Second Life Live Voice Concerts - A few points

I've been holding Live SL Voice performances lately and everyone really seems to enjoy it. I'm trying to make this "feel" like we are all gathered together in the same room or club where we can all now verbally interact with each other. 

If you wouldn't mind, as I know this is probably new to a lot of Second Life members, here are a few things that can be done to make the experience better for everyone:


• You don't HAVE to get on voice and if you do, you don't HAVE to talk. Just be comfortable listening and having fun!

• Please check your voice settings BEFORE coming to the venue. For greater voice stability, reduce bandwidth to around 400. Preferences > Network Settings.

• You can also test your setting by visiting this Second Life location. You will only be able to hear your OWN voice and make sure all sounds good.
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Voice%20Echo%20Canyon/131/127/24

• Choose "Listen from AVATAR POSITION" in Sound preferences.

• Use headphones not speakers and keep them on a relatively medium volume. This will remove any possibility of feedback from your speakers into your mic and not have anyone's eardrums ache after the show!

• If there is live performance going on, please mute your mic during songs. Live performers might also want to have voice volume turned off while playing a song in case someone arrives at the club with their speakers on and mic accidentally set loud. This will allow everyone to hear the show and not any accidental hum or typing during the songs.

• To hear best (and loudest), try to get closer to the performer.

• Depending where people are in the world, there may be greater or less latency (delay) from the time they speak until others can hear them. This is something that is defined by several variable such as distance to server, individual computer processing speed, etc. Please try to be considerate of and accommodate for this possible latency on your own voice and that of others.

• Please try to help each other. If you know how to set Preferences, please help those who may not.


Above all else, have fun. You don't have to get on voice, but if you do, then talk, interact, have FUN!

Its in Your hands!

I'd like to take a minute to talk to all Second Life performers and DJs. 

I've been playing live shows since 2006 and in that time I have been fortunate to have made many friends who are venue owners. These kind people book me to perform for their venue and support the live music community by offering a place for us to perform, many do so without turning any profit, paying for everything out of their own pockets. This isn't news, or at least shouldn't be to the SL performer.

Whether we are paid to perform or play a tips only venue, we must take into account the effort that the venues put forth on behalf of the SL performers. To that I would like to offer a few suggestions that, in my experience, will hopefully benefit both yourselves and the venue.

When it comes to promoting anything, Social Networking is #1 on the list. Facebook, Twitter, Second Friends, G+… all of these are amazing "tools" at our disposal and if you're not making good and regular use of them, well you're honestly missing out on a lot. 



When Brandy and I book a show, one of the first things we ask of the venue owner is "Do you have a note card about your venue?" Why? Because I want to do what I can to help promote the venue. After all they are the ones putting me up. This way, when we create an event on Facebook or Second Friends, we have some good text to use in our promotions and it also lets SL'ers know a bit about the venue, sim, launch, etc. and the event itself. it also allows the performer to talk about something other than themselves. We also provide the venue with a current image and bio for them to use in their own marketing and events listings. 

One other thing, especially with new venues, if you don't see your event listed in Second Life Events, you might want to respectfully remind the owner(s) to do a Second Life Event Listing so your performance shows up in "Search".

 
About 90 minutes before the show, Brandy and I are on Facebook and the web, writing up some copy for the event, using the venue's provided text, including the SLurl and image I've created. This gets posted to about 300,000+ group and network members between all Facebook groups, G+, Second Friends, Twitter, etc. This doesn't mean a guarantee of attendance, but at least we know we are doing our part. At the same time, we are also giving back to the venue by getting their name and brand in front of many of SL members who may not be aware of the venue. This will also possibly garner more attention to your event and might offer you better attendance.
 
I urge you to not rely on the venue's promotions alone, who are hopefully doing their own promotions for their events, but to rely on yourself and your manager (if you have one) to get the word out about your own shows. These are our Second Life careers and personally, I enjoy having SL as a platform to get my music out there. So why not use it to the best of our abilities and at the same time, help the venues who are helping us.


Here is part of the routine that Brandy and I go through before every Second Life show I perform:

• Create an event "promotional image" for each show. It's good to use your picture but even better to consistently add your own logo on EVERY promo.

• Post on all Facebook Groups (using the venue provided text along with your own)
You can easily include a photo (better to use the promotional image as mentioned above) for the event, and the SLurl.

• Create an event on Second Friends (using the venue provided text along with your own and your promo image). Second Friends is FREE! You can register with your Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, or LinkedIn credentials and start listing your events, create your own fan group, post unlimited pics and videos, etc. You can even send the event with a few clicks to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. ! http://www.second-friends.com

• Hit G+
Google's community is huge! PERIOD!

