March 23, 2020 - San Diego, CA: Veteran Second Life “Rock Star” Seth Regan a.k.a. Mankind Tracer is planing a return to his Second Life shows… and in a big way! On Sunday, March 29, 2020 at 2PM SLT, Seth is planning a big 4 sim live concert event backed by Linden Lab. Seth has been out of SL since his final performance back in August, 2016 when he performed a benefit concert to help raise much needed money for his dear friend and manager Kalli Birman’s children after she sadly lost her battle with cancer.
After 20 years of professional touring with various cover and originals projects, Seth discovered Second Life in 2006. He quickly rose to stardom as the most widely recognized live performer in SL. He continued his meteoric rise by introducing live video shows and holding the largest ever event in SL with his first “Peace, Love & Belief” concert which took place on 23 sims. He later blasted that record in 2011 with PLB 5 which took place across 63 sims! In 2008, Seth’s SL fan group the “Friends of Mankind” flew him out to Amsterdam to perform at what is hailed as the first ever SL meetup. They repeated it again in 2009 with over 20 countries represented.
Seth has played countless benefit/charity concerts over the years, raising money to help organizations and even individuals in need. This Return Concert will similarly be a benefit with 100% of your donations going to help the World Health Organization's effort to battle Coronavirus. Please consider making a donation. Seth will not have any tip jars at the event, but there will be clickable banners to the WHO donation page at the event. You can also click here to donate directly to @WHO: https://www.covid19responsefund.org
During his time performing in Second Life, Seth has been the recipient of the most prestigious awards including "Best Live Performer", "Best Singer Songwriter", "Listener's Choice Award”, the "2011 Best of SL Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to Second Life".
This is a concert event not to be missed! The “Mankind Tracer” fans are already buzzing! If you don’t know Seth’s music, you’ve been missing out. He has released 7 albums that are available on iTunes, Spotify and everywhere else. Just search his name and you’ll find his music. His live concerts have set the tone for many SL performers who would follow. One word of caution, Seth is fond of dragging people up on stage so be sure to dress to the nines in case you are one of the few he pulls up on stage.
"Seth Regan / Mankind Tracer - Behind the Second Life Music"
Although there are 4 sims for this event, fans are urged to arrive early before the 2PM SLT scheduled concert start time. 3 sims will be set for the general public and the 4th will be used for the stage and for Seth’s group, the “Friends of Mankind” and other key VIP’s. Attendees are asked to wear Seth’s colors, red and black. Check out Seth’s own clothing line on SL Marketplace called “R:O:K Store”.
Keep an eye out on SL’s Destination Guide, Blogs, Firestorm, Social Channels, websites and other online spots for posts about Seth Regan’s highly notable return to Second Life.
Join us for a live concert with Seth Regan aka Mankind Tracer and also support my friend Pixy Love in her walk next month with JDRF: "One Walk For A World Without Type 1 Diabetes". Enjoy Seth's excellent originals and covers while also supporting an important cause.
JDRF is a three star-rated charity on charitynavigator.com with an overall score of 84/100 for its financial score and accountability. They are the largest non-governmental funder of Type 1 Diabetes Research, with revenues in excess of $210 million annually, 78% of which goes directly to support its programs. You can learn more here:
We look forward to seeing you at the event 1/27 at 9PM SLT for a great inworld concert featuring the one and only Seth Regan Live in support of this great cause!
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!
As a live performer since 2006, I've seen many changes in the quality of Second Life. It used to be getting 100 people on a sim, and have them STAY there, without crashing and minimal lagging, was not a problem.
Over the past year or two this has become increasingly worse and increasingly more and more frustrating. Now when 30-40 people are on a sim while I'm performing, many crash, public chat is horribly laggy, people cant move, cant dance and as the performer on stage, I am running more programs and using up more resources. So having SL be so unstable is causing even MORE strain on my system's resources. I can't imagine what michinima artists and videographers are dealing with! What about when we DO crash and try to log back in? It now takes about 5 minutes or longer many times for SL to log me out completely so that I am then able to relog. For a live performer or other host of an event, 5 minutes is an eternity. It makes people question what's happening... are they coming back.... is it all over? Which means the audience may choose to leave. Then of course there's the MASH as I have begun calling it. This is a "Massive Crash" which affects a good half or more of an audience. Have you ever been to a live show and suddenly the people you see in front of you are gone? POOF!
