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...

The Source C-C-C-CRASHHHH!!!

It seems lately that almost everywhere I play in Second Life, the venues are crashing. I'm not saying it's due to ridiculous attendance. No! That was the old days of Second Life. These days, tonight for example, like for the past few months, when 40 or 50 people are on a sim, it crashes.


It may be a matter of the servers, or some other "ghost in the machine", but no matter how you slice it, the problem is here and it doesn't seem like it's being addressed. I've heard from friends, fellow musicians and venue owners alike that this is a repeated occurence so it's not just me and my shows.


I WOULD like to give a hats off to Gargravarr Rau, owner of The Source. He provides Second Life with constant live shows at his venue but more than that, he was prepared with a contingency plan. Tonight, The Source sim crashed about 10 minutes into my show with about 40+ people there and within 10 minutes, we were up and running at Ground Zero, another friend's Second Life venue.

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I would urge all SL venue owners to take a cue from Gar. Have a back up plan ready to go for just such a situation and PLEASE keep an open line of communication open with the performer. Second Life performers do work hard at their craft, setting up, learning new music, writing new music, buying updated equipment, etc. there IS overhead, believe it or not and when a sim crashes and half the crowd doesn't come back, it will more than likely hurt the artists' and venues' revenue for the night.


So venue owners, please be prepared to quickly work together with your performing artists to get the show up and running quickly and I believe this will be somewhat of a bandage for the gash in the SL servers... temporarily at least.


I'm pretty sure Linden Lab is working to resolve the matter as my personal connections have told me but we'll just need to hang tight until we're back up to 100%. Second Life is my home away from home and I don't plan on going ANYWHERE!