• Twitter
Sure Twitter only allows 140 characters but even at that limit, you can write up a short and sweet post about your event, including the SLurl or a link back to a Facebook event.


There are more things you can do, and of course this can apply to other promotions in both SL and RL that you are trying to market, but if you are doing these few things in the least, your chances of higher attendance will increase and you will also be helping the venue who is helping YOU. 

If you'd like to read more on the matter, Brandy has also posted some very useful info on her own blog here - BRANDY'S BLOG

I wish you the very best of luck and success.

Fun and One Bad Apple!

Last night I decided to perform a special show for the Second Life group "Friends of Mankind" which I started as a fan group when I first started performing in SL in November 2006. Since that time, the group has grown into thousands and has become much more than a fan group, it is my family, WE are a family, and the group's premise is no longer as simple as the "fan group" which was my initial intent.

Over the years, many have joined our family, not only to get word of my shows and events, but to be part of a group of people from all over the world who enjoy each others' company no matter what we do. Most of the time we're laughing about something or another and the mood of the family even in group chat is always great!

2012 showed many new people joining and many long time members still sticking around. It also was a great year for my Second Life music career where I performed probably close to a thousand live events.

At the end of 2012 I started thinking and decided I wanted to do something nice for our group who have been so amazing to me in 2012, so I decided to plan an event just for us. It would be an all acoustic Pink Floyd show which I would perform live. The event would be for our family and anyone else who cared to join the always fun and often sarcastic insanity of the group.

Brandy (Kalli Birman) and I went to work to set everything up including setting the group to "Open Enrollment" (so anyone could join easily and free as always) and placing a group joiner outside Club Graffiti, which Brandy parceled off and set to the "Friends of Mankind" group. Again, since I wanted to do something in appreciation for the generous support I had received in 2012 specifically from our family group. Now with the club set to the group, only those in our group could get in, or those who arrived who weren't in the group, could join simply with one click on the group joiner already set outside the club.

Showtime had arrived and I was floored to see how many people attended. Since I love Pink Floyd, it was a really cool and very special night for me, and I thought it would be a nice way to say thanks to our family. After the show, Brandy and I got on voice, as we do after almost every show, and she told me about something that happened during the show. It apparently began in public chat, luckily out of my chat range, and came from a woman who started swearing in local chat left and right for "having this event for the group only" or something along those lines. Brandy respectfully told her that she and everyone else are welcome to join the group and enjoy the concert. (There were about 30-40 or so new people who did just that, without one negative remark or requests for help on how to join). What gets me REALLY is that even after Brandy explained why I was doing this concert for the family group, she went off and began cursing quite nastily. I mean WTF? Brandy said she could join the group and come in and being the pro that she is, Brandy of course kept her cool and took the conversation into private chat. From what Brandy tells me, this woman continued her abusive tirade until Brandy had no choice but to remove her from the event so as to keep this woman from disrespecting our guests at the club, turning a peaceful and fun event into something else.

So why am I even mentioning this? Well it's a matter of respect. No matter what medium we are conversing on, no matter how a misunderstanding or voiced opinion is communicated, I think it's of great importance that we remember to be respectful to others. On chat conversations, it's very hard to assume what the other person's inflections or tone might be and thus what their true meaning or intent might be, so we need to be even that much more careful and respectful until we can REALLY know.

For this, I want to express my pride in our family group, not for creating it, but for being PART of it. In the years since I first created the group, we have NEVER had such an incident - even though I have done Group Only events in the past - and it makes me that much more appreciative of the support, not only for my shows and music career, but support of each other as PEOPLE, from all over the world, who have come together, whose paths have crossed for whatever reason and who share time, respectfully, to enjoy and have some fun, to create and communicate.

So taking all this into consideration, I want to express my love and thanks to all those in our group. Thank you for a great 2012 and I look forward to the continued friendships and bonds we've created.

SLoupon Update

Since original launch, SLoupon has had a major change to the business model. SLoupon is now - through September 30 - only $L1 to join, after which will be significantly reduced from $L350/mth to $L99/mth which can quickly be recouped on just one SLoupon purchase and which is affordable for even the newest of noobs. SLoupon now has 150+ members and roughly the same on the website/social network. It continues to grow daily with both members in the SL group and on the website.

What is SLoupon?

DEFINITION: SLoupon (sloo-pon) Noun. A group discount system in Second Life whose members can enjoy a discount of up to 50% and more on merchandise from SLoupon member merchants all across the grid. SLouponer - Noun. SLouponing - Verb. IE "Hey, let's all go SLouponing!"SLoupon is a monthly subscription based service in which only members of the SLoupon Group will have access to the reduced price items by registered merchants. Each SLoupon Merchant will place items substantially discounted for SLoupon Group members only... things like apparel, hair, animations, skins, and more.