This has been going on for far too long and I would very much like to see some effort being made to either upgrade the SL servers and in the very least, take the highest traffic venues and locations and put them on a more stable server.
The SL music community has grown so much since 2006. SL is a great place for artists to come perform, or even just have fun singing to tracks, having karaoke contests, etc. But when the platform itself is ridiculously unstable, the fun is completely lost as is the vibe of the events.
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.
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.
New Year’s resolutions, we all make them, I know I do. Every year it's stop this or start that. I can't tell you how many of my own never panned out and it can really get frustrating! But over the years, they've gotten better, well maybe it's ME that got better. Better at understanding WHY they don't work. For me, more often than not, it's simply because the resolution itself, while meaningful and approached with full intent, is unrealistic or unspecific.
First, ask yourself this: Why does it take a New Year to start to try and make your life better? Is it because the boob tube commercial on New Years eve is offering a discount on joining a gym?
I've done just fine setting and achieving big or small goals in June, probably more so than the horrific "New Years Resolution". Uh oh... New Years... I better diet and shape up! If you want to improve, then improve! It shouldn't matter when, should it?
To be clear, I'm not by any stretch saying there is a miracle cure to achieving resolutions and this may or may not help, but maybe a few people might take something away from it. Over the years, I've tried to do many different things myself, I'm sure you have too. Some were smashing successes while others crash and burn failures. But I've learned. I've definitely picked up some great ideas along the way. One of them, I think the most important, is asking myself the right questions like "WHY do I really want this change?"
So here's what I know. I know myself and I know that if I say I'm going to do something, I usually do it. For me, its all about being realistic with myself and realistic with what I'm trying to achieve. Many people set weight loss for example as their New Years resolution and that's great to want to get healthier if that's what they feel. So how about this, instead of saying "I'm going to lose some weight" or "I'm going to lose < insert realistic amount > pounds"... but also adding the "HOW".... Very specifically. Without knowing "How", how then is it even possible to KNOW what is a realistic amount. Forget even about losing weight, how is it possible to set ANY goal without knowing "How" it's going to happen?
It may be simple sounding but bear with me, there's more to it. If I'm going to even bother making plans to change something in my life, I want to have a plan. Not only that but a plan that ITSELF is achievable. So if the plan is to lose weight, then I better make damn sure that I can even AFFORD the gym, or meal plan or whatever it may be that I've decided to use as my weight loss plan. Similarly, if the plan is someone who wants to quit smoking, then research the best methods with proven success because I can't tell you how many of my own friends have failed at it. I remember two friends who bet who could go the longest without smoking. They made the bet literally over a beer keg! They had no plan and just tried to quit cold turkey. I remember thinking how doomed this was from the get go (even though going cold turkey does not have the highest proven success rate). Needless to say, it didn't last very long, I think it was a few days!
So whatever it is you want to do better, gain, lose, mute or erase as your New Years resolution, or any resolution for that matter, if you'll permit me, maybe have a look at the following and please, consider what I'm trying to share, maybe some of it will help. I've also been able to apply this to other areas in my life for different goals I've set out to achieve.
The first thing I try to do is get as detailed as I can about what it is I want to achieve. More than that, I really dig and find the WHY. Why do I want to make this change in my life? Then I get detailed about the WHY. This might take some time and some serious soul searching, maybe even a little painful, but its completely worth it.
I also like to talk to a support team, namely, my friends and family and PUBLICLY tell them what I'm planning. This really gives me greater incentive to not let them down. If I tell my friends that I'm going to do something, then I have people that can hold me accountable and if I start slacking, then I'M the one who feels like I let ME down. Plus friends are always good for giving you a good kick when you're down, at least mine are! That's a pretty strong motivator.
