One of the most neglected aspects of sims that I visit in Second Life is the soundscape. Occasionally, I have visited a sim and been captivated by what I hear – music, or other sounds (birds, creaking doors, the wind – whatever fits).
More often, alas, I visit a beautiful sim, switch on music, and hear traffic news, or an advert for something really shit that ‘you always knew you needed’ …
There was a sim called October Country – does anyone else remember it? – that streamed audio books and plays. Visitors – me! – would sit for hours in a spooky graveyard listening to classic broadcasts, usually of science fiction. It made for a wonderful atmosphere.
I wondered about doing this sometimes at Furillen. If I did, it would surely have to be War of the Worlds to start everything off …
Although there is a separate page on this site referring to music at Furillen, I wanted to mention it here partly to draw attention to the fact that the sim has its very own music stream.
I won’t bore you with how it works, but there is around 60 hours of music on a random loop. I have 12gb of server space, so there is room for plenty more. But I reserve that for special occasions …
… there were some Christmas tunes for a very short time …
… the new song released by Radiohead on Christmas day was uploaded and played once per hour (just wait until their new album is dropped – any time now!) …
… when David Bowie died I uploaded 15 hours of his music and played it for two days, and I still use this playlist from time to time …
… and this weekend, I will be playing music chosen by Moon Edenbaum to accompany his series of portraits that will be on show.
I don’t know many other sims that have their own music stream permanently running. Elysion – a favourite place on the grid for many of us – is one. There is always great music on there, and I enjoy talking to the owner – Syn Beresford – about music choices.
The music I uploaded to the stream is mainly what I’d play when working – or running, strangely enough. It’s mostly ambient, very atmospheric, usually without words.
Biosphere, Eno, BVDUB, Hammock, John Foxx, Nils Frahm, Oophoi, Stars of the Lid, This Will Destroy You … all feature heavily, alongside a smattering of other stuff, including some classical (Avro Pärt, for example) …
I think it not only fits the sim’s special atmosphere, but enhances it.
One feature of the stream you might find odd is my voice, intermittently telling you that you are listening to Furillen radio, etc. This is done in order to prevent – or discourage – a larger commercial sim from latching onto the stream. It would sound a bit strange …
I do this because there are 50 listening slots on my stream. More than enough for a homestead like Furillen, but easily swallowed up …
The stream provides listening stats, which are interesting reading. On average, I would say that between 50-70% of those on the sim at any one time listen to the stream. Those who tune in listen – on average – for around half an hour.
One in ten listen for well over an hour, some for more than 4 hours …
But here is my favourite statistic. Since the stream began, listeners have tuned in from a total of 102 countries.
Want a list? Alright then, if you insist. Here they are, in order of listening minutes …
United States 
United Kingdom 
Germany 
France 
Italy 
Netherlands 
Romania 
Brazil 
Argentina 
Mexico 
Japan 
Australia 
Canada 
Spain 
Russian Federation 
Belgium 
Switzerland 
Portugal 
Thailand 
Estonia 
Korea, Republic Of 
Sweden 
Slovenia 
Ecuador 
Chile 
India 
Croatia 
Greece 
Serbia 
South Africa 
Singapore 
Colombia 
Venezuela 
Norway 
New Zealand 
Denmark 
Hungary 
Turkey 
Peru 
Ukraine 
Latvia 
Finland 
Belarus 
United Arab Emirates 
Malaysia 
Hong Kong 
Indonesia 
Poland 
Philippines 
Qatar 
Lithuania 
Israel 
Moldova, Republic Of 
Puerto Rico 
Ireland 
Bulgaria 
Bahamas 
Macao 
Saudi Arabia 
Armenia 
Austria 
Jamaica 
Algeria 
Uruguay 
Isle Of Man
Saint Lucia 
Bosnia And Herzegovina 
Mauritania 
Kuwait 
Kazakhstan 
Czech Republic 
Pakistan 
China 
Sri Lanka 
Luxembourg 
Albania 
Dominican Republic 
Cyprus 
Honduras 
Trinidad And Tobago 
El Salvador 
Lebanon 
Bangladesh 
Zimbabwe 
Georgia 
Slovakia 
Oman 
Viet Nam 
Bolivia 
Iceland 
Panama 
Tunisia 
Montenegro 
Egypt 
Reunion 
Malta 
Palestinian Territory, Occupied 
Nigeria 
Iraq 
Morocco 
Costa Rica 
If nothing else, this demonstrates just how cosmopolitan the grid can be.
But I hope it also encourages those of you who haven’t listened yet, to tune in …
… and enjoy how Furillen sounds, not just how it looks.
You are so very right, the sound is what makes a place believable to our brain or not. You did great job on Furillen. ♥
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The music stream is one of the reasons I return so often. It fits my mood so often. I have often wanted to put a stream together for my home sim but I am clueless how to make that happen, but I always make sure I have ambient sounds (birds, water, wind, etc) Thank you for making Furillen available for us. 🙂
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I totally agree with Sunshine apart from making my own music stream, your sims offer something for everyone and if you did do what you suggest in your post, I hope you do kick it off with the war of the worlds its a great one to start of with.
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