AdWeek has an article on Capitol Music Group's decision to work five of its acts at virtual world There.com. (If you read the article at Billboard.biz, this one is much better.) The Beastie Boys, Korn, Mims, Yellowcard and Lily Allen will participate in concerts at a site that attracted only 177,000 visitors last month.

"The record label is setting up a nightclub on There.com that lets fans listen to music from its artists and even meet them during performances. While most brands claim their goal in virtual worlds is only to learn from the 3-D interactive environments, CMG hopes to sell music through kiosks in the nightclub that link to e-commerce outlets.

'It's an opportunity to see if this is a really good opportunity for merchandise to be sold,' said Syd Schwartz, svp of digital strategy at CMG. 'Like anywhere on the Web, you have to make it one click away. If you have the Beastie Boys in chat, why wouldn't you have it one click away.'"

Capitol actually has a shot at its goal of selling music at these nightclub kiosks because of its decision to sell DRM-free digital downloads. Not even in the make believe world do consumers want protected Windows Media files. Route it through consumers' There.com billing info and there's an even better shot.

My, how things have changed. Just a few years ago, labels were seeking out active music fans in the places they visited and the publications they read. Now they're going after virtual communities and people who prefer pajamas and laptops over live music.