote about the Reuters bureau that has opened in the online world. And, with all the copyright issues that have been raised for music in recent years, there is also a need to think about how copyright and IP issues related to online worlds. And another issue to think about is how brands extend into these virtual worlds, as Henry Jenkins wrote about back in September.

Also, for those interested in virtual worlds, including comments from John Lester of Linden Labs, be sure to check out this report of our Futures of Entertainment conference last month.