In a quandary what to give this Christmas? Without doubt gift vouchers are as popular now as they have ever been. However as the times have changed, so have our vouchers. No longer are you given a giftcard to buy your own hideous woolen jumper, but you are given a giftcard to purchase the latest and greatest tunes.

The two major players in the internet shopping world are of course iTunes and Amazon. Both companies of course offer gift vouchers and allow shoppers to buy the music from their vast catalogues; these catalogues include some of the SecondLife resident musicians.

Crap Mariner, a keen supporter of live music in Second Life and regular voucher shopper has created two locations in-world for the promotion of music purchases and support for SL musicians. Crap offers us a project focusing on the wonderful and talented SecondLife musicians as well as a new and inspiring way to support them. I managed to catch up with Crap and ask him how this project came about initially and how residents and musicians can get involved.

Trinity Dechou: Tell us a little about Tunes inSL, what set the ball rolling?

Crap Mariner: Last year at SLCC 2007, the musicians, deejays, venue owners, and Lindens were at the business track arguing over shortcomings in the platform and business model, but not coming up with many solutions that resulted in "a rising tide lifts all boats."

I took a lot of notes, studied things for a while, asked a few music performers and promoters in RL, and let it stew for a while as I hosted live musicians in my own venue. While I was saying "I support live music in SL" I constantly asked myself "What can I do to support it more?"

When the holidays rolled around, I got a few iTunes gift cards. Instead of wasting them on ungrateful overhyped tabloid trash like Madonna and Britney Spears and rappers who shoot at each other while shooting up the charts, I wanted to use them to support live musicians in SL.

That's the heart of this project - if you get gift cards, how do you use them to support live music in SL? Everything comes back to that statement. Anything that gets in the way of that or adds unnecessary bells or whistles or drama - slice it off and get back to the heart of the project.

So I had these gift cards, but who can I use them on? I already had the albums by Cylindrian (Grace Buford), Kaklick (Bryan Baker), and Louis Volare (Louis Landon) - who else was in iTunes that I could buy music from?

I posted a call for names and links on my blog, and I got a great response. I picked up Tallguy Kidd (Dale Marsh), EvaMoon Ember (Eva Moon) and a few others.

People who read my blog let me know they used their own iTunes gift cards to buy SL music, so I know this was something that might work if there was more lead time.

As November rolled around, I wrote up a quick notecard, a few blog posts, and spammed my friends lists on various networks.

Keep it simple - one prim per album, link off to the download/review site on iTunes or Amazon. Nothing fancy that can break or go wrong.

Trinity Dechou: How do people purchase their music through SecondLife?

Crap Mariner: There's a few in-world systems like TRAX and SecondTunes, and God bless them for coming up with elegant solutions to allow in-world purchases, but they don't have as wide a footprint as the big players like iTunes and Amazon. They also don't have the userbase, communities, or review/ratings systems that can possibly lead to wider exposure of these talented people in RL.

Most musicians use CDBaby.com to get their music out there. It's quick, easy, and they give a good commission compared to iTunes or Amazon. They'll also burn copies of the music and ship them for live performers in their RL gigs.

But no gift cards yet. And the gift cards are the heart of the project - getting people to use whatever cards or credits they get to support live music in SL.

The industry standard for gift cards, community, reviews/ratings, and a simple storefront is iTunes, Amazon in second place and coming up quickly. If someone wants to make a CD Baby catalog site and build, more power to them. I'll help promote and link them as best I can.

Trinity Dechou: What sort of feedback have you had, both from shoppers and artists?

Crap Mariner: The response so far has been overwhelming - performers volunteering to join in, music fans wanting to see their favorite performers listed, people saying that they're having to cut back on holiday expenses with the recession so they're looking for inexpensive gifts like music, suggestions on how to improve the galleries and the website... Vint Falken made an awesome poster, Hulaboom Voom offered up space for the Amazon side of the project, venue owners and friends offering up space to put up the posters.

