Become A Second Life Video DJ - My Video Playlists

Recently I've laboriously gone through all 26 video playlists I maintain and updated them - revising links that no longer play in Second Life, adding new videos & playlists, and removing videos that are no longer available. There are nearly 500 videos linked in these playlists so the process was tedious but enjoyable since I get to watch a lot of great videos while I revise the lists.

The playlists are formatted for various media devices in Second Life - the NHC Media Center, Damani MediaViewer, and Icarus V2000. These Second Life televisions allow an SL resident to watch YouTube videos, play movies, view streaming video content and web TV shows, etc. I maintain the playlists inworld for my own use, on the Second Life Wiki Media playlists article, and available for purchase on the Second Life Marketplace.

There are playlists for Cake, Evanescence, Green Day, Pink Floyd, Slow Dances, Muse, lots of female artists (e.g. Kat Deluna, Beyonce, Priscilla Ahn, A Fine Frenzy), Lady Gaga, Machinima, Trance, Fractals, Second Life music videos, Tech N9ne, Infected Mushroom, Weezer, U2, AC/DC, Guns N Roses, and much more.

Each playlist is a notecard written in that media device manufacturer's  playlist format. Simply drag the playlists you want to use from your inventory into the Contents tab of your media device. The playlists should then show up on the TV's menu.

What this allows me to do inworld is easily plan and create an audio/video set either for personal use or as a Video DJ. No need for expensive difficult to setup Shoutcast stream server plus you get to watch the video :) Some SL media players allow you to simply click "Play List" and sit back or dance for hours while the TV streams dozens of videos inworld. Others you have to step through the list manually. Some players allow guests at your event to sync their viewers with yours, others only support asynchronous play. I use the NHC Media Center as it is cheap, plays lists, and guests can sync plus it comes with a Media Dome replete with dance floor visuals and a VJ booth.

Let me know if you find any links that need updating, have any requests or suggestions, would like to contribute playlists or links to the wiki, or have any questions about how to set yourself up as a Video DJ.

Here's a video treat from my "Wow Volume 1" playlist:

YouTube Keeps Us On Our Toes - Newly Revised NHC Media Playlists

I create and maintain a set of media playlists for several of the major media players in Second Life. One set, the NHC Media Playlists, I offer on the Second Life Marketplace for L$25. It's really convenient and kinda cool to be able to automatically play a series of YouTube videos on your land or in your club. Sort of like a Video DJ.

However, the videos tend to disappear over time or become unplayable in Second Life. Several things can happen to make a video disappear. The user can pull it or quit YouTube. YouTube can make the video unavailable due to Copyright infringement. But, by far, the most frequent cause of YouTube videos disappearing or becoming unplayable in Second Life is due to the actions of the Warner Music Group (WMG). Since WMG owns the rights to the songs recorded by artists under contract with them, they can get YouTube to pull them over Copyright dispute even if the artists do not object or actively encourage the free distribution and viewing of their music videos. All the artists can do is make the videos of live performances of their music available and most do.

That artists do not control the distribution and terms of use of their own artistic creations seems wrong to me. It seems like a crime.

The second most common thing WMG (and others, like Sony) do to "protect" "their" intellectual property is to disable embedding of the video. What this means is that you can watch the video on YouTube but the Second Life media players cannot play it in Second Life.

All this adds up to making my playlists go stale over time as they gradually are inundated with links that no longer work in SL. Recently I've refreshed a few of my playlists and that is the reason for this post.  I have updated my NHC Media Playlists product on the SL Marketplace replacing unavailable links with new ones that play in Second Life.

I will soon be updating the SL Wiki and inworld freebies I make available.