You must be in the SL SLoupon group to purchase from the SLoupon vendors at merchants' locations.

By joining, you will be entitled to discounts of up to 50% and more on many products and services we shop for every day like clothes, hair, animations, skins, home & garden, textures and more. To become a SLoupon member and start saving, you'll need to join the inworld "SLoupon Group" by visiting one of the SLoupon Kiosks and joining. After you've become a SLoupon member, you may also register on the website to stay on top of all current deals (now at over 350), join the Forums, create your own Profile, network with other SLouponers, get a list of all Kiosk Locations and more.

Visit the SLoupon Website. Please note that you must register before you can get "into" the website and see all the available Discounts:
http://www.sloupon.biz

SLoupon currently has over 50 participating merchants including Gizza Creations, Paris Metro Couture, Sassy!, MEB, Evolve, Alice Project, X-Clusives Animation, PipSqueeks, KO Textures and many more!

SLoupon was created by myself, Seth Regan, and Brandy Maltas (Mankind Tracer & Kalli Birman in SL). The goal of SLoupon is to offer great deals for residents and at the same time, provide Second Life stores more exposure to the SL populous.

If you are interested in becoming a SLoupon Merchant please go to this link:
SLoupon Merchant Information

Find a SLoupon Kiosk at Club Graffiti in The Village:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Good%20Day%20Sunshine/158/59/50

SLoupon on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/SLoupon

Second Life Business Contract Obligations

Some of you might have seen what Brandy posted on her blog the yesterday. She spoke of generalities of doing business in Second Life and cited a very good example, that about contractual obligations between artists and venues who hire them.

http://brandymaltas.blogspot.com/2012/02/bad-business-practices-in-second-life.html

I wanted to elaborate a bit more on what she wrote. When I am contracted to perform in Second Life, I take on the responsibility of more than just playing for an hour and leaving. Oh no... there is MUCH more to it than that and it is with respect to other performers and managers that I offer this.

Before anything, there is the marketing side that is addressed for all events and shows.

A big reason that I still have solid ground under my shoes after over 5 years of performing in SL is that when I am hired to play a show, all venues know that they are getting quite a bit  more than the show itself. What I mean is that between Brandy and myself, we take on and accept the role of "Marketing" the event, promoting it and publicizing it as best as we can. We make use of Second Life group notices, Facebook Groups, Twitter and also on Second Friends where there is now a thriving community from many SL industries with over 2000 SL residents as members. We also create "Events" on Facebook and Second Friends and invite our friends.

After all is said and done and utilizing all avenues, we promote to well over 350,000 pairs of eyes for every event. When a venue approaches us inquiring about me performing for them, we might hear from some that it's out of their budget, and at first glance, the venue is probably assuming that all they are getting is my performance. (Truth be told, I can't say I blame them as they have probably been conditioned to expect nothing more than the performance. They may have dealt primarily with SL performers which may not provide the marketing and promotions that we offer.) At that point, we will remind them that besides the show, they are also getting their brand out in front of all those 350,000 eyes, and that Brandy and I are working hours before the events to promote THEM, their venue, their sim, their content... their event… whatever it may be. Attendance may vary from day to day, hour to hour, and is never a certainty. It's just not in anyone's control as to how SL will be behaving, if the venue is having tech issues and so on. What IS in our control is spreading the word about the venue and event and THAT is the contractual obligation we accept for each and every event I play.

Getting back to Brandy's post, a venue hires me to perform but it is clear that they are also relying on our promotions. Of course the venues themselves need to be doing everything they can to promote the event and the artists they hire. Without that it looks completely one sided as if the venue has zero interest in promoting themselves and THAT comes down to the point. It's a matter of professionalism and understanding that YOUR venue is your BUSINESS! PERIOD! If you don't understand the basics of running a business, well guess what will likely happen to your venue very quickly.

Both Brandy and I are ALL for helping venues as much as we can, and those who have worked with us on our various projects can attest to that fact. The venues and businesses in Second Life that we have contracted, or been contracted by, all understand from the get go exactly what it is they will be receiving. We in turn also make sure we understand the terms of the contracts and expect the Contractor to live up to their end.

The fact that so many people have viewed and commented in support of Brandy's Blog post reassures me that Second Life residents agree that there is still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to contractual obligations.

I would like to respectfully suggest to ALL who do any form of business in Second Life to simply remember "Business Ethics". Without proper ethics in business, we will ultimately revert back to trading stones for rabbits.