Here’s another suggestion that really helps me a lot. Write it down... everything... as much and as detailed as I can. If I’m being honest with myself and I’m going to spend the time on this, then I’ll spend it and make it as specific as I can. The more detailed and fine tuned I can get, the more it will motivate me and the more I’ll understand WHY I want or need to achieve something.
Stay at it! Don't quit! Give 110%! And enter any other cliche you want right here. Just don't give up. If you’ve tried and didn’t succeed before, then maybe this is the right time to try again. It’s taken me several tries before as well to do some of the things I've set out to do. But I’ve learned these few things that I’ve written down here. Once you get a good grasp on your goal and an even better grasp on yourself and your real reasons for wanting to do something, then in my heart I really believe you can and WILL succeed. This has all really helped me in my life and I truly hope it can help you who may be reading this.
I wish you the best of luck in whatever you set out to achieve. If any of this helps you, then I'm happier than I was five minutes ago.
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.
In an effort to assist live music venues, many of which pay for their overhead out of their own pockets to provide live entertainment, I have recently started offering venues something which we believe to be a reasonable solution.
The first idea was to have only one tip jar for venue and musician. Since the majority of audiences tip the artists considerably more than the venues, I'm offering to automatically split the tips I receive with the venue and remove the venue tip jar completely. This could work to the venues benefit in several ways.
The first benefit of splitting the tips, using only my tip jar, is that with a full audience, it can get very laggy. This way, people only have to find one tip jar.
Another benefit is that there will be less "tip that, tip this" in local chat. This allows people to socialize more in chat with less interruption.
Further, since most audience members tip the artists more often than the venue, the venue will likely see an increase in tips due to the split.
During the week, Brandy and I approached the venue, Ground Zero, owned by our friends Thea and G Metal, about this idea. After explaining the idea on a Skype conference, they were both very open to trying a something new. We decided to try it out that coming Saturday.
After the concert, we all got back on on Skype, discussed the outcome and worked out the numbers. We found that the venue saw a 33% increase in tips. Also, Thea and G Metal reported that several people expressed to them how they enjoyed the lack of "tip spam" in local chat and it was a much more fun and relaxed show with greater audience interaction.
With this success, I spoke with Brandy to revisit something we had discussed in the past: Sponsorship.
We then approached long time live music venue owner and friend, Liz Harley at Key West, where my next show was scheduled. We asked if she was open to the idea of not only having paying sponsors to reduce my booking fee, but to also try the tip split as well. After informing her of the success at Ground Zero, Liz was also very receptive to trying a new approach.
Brandy and I got to work and quickly found three sponsors for the Key West show.
I'm happy to say that this show was also a really good success! The venue made good tips from the split. Further, the reduced booking fee kept money in Liz's pocket. After all was said and done, Liz was very pleased at the outcome, as were the sponsors and the idea of having sponsors was well received by the people attending the show.
We have decided to continue on with this model of splitting tips and getting Second Life businesses to sponsor shows. We are also continuing our brainstorming to try to come up with new ways to help the venues that spend a significant amount of money to book live performers and of course their other overhead like tier, paying hosts, etc.
While this model may or may not work for every venue and performer, I felt it was worth mentioning to perhaps encourage more ideas but also to just inform people on how it all worked out.
On a side note, I have to say it's very cool to have open conversations with venue owners who are open minded and willing to try new things. So once again, my sincere thanks to Thea and G Metal from Ground Zero and Liz Harley of Key West.
If you are a business possibly interested in sponsoring my shows and helping live music venues to continue providing live entertainment by the many talented live performers in SL, the please send a note card in Second Life to either Brandy (Kalli Birman).
Back in April, 2012 I released my latest album entitled "Underground". Within the album, there are a few darker undertones inspired by and reflecting upon a particular person in my life that has been going through a rough patch. As an artist, I draw inspiration to write from many sources, most often from within but from time to time, something on the outside, especially something close to me personally, draws my attention.
To that end, I felt I might explain a bit of what has been going on, behind the writing, behind the lyrics.
