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.
I'm going to make this post really short and directed specifically at those organizers of Tribute Concerts. I've been to my share of these types of events in Real Life and in Second Life. In fact a high school buddy of mine was the drummer for a very well known Pink Floyd tribute band. What I'd like to post about is not about the concerts themselves, like me, I know people really like tribute concerts. My concern is the way they are promoted.
Have you seen this kind of event post: "<Famous Band> Live" (just an example)
I've seen posts like this for years and each time I do, I ask the organizers personally "Is <famous band> really going to be performing in SL?"
To which they of course reply, "No it's a tribute concert!"
You see, there's a concern here. Not only is ASCAP and BMI in Second Life, but they are looking for just such an infringement... yes it is in fact. It is usage of a known brand and often times artists' "likeness, naming of avatars similarly or exactly as the real life band members without permission and stating that they are playing a live show when they are not... well that's just not cool.
Of course I understand and appreciate that the organizers want to promote and bring as many people as possible to the event. Please allow me to offer this friendly and very respectful word of advice. Just put "<Famous Band> Tribute Concert" as the title of your posts instead of "<Famous Band> Live" which may be misleading. This way, those who make the effort to attend will get what they expect and will enjoy the work that the tribute band organizers and promoters put into these very cool events. I would honestly hate to see anyone get into any kind of trouble for something so simple to fix.free, free, music, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, 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
Have you taken a look at the Events Calendar in "Live Music" lately? Over the past year or two, the number of events at almost any given time has been steadily increasing. While this is a great indication of a thriving music community, the listing system itself lacks in organization.
I made mention a few weeks ago about a conversation I had with a few people at LL offering a simple idea to address this growing problem. As you look at the "Live Music" listings, it is a jumble of Live music, DJ events, Track Singers, Tribute concerts etc. If you feel like going to a clubbing event with a kick ass DJ, then we shouldn't have to try to weed through 50 others that have nothing to do with what we're looking for. If we want to go see a live performance, where the artist is playing live and singing live, the same applies... same with track Singers, Tribute concerts, and so on.
The idea I proposed to Linden Lab is very simply to add a few levels of categorization. So under a top level Event header of say "Music", there can be a drop down for each category, Live Music, Track Singers, DJ Events, etc.
This will help in a few ways. First and most obvious is that it makes it easier to find what you're looking for.
Second, it makes it better for those who are putting on the events. With the new system, their events will be more highly visible and in the Category they need to be in.
Third, there's no reason a live performer should have to compete for a time slot and advertising space with a DJ event. They are two different genres of music/event.
In my opinion, implementing these minor changes (as they don't require a ton of code or hours and hours of programming) can make a HUGE difference in the overall Second Life experience, especially for new users who may not be entirely familiar with SL to begin with.
“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