Yeah, I started it off as iTunes inSL Project, but since last year, Amazon's built up their site and service quickly, and they also have made a better effort to offer DRM-free music than Apple has.

Quite a few musicians who aren't listed in either iTunes or Amazon have told me they're going to make it a priority to get listed very soon - they've been meaning to get that done, just haven't had the time or motivation. Well, HOWDY BE! GOOD OL' MOTIVATION KNOCKIN AT YER DOOR! HOOHAH! Heh.

Someone suggested that I put out a Subscribeomatic to avoid using up a group slot and make it easier to get the word out, so I set one out there. Quite a few people have signed up for it, and they're going to be entered into a giveaway of at least 12 iTunes/Amazon gift cards. I also got an unexpected bonus from work for an article I wrote, so if things work out I may toss in a few 2GB Shuffles or an iPod Touch.

Another suggestion was to make a website to catalog the music and archive a few helpful hints/announcements. So I repurposed http://riaa.isfullofcrap.com/ to handle the catalog, rigged up a Movable Type template, added Vint's awesome art as a banner, and collected up a few tips on getting listed on iTunes and Amazon - that kind of thing. This way, if the grid's down or you know someone in RL who ought to try out these people's tunes, just point them there.

We'll see how this makes an impact on album sales when the holidays arrive and people start using those gift cards they get. If it's a useful resource beyond the holidays to everyone, then it's going to stay and grow.

Trinity Dechou: How do artists get involved in the project?

Crap Mariner: Get listed on iTunes and/or Amazon and toss me a notecard with a full-permissions texture of your album cover as well as where I can find your music. If you want to kill three birds with one stone, you can get listed in CDBaby and they have a method of getting your tracks up to iTunes or Amazon through them. (I haven't been through the process, so I don't know how many Advils of a headache it is.)

I've posted links on how to get listed on those systems on the blog sidebar: http://riaa.isfullofcrap.com/

Also, join the subscribeomatic in the Edloe clocktower gallery so you can keep up with announcements of new performers, where the project is heading, any surprise promotions that iTunes or Amazon are having that will make it easier for people to get credits on their systems, etc and so forth.

Trinity Dechou: How can people get involved through using their clubs/ galleries etc?

Crap Mariner: Come by the Edloe clocktower and click the main poster - it will give you a full-permissions copy of the poster that you can display at your venue.

Join the subscribeomatic in the Edloe clocktower gallery so you can get new versions of the poster, learn of new performers, keep up with the stuff that iTunes or Amazon is doing for the holidays, and get entered in the gift giveaways.

If you want the subscribeomatic at your venue, just drop me a line via IM and we'll figure out what we need to do permissions-wise to have that dropped into place. All I need to do is be able to rez and not have the thing return.

If you're a blogger, podcaster, or SL journalist - plug the living daylights out of this thing, guys. Get the word out. Even if it's something as simple as just copy-pasting the notecard with a link to the blog. I know that everyone (but me) is busy for the holidays, so whatever y'all can do to get the word out without losing too much sleep is appreciated (those sugarplums won't dream of themselves dancing, you know)

If you don't see your favorite performer listed in the gallery and you know they have an album out on iTunes or Amazon (or even CDBaby), *politely* offer them a copy of the notecard so they know this is available. They may not be able to get listed in time for Christmas, but I have a feeling that this gallery is going to be around much longer than that.

Finally, if you're a RL journalist, quit chasing down the sex angle of SL for a few seconds and drop me a line. I'll show you how SL can bring people together, inspire, entertain, and make a difference. And, yes, this project has a lot to do with that. Otherwise, well, I guess I'm right when it comes to thinking all of you reporters are just a bunch of worthless sex-seeking perverts trying to cover your asses when your editors catch you poseballing with a half-llama stripper. "Um... I was just doing research for this story about how SL is just a bunch of sex and weirdos!" Yeah, right. We believe you. NOT.

That's right, Guardian, BBC, and The Register. I'm calling your punk asses out.