Heading into London this afternoon for this evening’s Music Ally debate on “Virtual Worlds – Real Potential.”

The focus will be on Second Life:

[…] Duran Duran is there, as is hip hop superstar Chamillionaire. Singer-songwriters Susanne Vega and Ben Folds are involved. But much of the music industry hasn’t even visited Second Life – the biggest of several online virtual environments which are rapidly gathering momentum on the internet.

These virtual worlds aren’t just gimmicks or flash-in-the-pan PR stories. There’s real money being made (USD $500,000 in virtual goods is traded every day on Second Life) and hundreds of thousands of “residents” are registered with the service. No wonder big brands like Reebok, Adidas, IBM, Vodafone and Fender are investing increasing slices of their advertising budgets on virtual world marketing. The BBC has hosted a virtual concert; Reuters has opened an in-world virtual newsdesk; and advertising agency BBH is using Second Life to encourage its employees around the world to collaborate in a virtual office. Don’t get left behind: this is the ideal opportunity to take a first look at Second Life.

Terrific panel line up for the discussion including Barney Wragg, global head of digital, EMI Music; Daniel Heaf, interactive editor, BBC Radio 1; and Roo Reynolds, metaverse evangelist, IBM Labs.

Justin Bovington, CEO of Rivers Run Red – probably the leading European developer of Second Life presences – will be giving a Second Life demo.

Should be interesting; commentary to come.