We consider ourselves business professionals and that being said, would like to offer any guidance and help that we can. Brandy and I own The Tracer | Birman Agency, a full service marketing and PR firm offering professional business services including Website Design, Graphic Design, Other Digital Design, Social Media, Marketing, Social Marketing, Brand Creation, Event Planning, Brand Introduction, Logo Design, Corporate Identity. More specific services geared towards Second Life include, Social Integration, Custom Second Life Builds, Event Planning, Marketing, Product Design and Sim Layout/Design.

As always, Brandy and I are happy to help if you have any questions, just shoot us a note card or email info@tracerbirman.com.

Marketing your Second Life: For SL Businesses, Musicians and Managers.

Any business, big or small, regardless of location, target demographic or any other criteria, is IN business. Being in business simply translates to the fact that you have a product and/or service that you are offering for sale or some other form of trade.

In order to find those who are interested in your products or services, a business needs to publicize or do the necessary "marketing" to advertise what it is they are offering.

For Second Life businesses, the same facts hold true.

All businesses in SL, regardless of industry are similarly IN business. They are seeking to sell a product or service in exchange for money or other forms of trade merchandise.

Musicians in both real life and Second Life also have to run their business. They are in the business of providing both product and service. The service being their performances and their product may vary from CD's, clothing or other branded "stuff" and so on.

As a business owner for many years and as a Second Life performer, I understand that it can be a tricky undertaking for performers to get the word out about their offerings. Within SL, we are limited to Group Notices that can only house note cards, textures, or links. This was the underlying reason I created Second Friends. Personally, I wasn't satisfied with not being able to have proper marketing for my businesses in SL.

After creating Second Friends, I decided that it would be a great tool to help others in various businesses and industries within Second Life. I contacted musician friends first and then realized that other industries could also benefit from the great free marketing tools Second Friends offers.

Join Free with your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Yahoo ID!
http://www.second-friends.com

Today we have blown passed the 2000 member mark. I wanted to take a few minutes to share this blog in case you might have missed the  marketing I've been sending to as many SL'ers as I can reach.

One of the most important things you can do for your business is get your brand in front of as many people as possible. Branding. It goes hand in hand with just about every single marketing campaign I've been a part of.

I think one of the most important features you will find on Second Friends is the ability to create your own "Group". This it not limited to musicians, just to be clear. Any business or industry can utilize and benefit from creating a SF Group.

When creating a SF Group, you are creating a mini website of sorts. I own a website/graphic design firm as one of my real life businesses so I'm very clear when I label it this way. What I mean to say is, when considering what a website is, basically it is a blank canvas that you can "decorate" however you like, but more importantly, with components that will express your vision for YOUR business.

Join Free at: http://www.second-friends.com

A SF Group is VERY similar in this regard as it too can house just about anything a website can. This reflects back to the limitations I mentioned above about Second Life Group notices. On your SF Group, you can post links, photos, text, Javascripts, etc. and yes, even video. If you use your SF Group right, it can be quite powerful. Contrarily, SL notices cannot do much more than include text, links and images (or other notecard containing the same limitations).

I'd like to invite all Second Life businesses, regardless of industry, to create your own SF Group. After you have, you are welcome to contact me and I will create a Second Friends banner that you can rez out at your SL business, shows, events, etc. whereby people can click on it and will direct them to your SF Group page.

For example, in the fashion business, there are many places to advertise among the fashion mags, blogs and so on. Second Friends is not a fashion magazine. It is comprised of many different people from many different industries. My point is, why advertise your dresses on a medium where many other designers are also advertising their dresses. What I mean is, why CREATE your own competition?!?!?!

Create a group on Second Friends. If you are serious minded, and although space is limited, you can contact me about placing a specialized Ad on Second Friends. I don't use the word "limited" lightly. I will not have Second Friends become over saturated with ads so yes, space is limited and more will likely not be added. I will gladly extend this invitation to performers as well and for that matter, any business in SL seeking to break free from the mundane that has become the norm.

Second Life business and artists can also create Events that show up right on the Second Friends Home Page. With 20,000+ page views per month and growing, many SL'ers are turning to Second Friends to get more detail about upcoming Events. Whether you are having a fashion show, new venue launch or a live performance or DJ event, SF Events are the place to list  them. Events can also include many web features like video, pictures, links, etc... once again, much more than SL notices or SL Event listings can offer you.

For now, Second Friends remains 100% free (other than paid Advertising) I created it and this is how it is!

I truly care about my SL friends and family and hope you'll take advantage of what could be a really helpful tool for you and your Second Life business endeavors.

Join Free at: http://www.second-friends.com

The Business Side of Second Life Music - Promotions

When it comes to my own live events in Second Life, I would say that about an hour in total is spent promoting each one of my regular shows in Second Life. Of course the bigger the event, the earlier promotions need to be started and the more time is spent on marketing and PR. The combined time Brandy / Kalli Birman and I spend on marketing goes into Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Second Friends, Second Life event listings, Second Life notices, creation of a promo poster for the venue to set out, etc.