This person I am speaking of, he is a very smart, highly intelligent guy, very close to me in my life, but with all that smarts, he just can't seem to get out of his own way and push forward, through the muck and mire, which has been bogging him down. As much as I've tried to help him, throwing him a rope here and there, his lack of motivation to accomplish has removed his desire to even reach for it. I am a firm believer in helping people, especially those close to us, but there must be a limit, a point in time when we have to consider that they simply don't want the help or for whatever reason, they are unable to reach out to the hand that's reaching out for them.
In "Paper Cup", I am speaking about the same person as I've mentioned in "Underground" and "Do it Again", namely, this person close to me in my life. "Paper Cup" also reflect on me personally. Sometimes we all fall down. Sometimes we all need help. I have fallen and a few times, I reached out for help.Sometimes I've fallen hard and my real friends were there, without me needing to ask. "I'm kneeling down and I can't breathe, the price is high and I'm not free I'm half the man, half the man that I should be." This is the opening line of the song that captures how I felt at my lowest point. The term "Paper Cup" came to me after seeing a crumpled piece of paper on the floor thinking how little we care for something as quickly consumable and discarded as a paper cup. It gets one use for about 30 seconds or less, and is then discarded, without care, without thought and without any sense of hesitation. Below are the full lyrics to the song. If you can relate on any level, then I truly hope you realize you are not alone... WE are not alone. We all have struggles but we must maintain our sense of pride and belief in ourselves that we CAN get up and get out of the struggles we are going through. Sometimes, we just can't do it on our own. With the help of a friend, a family member or even a kind stranger, we CAN get through. "Paper Cup" speaks of how grateful I was personally after being helped when I was the one who needed it. ".... I would be there for you with a symphony behind me..." Paper Cup Words and Music by Seth Regan Verse 1 I'm kneeling down and I can't breathe The price is high, and I'm not free I'm half the man, half the man that I should be Verse 2 Well I take pride in things I do and say And when I feel, I sometimes Pray for guidance and patience to learn from my mistakes Chorus And Oooh…. if I could Oooh…. if I could Oooh…. I would be there for you With a symphony behind me Verse 3 I'm torn apart I'm crumpled up Discarded like a paper cup I have nothing left to give Except this stolen heart Verse 4 I lost the battle and the war Then you appeared and cleaned me up So I could go out looking for another Chorus Bridge OOOOHHHHH Chorus And Oooh…. if I could Oooh…. if I could Oooh…. I would be there for you With a symphony behind me Playing through the night So we could rise above it all … just for a while.
(Grab this image and help spread the word by posting it where you can)
Second Life is celebrating it's 9th Birthday. The Tracer | Birman Agency has decided to produce our own event. "The SL9B Street Fair and Pub Crawl" will take place June 19-24 in Second Life.
Since Linden Lab will not be hosting an official SL9B event this year and instead have chosen to promote resident's SL9B events....
The Tracer | Birman Agency is coordinating an SL9B Street Fair & Pub Crawl, a 6 day event from June 19th - June 24th.
Over the course of the 6 days, each participating venue will take one day to be the "Featured Venue". Each venue will host 3 hours of live music on their day with three different Live Performers. See each venue for other events happening that day on their sim beyond the official hours of 6-9PM SLT (PST).
PERFORMERS:
June 19 - Club Graffiti 6. Mankind Tracer/Seth Regan “Live on Video” 7. Damian Carbenell 8. Darkshore
Thanks to our sponsors: Second Friends, Gizza Creations, Island Dreams Realty, [Cynful] Clothing & Co, Angel Manor, Miss Darcy!, Snowpaws, LYRICA, House Of Dragovar, VelvetRythms, Time Lost Land, The Alice Project.
This event is Produced by the Tracer | Birman Agency in cooperation with all participating venues.
We'll see you at The SL9B Street Fair and Pub Crawl!
Brandy Maltas/ Kalli Birman in SL Seth Regan/ Mankind Tracer in SL
To be or not to be? No wait, how about to promote my own business or let the artists do it for me?
