Gigs & Bytes: You Ought To Be In Pixels

There may be no second chances in life, but there are second lives in cyberspace.

At Second Life, the 3D world where residents are represented by avatars, you can be everything you've always wanted to be. Romance, create, build and recreate – all that and more is possible when you're a Second Lifer.

And now Second Life will have its own resident rock band. Duran Duran has appointed virtual world makers Rivers Run Red to create avatars for each member. What's more, once the doppelgangers (pixelgangers?) are completed, the Duran Duran avatars will perform in concert.

By commissioning the creation of their own personalized, custom-made avatars, Duran Duran becomes the first band to have a presence in a 3D virtual world. The Duran Duran avatars will live out their Second Life lives on their own luxury island, where the band's virtual activities will be scheduled to coincide with real-world events, such as media appearances and performances.

Duran Duran is describing its Second Life project as the "center-piece" of a new online strategy. Designed by the band's strategic marketing agency – London-based 3003 Group – the Second Life endeavor will also feature a one-stop, global mobile downloads store, and a new, state-of-the-art Web site.

"No artist has ever done anything like this before," 3003 Group President Peter Wells-Thorpe said. "The five members of Duran Duran will actually live a second life ‘in-world' controlling their own avatars live and doing things ordinary pop stars can only dream about in the real world."

Courtesy Pollstar