Contrarily, I would offer that only about half of the venues that hold live music shows or events of other sorts actually do any more promotions than sending a few SL notices and maybe a blog post. This is what I want to post about on this section of "The Business Side of Second Life Music" series.


I will post about my own personal experience and how I do things. Venue owners who are interested in booking me for a live show are given a constantly updated notecard, either from Brandy or myself, complete with bio information, links to my websites, blog, YouTube and other places they can check me out. I used to do this exact same thing with Real Life venues but we called it a Media Kit and Demo. It included a CD and a typed up bio about me or the band I was in, offering information about each of the members, accomplishments, accolades, some of the more well known places we were able to "brag" about having played there, etc. All of my real life material is still presented to SL venues, only it is in digital form... in Second Life form... but it's all still there. The point is that we are showing these venues that we have something to promote for them, including their own business.free, free, music, marketing, blog, free, free, free, music, pr, baby, son, kid, child, love, seo,blog,free,free,free,free,free, live music, make money, money, free money, gift, gifts, seth regan, mankind tracer, secondlife, second life, sl, facebook, twitter, social, alexa rank

One other thing that we mention in speaking with venues is a very important part of the entire equation. As I see it, coming from owning businesses pretty much my entire adult life, a venue wants to have their name, brand, etc. in front of as many people as they can. Budweiser wants that too. Apple. Microsoft. And especially the small startup. I would place SL venues in this category. They are a small business trying to compete in the world of other businesses, with our world of course being, Second Life. When we promote, we probably reach 350,000 pairs of yes for each vent we do and probably about half a million on larger events.


Why then is it that a venue relies solely on the artists to promote the event? This isn't true for all venues as I've stated earlier, but in my own experience a good number of venues don't understand that they are in business and for that matter, don't really understand business. A venue should have a professional logo. A venue should have a website... a fully functioning business website. A venue should WANT to post in as many places as they can get their hands on. Why? It will drive traffic to their location. Isn't that what they are after?


If you own a venue in Second Life, then you have gone into business ownership. If you've never owned a business before opening your SL venue, let me suggest doing a bit of research on running a real life business. Predominantly, the marketing aspect. You've invested money and obviously, you'd like a return. Some might say they do it just "for the love of it" and they're happy to pay the bill out of their own pockets to keep the venue running. To these people I say hat's off and thank you. To the others, the vast majority, I would go on the assumption that they are in business to hopefully earn a few $L from the business. All the time, I see artists posting their shows all over Facebook mentioning the venue, over and over, but only a handful of venue owners' posts are there. For the sake of your business, share the load with the artists you book, offer some of your own promotions and I can assure you, you will see the results given the right circumstances.

Brandy and I happen to own the Tracer|Birman Agency which deals with this business from professional graphic and website design all the way through marketing, PR, SEO and so forth. We don't spend time promoting our own company, thats not what companies hire us for. In all honesty, we prefer to keep a low profile and deal with companies one on one, not catering to the masses. This gives a more personal approach and more focus on each and every project. I'm not mentioning this as a shameless self promotion, but only to make you aware, as the business owner, there ARE companies out there that can help you grow your company. You might not be aware of them, but there are some amazing professionals, right in Second Life even!

For the record, I happen to be very lucky to have Brandy working with me as she knows a lot about marketing and happens to be very good at it, plus we're on the same page with many things when it comes to marketing. And I would suggest that any venue, artists... ANY business for that matter, consider hiring someone who knows how to market, promote and handle PR. 

The Business Side of Second Life Music - Your Brand

You may know me as Mankind Tracer, a live performer in Second Life since 2006. I have also toured for 20+ years in real life before stumbling across SL. This blog post is not about me or promoting anything I'm doing. I only want to share a bit of insight into the business side of being a live musician (as my business) in Second Life.


In real life I've owned businesses pretty much my entire adult life. One of them is a professional website/graphic design firm. I've done work for Coke, Pepsi, Ralph Lauren, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., etc. Why am I mentioning this? One of the first things I ask my clients that are, for example, seeking a new website is... Do they have a logo? Do they have a corporate identity or brand? Many do have a logo, but between you, me and the walls, they are usually not very professional nor do they represent their companies in a professional aesthetically pleasing manner, especially when it comes to the smaller businesses. And that leads me to the main point: A small business, like the SL performer, needs its brand. You may start promoting yourself without it, but it's a huge plus if you already have a logo. It separates you from the newbies and people will have an impression that you are a bigger fish in the pond.