Sounds silly right? Well don't be surprised when I tell you that I have personally come across music venues in Second Life that do absolutely zero promotions, zero events listings and pretty much zero across the board, relying solely on the artists to do it all. In nearly five and a half years of constant performing in Second Life, I've pretty much run the gauntlet at least a few times, of the different venue types and venue owner types. I'll simply categorize the latter into A and B. OWNER A does the work... OWNER B can give a rats ass about their own venue, its marketing, promotions, and just complete ignorance when it comes to the business side running of their venue.
Recently, Brandy (Kalli Birman in SL) who you know as my manager and business partner in SL, booked me a gig at a venue. Mainly because it's fitting, we'll call this venue Deuchebags! Now Deuchebags is more of a shopping spot but they wanted to try some live music to add to the DJ events they currently have.
Of course at the time of the booking, Brandy gave Deuchebags the notecard which indicates that, prior to the event, we ask that the venue do X, Y and Z, simple and not time consuming tasks for the betterment of the event and what any rational person would consider, such as listing in SL Events, posting in social networks, sending to their own SL group(s), and other simple and obvious marketing.
Three days before the scheduled event, the event listing is finally listed, but for the wrong time. Brandy politely asks for a correction. A day later, Deuchebags replied saying they were having difficulty. Ok that's possible, I guess, SL gets borked at in some way least 3 days a week. A day later, the correction is made with an entirely new event posted in Events, and the first, incorrect event, is still there. Hmmmmm. Red Flag number one.
Heading over to the venue, Brandy asked "where would you like Mankind to setup for the show... where's the stage?" She was met with "We were hoping you guys could provide one!" Hmmmmm. Red Flag number 2. After repeatedly trying to contact them over and over and not getting any reply for about half a day, I realize that these people are seriously lacking in Communication Skills. I mean ok people have to work RL, I get it, I do too. However, if you're going to bother HAVING a "live music" venue, then it's not plug and play like simply turning on a stream to play a radio station or streaming a playlist from iTunes. Hmmmmmmm. Number 3.
So it dawns on me, Deuchebags has absolutely no clue what they're doing and no idea of how to run a venue. More than that, they are sadly lacking in business and yes, personal ethics... and they're not alone. I'm sorry to say there are others who, put bluntly without any powdered sugar, have no clue how to run a venue. The simple proof of this is in the venue turnover rate. How many venues have come and gone in the past 2 years alone?
So this leads me to the point of this post.
In nearly 5.5 years of live performing in Second Life, and as a business owner in RL for many years, I like to think I have a pretty good grasp on what the role of the venue and the role of the artists should be. As a professional business owner in Real Life for a long time as well, I also believe that many things carry over from RL to SL.
Here's what I'd like to share. I offer this to any live music venue, new or existing, with the hopes that you will read between the above sarcasm, and take it seriously. Honestly, it's only meant to help.
The Venue: The live music venue is a business... plain and simple. A business like any other. A business needs to promote, market otherwise display what it is they are offering, their products and/or services. Like any other business, a good Business Plan and Marketing Plan are very helpful when starting out but many businesses have succeeded without. Regardless of what type of business you plan on opening, one thing that is always needed is... WORKING CAPITAL! The venue owners will hope to recoup all or at least part of their investment in the first year, less than likely in SL so be prepared to not earn anything. To increase your chances, you might consider only booking artists that draw a crowd. If after a year, a performer isn't bringing in more than 20 attendees, it's probably doubtful that will change at your particular event with this performer. Go for the better known draw as this will translate into greater numbers and greater tips for your venue, that's what most venues rely on. If you have something cool, a niche, some product or very cool logo that you can brand on wearables and other premiums, offer them for sale to help offset costs.
When a venue sets up live events, they need someone to handle the publicity and PR so they need... MARKETING! Aaah the Marketing. Sadly, many venues I have played personally do not do a THING with respect to marketing. They rely on the artists. I mentioned in a recent Facebook Post that live music venues should take cues form those that have been in SL for a long time and those that might be newer but have very strong visibility. Places like Key West, The Whisky a Go Go, The Source, The Boom Pony, Ground Zero, and other... these are venues with very professional minded owners who recognize that, among other things, they NEED to do their own marketing in concert with that of the artists.
Part of your marketing plan should be researching the best and most appropriate places for your venue to appear. A Rock Club probably won't have a lot of click through on an ad placed on a classical themed website.
Remember earlier I mentioned a venue needs working capital? A good chunk of it really needs to pay for marketing and advertising. I own a web design firm as one of my RL businesses. One of the services offered is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which helps websites get higher results on searches. I tell my clients, without proper SEO, even if you have the coolest website, it will be like a water fountain in the desert.... without a "map", no one will know it exists! You need to be FOUND. The venue NEEDS to advertise, just like any business.
There are many great sources to advertise but always check with the website owners about THEIR traffic before you spend money. Find out how many "unique monthly page views" their website receives. I can tell you, as the creator of Second Friends, we see roughly 20,000 page views per month and personally, I probably would advertise on a SL devoted site that has 10,000 or more, provided it wasn't too specifically directed IE a website about virtual pets. Talk to Brandy if you're interested in Second Friends ads. There are not many available at this time but a few good spots are open.
For Brandy and I, well we are marketers to begin with so when I perform, it goes without saying that we do our marketing for each and every event. Between SL, Facebook, Second Friends, websites, etc., roughly about 400,000+ eyes will see our marketing material but we make sure to work WITH the venues, to make sure we are marketing along the same design avenues, that we are using similar or the same marketing collateral, to ensure a consistent flow for the event planning and promotions. Not everyone knows the ins and outs of marketing, granted. Most artists, in both RL and SL want to get on the stage, perform and be on their way. I firmly believe that when at all possible, an artist really should play a more active role in the marketing and promotions of their own events... it just makes sense? In order to have live music at the venue, an artist needs to be booked so it makes sense for someone employed by the company to be the scout to seek out talent appropriate for the venue. The venue definitely needs a... BOOKING AGENT! For now, let's assume this is a new live music venue that wants to open in Second Life. A live music venue offers Live Music performed by a live musician, track singer, whatever you like. The musician they hire will need a place to perform so a Live Music Venue needs... a STAGE! Silly? Not really. Look at Deuchbags. They asked ME to provide a stage for THEIR venue! Enough said.
The Artist: Like a venue, there is the business side to being a Second Life performer, but many artists in the world lack some of this important knowledge and rely on the venues to spread the word about their event. So here's the obvious scenario: The Venue who doesn't know business/marketing booking the artists who don't know business/marketing. What do you think the outcome will be?
This is why it's so important that both sides take an active part in the business side of what they do. There are SO many talented artists in SL that aren't getting the attention they deserve simply due to lack of knowledge on basic strategic marketing.
The artists, as I see it, should in the VERY least, do the following (and these are things I try to do myself):
• Promotional Poster - Make one yourself, hire a graphic designer, just get one for each and every event. It should include the artist's name, her picture (SL, RL or both), web address if applicable, even have it give out a link or notecard when clicked. • Event Listing outside of Second Life - This can include creating an event on Facebook and inviting your friends. You can also post on Second Friends home page where you can list your event for free and include audio, video, text, photos links, etc. in your post. Post on your other websites and so on.
• Group Notices - Send an early notice to your group during the day (if it's a night show). Keep in mind there are many people from many different time zones in SL who may not have received this early notice, but you're going to send notices a half hour before the event anyways. This way you're covered.
• Personal Fan Group - Every artist should have started a Fan Group at the start of their performing in SL. Use it. Stay in touch. They are your friends and your family. They deserve the first crack at special events, to arrive early at shows and thus receive and earlier notice than the other music groups and general SL population.
• Second Friends Groups - Not to beat a dead horse but you have this free tool at your disposal. Why not use it? Create a Group on Second Friends. Once you do, contact either myself or Brandy and we'll get you a small banner you can place on your stage when you perform. It will link attendees right to the SF Group page where you can post just about anything a website can handle... like photos, videos, music, and so on. To be clear, the reason I created SF in the first place was because Second Life doesn't allow much in the way of media to be included in group notices or on notecards. A group notice in SL can handle text, textures, links and a notecard which is also limited to the same media. Second Friends allows you to share much more in the way of media, plus it ties in with your other social profiles like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. IT's a big time saver too as you can "push" your events to your other social networks with a few clicks. I'm not trying to push Second Friends in the post, do what you want. I just honestly feel it is a great tool. That's why I created it to be SHARED with everyone!
• For Bigger Events - We like to start promotions at least a few days ahead of the event, sometimes even a week or a few weeks. It really depends on the event itself. Events that you really feel are bigger and more deserving should have promotions started earlier. Just keep the same marketing material on all posts. What I mean is, try to keep the design of all marketing consistent from place to place, website to website, etc.
Well there you have it. I have a deep respect for those venues like the ones I mentioned above, who have taken it upon themselves to not only promote their business, but also help the artists you have yet to learn how to do it themselves, or find a great manager who knows how to handle the marketing. I am very fortunate with Brandy who is a true professional. We have become best friends and work very well together on many projects. As long as a manager understands you and your direction as an artist, then you are already ahead of the curve.
As always I wish you the best and if Brandy or I can be of any help, please do not hesitate to get ahold of us. Check out Brandy's Blog with some very useful info on the topic as well.
In closing, let me just give one more shout out to Deuchebags with a very high spirited "GET A CLUE!"
Women's clothes. Women's hair. Women's jewlery. WOMEN WOMEN WOMEN!!!
Everywhere you turn in Second Life, you see so much content available for women. Well what about us GUYS? We like cool clothes too! We like getting "stuff"! We just don't like the whole hours and hours of shopping to GET the "stuff"!
Truth is, most of us guys would rather hang out with our buds and give you your freedom to express your God given right to shop in peace, instead of watching you go through hours of shopping rituals while we're stuck twiddling our thumbs, or even our smart devices!
Enter ManKave!
The Grand Opening of ManKave will be on April 15, 2012
That's right... enter it. When you do, you will enter a place with a mentally suggested little boy's clubhouse sign that says "NO GURLZ ALLOWED!" Upon completion, expect to see some of the finest content creators offering stuff for us guys! All the "stuff" for sale will be rock inspired like clothing, jewelry, hair, skin, tatoos, etc.
There are also PLENTY of games to keep us occupied. There's a fully functional pool table, video games, poker table, a big screen TV pulling videos from all over, even YouTube! Plus the beer is cold and always fresh on tap!
Seated in The Village, a very unique build designed to resemble the late 1970's Greenwich Village, where you will also find Club Graffiti (the very cool underground rock club modeled after CBGB's), Brandy's Attic and other fine shops like Gizza, Paris Metro among others.
Once we launch, we'll hope to get a lot of people inn the Group to take part of some cool contests and events we already have in the works! Seated right next door to Club Graffiti, ManKave is a great after hours hangout if you just wanna relax with your buds after a show, or after a long day in Second Life! The doors will ALWAYS be open!
As for the shopping, well how about the fact that nothing will be priced over $L200! And truth be told, ladies, you can forget about the "NO GURLZ ALLOWED" sign cuz we think you'll want to come over too and pick out something very cool, very awesome and very affordable as a gift for your guy!
For the launch, we'll have some great live music and a few cool freebies for everyone that attends! Are you a really good content creator? Well then we might want YOU! We're expecting to launch ManKave on April 15, 2012 with 16 of Second Life's top content creators providing their wares and there's about 4 or 5 open spots left.
Get in touch with either myself, Mankind Tracer, or Kalli Birman via NOTECARD in Second Life. Please include your name, company name and a SLurl so we can check out your fine creations and maybe we'll invite you to be among the selected few to be a ManKave vendor.
All content in ManKave will be exclusive, meaning not available anywhere else. So for content creators, if you're interested, we'll need something for men, designed specifically for ManKave and MUST be rock inspired!
For everyone else, well Brandy and I hope you will enjoy the new shop and take advantage of some nicely priced very awesome creations! And guys, just so you know, I'm designing this place myself (ok Brandy helped a little) so expect it to be cold and shallow with lots of hard edges... you know, like us guys get while we're hanging out with our best buds... or after we get very little sleep!
So mark your calendars and stay tooned for noticed about the Grand Opening of ManKave!
