If you want to hear live music, you have a novel way to catch singer/songwriter/guitar player second-year media student Yunji Kim Johanning. She has regular gigs on Second Life, an online virtual world with over a million users. Johanning, represented online by her avatar, Krysania Eramos, plays live to an audience much like a performance in the “real world.”  She shows up at a predetermined venue and time, and sings/plays guitar live. She has an audience of other avatars/users, who interact with each other and Johanning-as-Krysania-Eramos. They even tip her in the Second Life currency, the Linden – which translates to real US dollars, averaging Johanning $40 – $50 per event on a good day, though the performance is free to attend. Johanning has a fan base group called “Kookoo for Krysania” – referred to as “ Kookoonuts” – who frequent her popular virtual shows, and often takes requests from her eclectic repertoire of over 150 songs.

Her experience performing online has been very positive for Johanning. “Second Life was a way for me to find community in a world where felt like I was just so disconnected from everyone and everything. It grounded me in a way that gave me the courage to express myself, which is a big deal for me because I was never the most outgoing of individuals and to perform was one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever had to do in my life. Yet here I am, doing it twice a week to even twice a day,” she says.

You can find her performance schedule on her website here: http://yunjiverse.virb.com/events