A company's brand, in my opinion, should be one of the first steps when beginning a marketing and/or PR campaign. Without brand recognition, a company will likely have to work harder to build themselves up to a point where they are recognizable. Look at any product in your home... Coke, Pepsi, even the Post Office has a logo. I sit staring at Apple's logo every day on my computer. There's a logo on my printer, on my jeans even on the tools in my garage. Just about very company who has had success has a solid brand identity.




Take a quote from Sir Richard Branson: "The music industry is a strange combination of having real and intangible assets: pop bands are brand names in themselves, and at a given stage in their careers their name alone can practically gaurantee hit records."


And here's one from Ralph Lauren: "When you think of the blur of all the brands that are out there, the ones you believe in are the ones you remember."




Artists performing in Second Life are similarly, a business... no different that Pepsi. Seriously? Yes... seriously! Ignoring the obvious size difference between Pepsi and my own SL music career, I look at what I'm providing in SL as a business. I need a logo, marketing, PR, etc, etc. Same as Pepsi. Sure they do it on a larger scale, but the principles are the same.free, free, music, marketing, blog, free, free, free, music, pr, baby, son, kid, child, love, seo,blog,free,free,free,free,free, live music, make money, money, free money, gift, gifts, seth regan, mankind tracer, secondlife, second life, sl, facebook, twitter, social, alexa rank

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Look in Second Life, there are tons of businesses... clothing, fashion designers, builders, animations, scripters, etc. What the successful SL businesses have in common with each other is that at some point, they knew that one of the first steps in marketing their company is creating a logo or brand identity. SL artists are similarly a company, a brand, and should be treated as such. As a  musician, my product is my music and the  service I offer are the shows I perform. You bet your booty I make sure to include my logo on as much marketing as I can.


When I use the word "logo", I'm not talking about making some colorful rainbow text and calling that a logo, or having you neighbor who "happens to own a copy of Photoshop" come up with something. I'm talking about creating a cool icon, something that represent the artist, professionally, something that states what her/his music is about and is totally recognizable so that when friends and fans see it, they KNOW it's that particular musician's post or event. Look at other artists like ACDC, Kiss, Foo Fighters, and on and on, and thousands of others who have a recognizable brand identity. Whether you have given it thought or not you, "SL performer", you are a business and need branding!

I have been very fortunate to have had my share of success in SL. The global friends and fans have been nothing short of amazing to me, but I'll tell you straight, the first step I took when I first started performing in real life was creating my own logo and brand identity.


To reiterate that from a professional standpoint, I would strongly suggest to Second Life performers, old and new, that the over saturated music scene is going to continue to grow and in order to set yourself apart, take the "right" first step and get a professional designer to create your logo. It may cost a few dollars, sure, but it will cost you more in the long run not to do it.


In the least... just think about it.


I wish you the very best for health and prosperity in the New Year.


Continued...

Happy Holidays to all!

Many of you know that Brandy / Kalli Birman and I own a little slice of Second Life called The Village, which includes our venue, Club Graffiti and a few boutiques from well known SL content creators and fashion designers.


On behalf of us both, we wanted to wish you all a very Happy Holiday Season and a Prosperous and Successful New Year! May the coming year bring light to any dark corners of your life.


God Bless!
free, free, music, marketing, blog, free, free, free, music, pr, seo,blog,free,free,free,free,free, live music, make money, money, free money, gift, gifts, seth regan, mankind tracer, secondlife, second life, sl, facebook, twitter, social, alexa rank

Congratulations to Anna Sapphire - Miss Virtual World 2012

Today, December 27, 2PM SLT, Kalli Birman/Brandy and I are throwing a welcome party to the new Miss Virtual World, Anna Sapphire. All are welcome to come on out and enjoy the party and Club Graffiti in The Village.


I'll be performing a live show starting at 2PM SLT. I'll be playing a set of all acoustic unplugged rock tunes past and present, requests from Anna herself, originals and you can grab the song list off the Multi Board to make some of your own requests in IM during the show.
(Please try to remove scripts and attachments as possible and arrive early)



Click here for Teleport to The Village:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Good%20Day%20Sunshine/140/73/21




About The Village and Club Graffiti


Modeled after Greenwich Village and CBGB's in New York City, Club Graffiti is located in The Village in Second Life. Host to many live performers and some of the finest boutique shops in SL. Join us as we welcome Anna Sapphire as Miss Virtual World 2012 with a welcome party at Club Graffiti.
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Miss Virtual World in Second Life!

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Once again, Frolic Mills, CEO of BOSL (Best of Second Life) , invited me to perform live at The Miss Virtual World Pageant in Second Life. It simply amazes me, the work this man puts into this event year after year. This is my fourth year performing and each year I see such changes, improvements even.


But this year, like all others, was a challenge, what with all the tech glitches that only Second Life can hand us. But that does not in ANY way take away from the professionalism of the entire BOSL team and of course those with Meatverse TV - http://www.metaversetv.com - who ran the tech side of things, even broadcasting the event on their website.


I arrived at about 12:15PM SLT to perform at what was planned to be roughly 1PM or so. Hanging in the green room backstage, that quickly looking more like 2PM as the clock ticked by. Sadly, I had something to do in Real Life at around 2PM so I wasn't able to stick around much longer. I told Robustus Hax (Metaverse TV CEO), Dousa Dragonash, Persia Bravin and everyone else in the Skype conversation that I had to go fairly soon. They all worked and shuffled a few things around to get me on the stage sooner than later.

Have a listen to the live recording of my cover of Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable" taken from the Miss Virtual World Pageant. Click Here! 


In the end, I give a BIG HI5 to both the BOSL and Metaverse TV staff for some amazing professionalism in dealing with the Second Life glitches,ensuring a pretty smooth run of the MVW Pageant, technical issues and helping accommodate me personally so that Aden didn't have to sit there waiting at karate class wondering where in the hell i was!


Congratulations also to Serene Faith, Miss Virtual World 2011 who, today, enjoys her last day after a very giving and successful year as Miss Virtual World. Best of luck to the new Miss Virtual World 2012, whoever that winds up being!

Where in Second Life is the Concert?

“Where in Second Life is the Concert?” Hunt

On Feb 4th, 2012 from 6pm - 9pm SLT for the first time ever,  Mankind Tracer & The Follow will be performing a back to back concerts in a SECRET location following a 2 week long hunt around Second Life starting January 20, 2012.

Hunt info:

We will be limiting the hunt to 50 participating locations to keep the hunt small and manageable for existing and new fans. Often times, hunts are over excessive, leading people to give up and not visit all participating locations. We are purposefully keeping this hunt on the smaller side and the items hidden, but not too difficult. The idea is that people do finish the hunt and equally as important, spend time in your stores.

REQUIRED: Each store will need to provide a quality freebie.

About Mankind Tracer:

Seth Regan has toured professionally for over 20 years with both original and cover projects and has had national airplay. Known around the grid for 5 straight years of stellar performances as Mankind Tracer, Seth shares his insightful original music, also performing the best rock hits past and present, adding his own unique style to each song. Influences include Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, Pearl Jam and many others including classical influences, which can be heard in Seth's well crafted music. Along with audience requests driving the show’s interaction, Seth’s performances are always fun and full of energy and sure to get you hooked!

In Second Life, Seth has many achievements in the past 5 years including: Headlining major Linden Lab and Second Life events including SL6,7,8B, Burning Life, Burn2, Winterfest, Best of SL’s Major events and has received many awards including BOSL’s Best Live Performer Award 2008 and BOSL Lifetime Achievement Award 2011, Listeners’ Choice Award, among others.

Visit Seth Regan's Official Website HERE

About The Follow:

The Follow is a panoramic rock band trio that has been performing in SL for over 2 years. The band entered the virtual world of Second Life (SL) as a way to continue touring while protecting the environment, not to mention its wallet!

Influenced by U2, Radiohead, and Pink Floyd, The Follow have enjoyed sharing stages with various artists such as Plain White T’s, Billy Corgan’s Zwan, & Gravity Kills. With seven albums, one DVD, and hundreds of live performances, The Follow received airplay on college and commercial radio across North America while supporting the releases by touring in the United States and Europe.

As a rare back to back line up, this should prove to be one of the year’s most well attended concert as both Mankind and The Follow are known to pack venues at their own individual shows.

Visit The Follow's Official Website: HEREfree, free, music, marketing, blog, free, free, free, music, pr, seo,blog,free,free,free,free,free, live music, make money, money, free money, gift, gifts, seth regan, mankind tracer, secondlife, second life, sl, facebook, twitter, social, alexa rank

Promotions:

The hunt will be featured in the SL Destination Guide and on Mankind Tracer’s and The Follow’s website(s) and blog(s). Promotions will also be strategically placed on Facebook, Twitter, Second Friends and throughout Second Life, giving the event combined promotion to over 500K+ unique users. Special “Event Kiosks” will also be placed at every hunt and sponsor location adding more fun and interaction with the event and providing hunters the information and SLurls they need to complete the hunt.

Facebook Event
Event on Second Friends


Hunt Locations:

To be one of only 50 participating locations we are allowing, you will need to agree to have a quality freebie, use our hunt receptacle and allow a kiosk to be placed at your location - which will also be used for promoting the hunt. Kiosks will be scripted to keep track of hunt analytics, therefore scripts will need to be permitted at your location by having them set to “ON”, or the kiosk will need to be set to your Land Group. (Please see the information below for who to contact about participation fees.)

Sponsors:

Sponsorship for the hunt will be limited to only 10 sponsors. All sponsors’ images, branding or logos will be placed in our promotions, on the kiosks, mentioned during the concerts, on clickable (via SLurl) promotional posters and graphics placed on or around the actual concert stage, which will drive more traffic to your location. The clickable promo poster will also be set to give the event notecard.

For more information about sponsor and location fees please make contact as soon as you can. The order of visited locations during The Concert Hunt will be determined on a first come first serve basis. The earlier you get in, the sooner you will be placed on the roster order.


Kalli/Brandy: brandy@sethregan.com 
Seth/Mankind: info@sethregan.com

Snapshot Button Camera

I thought this was pretty cool.

Virtual Outworlding: Kit: V3.2 Snapshot button (camera)

Posted by Selby Evans at Virtual Outworlding.

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Pre-Thanksgiving Show

(Thanks to Butterfly Laa for the picture)

What an amazing night. I performed tonight at Key West, a long time supporter of live music in Second Life. I planned for the show to be an "all request" event and BOY the audience didn't disappoint. There were about 70 people in attendance and requests came in ranging from Train, to Pink Floyd, Live, Radiohead and even a few originals were requested.


The sim held up beautifully thanks likely in part to long time friend and Key West owner, Liz Harley, who wisely did a restart of the sim prior to the show.

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Other Second Life musicians were on hand as well including Noma Falta, Lyndon Heart & Madmax Huet. It warms the bones to see musicians supporting musicians and being on the receiving end is an even bigger thrill.


My thanks of course to Liz and the wonderful SL residents who, after 5 years, still show me amazing support.


It's Thanksgiving tomorrow and among other things, I have you to be thankful for.

Then came Second Life

Another band I had the fortune of touring with was called Mankind. Yes it's true. My initial motivation when starting my live music performances in Second Life over 5 years ago was to continue performing the music we wrote as a band.  Although I wrote the majority of the music and practically all lyrics, I cannot discount the amazing effort put forth by the three other musicians, friends and truly, brothers, who contributed their part. To be clear, when I say I wrote the music, what I mean is I would bring in a piece that I had written on acoustic or electric guitar along with the lyrics I had written. I did not write all the drums, bass, keyboards or lead guitar parts. Chris, JJ and Frank, respectively, did their part and how amazingly indeed they did.


At the end of about 10 years of writing, performing and being the brothers that we had become. I found myself wanting something different. It was the direction that I felt the band was headed, as a whole, that differed from where I felt I was going musically.
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Pretty much at that precise point in time, I found Second Life. For those of you who don't know what Second Life is all about, in a nutshell, it is a 3D Virtual Environment created by Linden Lab. Thikn about a piece of graph paper. Each little box represents a piece of land or a "Sim". On that Sim you can use the built in tools within Second Life to build, model, shape, form, texture, colorize, upload, etc. to create the sim you want to create. There are music venues, shopping (oh yes LOTS of shopping which we'll get to in a later post), fairs, skating... basically anything you can imagine in Real Life is probably on some Sim in Second Life.


So all that being said, when I first discovered Second Life in about August of 2006, I let it slide. Somehow I ended up rediscovering it in November and on November 6, 2006, "Mankind Tracer" was "rezzed".


A few days into it and I found there were DJ's and live performers streaming their live shows into Second Life. I thought "hey.. I can do that!" So I quickly found out it wasn't all that complicated. I bought a new mixer, a couple of pedals and did the door to door thing, looking for gigs. Quite quickly actually I was playing regular weekly shows. Now SLat that time was fairly new. There weren't many of us performing live but as time passed until today, there are now at least 30+ shows every hour. From live performers, to those singing live to backing tracks, to the many many genres available like rock, pop, oldies, country, jazz, you name it. Second Life has an amazingly vibrant and ever growing music scene.

Personally, I have been truly blessed with the global following I've attained. Even with my years of real life touring, I doubt I would have ever had the chance to reach this many people with my music.


So what started out with a desire to play my band's music ended up with me playing my stuff, the band's stuff, covers and making some great friends along the way.


To those of you that think of Second Life as simply a game...WOW!!! very far off. Second Life consists of avatars, and there are real people in real cities on a real planet behind those avatars. Just as in real life, we need to shop for ourselves and that has translated into SL as well. There are those in SL who design clothing for example and the fashion world in SL is a thriving, multimillion dollar annual business. Oh yes, you can earn money in SL too!


Which leads me to what's been happening the past year or so with the music side of things....