(UPDATED)

If it's good enough for Lemmy... 

Music Mogul, Loudcrowd, Mixm8 and ToonsTunes and of course Second Life have  , as Music Ally pointed out, all tried to use music to draw people into their online virtual worlds. For new entrant Rocktopia, music is its raison d'etra - and not just fans but artists too. In fact, Motorhead's Lemme has already built a castle there.

Fans sign up for free, but the business model is based around virtual item sales. “Music artists, whether they are big or small, have to find ways to monetize their content as the music industry is changing,” founder Jon Jacobs told VentureBeat. “Ten years ago, they realized they needed a web presence. They created web sites, joined MySpace, and launched on the social networks. But it is hard for them to monetize those things. Here, we have created a destination with a real cash economy built right into it.”

Watch an intro video: