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!

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.

Second Life Music Venues VS Artists: Who's doing WHAT?!?!?

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!"

The Business Side of Second Life Music - Learning from someone who knows!

Most of you probably know that Kalli / Brandy and I are business partners on a number of endeavors. The way that all started was back in August of 2010, I had decided that I couldn't continue doing all the management, bookings, graphics, promotions, PR, etc that I had been for 3.5 years. My time was becoming more limited and I decided to find someone qualified to help me.


I had met Brandy when she was managing another artist. She had the experience of managing other well known Second Life performers and I remembered seeing her notices which were well written and concise. 


She agreed to come on as manager and more than a year and a half later, we are business partners and best friends.


I'm going to tell you something. The reason it worked is not because she's an awesome person, which she truly is, but initially, before the friendship, I knew right away that this was a woman who has her head on straight and knows SL marketing and PR and how to work with different sorts of people. Sure we became very close soon after that but from the start, I wasn't looking to find a best friend. I was looking for a manager who had the utmost regard for their work and knew how to get things done.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

As I said, I had been handling every facet of my SL music career on my own for a long time. I like to think that I had built something and wasn't about to put that into just anyone's hands. I sure lucked out!


I'm telling you all of this because Brandy and I have been talking about her idea to offer some workshops for venue owners and for musician managers and I want, here and now, to offer my sincerest recommendation that if you fall into one of those categories, attend her workshops... go learn from the best in the business. I can just about guarantee that you will learn something and if nothing else, you will get confirmation from a true professional that what you've been doing it right.


We do work together and speak a several times every day and when she comes up with a great idea like this, I am the first one to help spread the word. Sharing of knowledge is a true gift. Personally I have spent thousands of dollars in the past to attend workshops that I felt would be for the advancement of my businesses and if I was a new or struggling SL venue owner or musician manager who wasn't exactly clear on the business side of it, I would probably spend a ton of money to learn what I need to know, but I would only spend it on someone I KNEW was a professional and could add to my knowledge. Brandy is such a person. I don't know exactly what she's going to charge but whatever it is, it's probably too little. You can contact her in SL as Kalli Birman or by email at brandy@tracerbirman.com


You can learn more about the workshops here: Brandy's Blog


GO TO THE WORKSHOPS!

The Business Side of Second Life Music - Events Listings

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.

U.S. shuts Megaupload.com, hackers retaliate

By Jeremy Pelofsky and Jim Finkle | Reuters – 11 mins ago

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  German internet millionaire Kim Schmitz is seen in Hong Kong in 1999. REUTERS..,

(Reuters) - The U.S. government shut down the Megaupload.com content sharing website, charging its founders and several employees with massive copyright infringement, the latest skirmish in a high-profile battle against piracy of movies and music.

The Department of Justice announced the indictment and arrests of four company executives in New Zealand on Friday as debate over online piracy reaches fever pitch in Washington where lawmakers are trying to craft tougher legislation.

The movie and music industries want Congress to crack down on Internet piracy and content theft, but major Internet companies like Google and Facebook have complained that current drafts of the legislation would lead to censorship.

A Justice Department official said the timing of the arrests was not related to the battle in Congress.

New Zealand police on Friday raided a mansion in Auckland and arrested Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, 37, a German national with New Zealand residency.

About 70 police, some armed, raided 10 properties and also arrested the website's chief marketing officer, Finn Batato, 38, chief technical officer and co-founder Mathias Ortmann, 40, both also from Germany, and Dutch national Bram van der Kolk, 29, who is also a New Zealand resident.

New Zealand police seized millions of dollars worth of assets, which included luxury cars such as a Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, from the group, dubbed the "Mega Conspiracy" by prosecutors. They also seized more than NZ$10 million ($8 million) from financial institutions.

"The FBI contacted New Zealand Police in early 2011 with a request to assist with their investigation into the Mega Conspiracy," said Detective Inspector Grant Wormald from the Organised & Financial Crime Agency New Zealand.

"All the accused have been indicted in the United States. We will continue to work with the U.S. authorities to assist with the extradition proceedings," Wormald said in a statement.

The men appeared briefly in an Auckland court on Friday and were remanded in custody until Monday for a bail hearing.

"We have nothing to hide," Kim Dotcom said from the dock after his lawyer opposed media cameras in the court, reported New Zealand media.

HACKERS RETALIATE

Vocal critics of the U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and Protect IP Act (PIPA), quickly showed their opposition to the shutdown of Megaupload.com, with hackers attacking the public websites of the Justice Department, the world's largest music company Universal Music, and the two big trade groups that represent the music and film industries.

"The government takes down Megaupload? 15 minutes later Anonymous takes down government & record label sites," a member of Anonymous said via Twitter.

Representatives with the Justice Department and Recording Industry Association of America declined comment on the attacks. Officials with Universal Music could not immediately be reached.

Motion Picture Association of America spokesman Howard Gantman said his group was working with law enforcement to identify the attackers.

The Mega Conspiracy group was accused of engaging in a scheme that took more than $500 million away from copyright holders and generated over $175 million in proceeds from subscriptions and advertising, according to the indictment unsealed on Thursday.

"In exchange for payment, the Mega Conspiracy provides fast reproduction and distribution of infringing copies of copyrighted works from its servers located around the world," the indictment said.

U.S. Justice Department officials said that the estimate of $500 million in economic harm to copyright holders was on the low end and likely significantly more.

The allegations included copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.

RACKETEERING, MONEY LAUNDERING

If convicted, the maximum penalties are 20 years for conspiracy to commit racketeering and to commit money laundering and five years for each count of copyright infringement and five years for conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.

The companies charged, Megaupload Ltd and Vestor Ltd, were both registered in Hong Kong and owned either in large part or solely by Dotcom. A lawyer who has previously worked with Megaupload was not immediately available for comment.

Megaupload has boasted of having more than 150 million registered users and 50 million daily visitors, according to the indictment. At one point, it was estimated to be the 13th most frequently visited website on the Internet.

Users could upload material to the company's sites which then would create a link that could be distributed. The sites, which included video, music and pornography, did not provide search capabilities but rather relied on others to publish the links, the indictment said.

Users could purchase memberships to the site to obtain faster upload and download services, the primary source of revenue. Material that was not regularly downloaded was deleted and financial incentives were offered for popular content, according to the charges.

The web page with the link to the copyrighted material would include advertisements, another source of revenue.

If copyright holders complained about a specific link to the website, prosecutors said that Megaupload.com would remove that link but scores of others existed to the same material, according to prosecutors.

Other material found uploaded included child pornography and terrorism propaganda videos, according to the indictment. The U.S. government's investigation began in March 2010.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky and Jim Finkle in WASHINGTON; Additional reporting by Diane Bartz and Yinka Adegoke, and Mantik Kusjanto in Wellington.; Editing by Gary Hill, Phil Berlowitz, Michael Perry and Mark Bendeich)

The Business Side of Second Life Music - Performing isn't Free!

It's no news that over the past few years, the economy is still in bad shape, not just here in the USA but globally. Its effects can be seen all over and similarly, in Second Life. Today I looked at the national average for gas prices on GasBuddy and it's almost $4.00 per gallon (at the time of writing this Blog). Lucky me, here in California we're at the top of that list at >$4.05 per gallon. As a good friend pointed out who lives in the UK "... where we pay $12 USD per gallon!"


There are many content creators (CC) in Second Life... fashion designers, animation creators, scripters, hair, shoes, on and on the list goes. These CC's provide something that SL residents purchase for $L which of course, equates to real money. NoLook at the time spent on creating a single pair of jeans for example. It could be a few hours or it could be more (in total amount of work). Once these jeans are done, the CC sets them for sale in their store(s) and if they know how to do a bit of marketing and if the jeans are of a good caliber and quality, they can sell for at least a few hundred $L... repeatedly.


Now let's take a look at a day in the life of a live performer in SL. There are performers who have to travel to a studio to hold their live performance and pay for studio time. For the sake of this example, let's take that travel time, studio costs and gas expense out of the equation for a minute. This performer has equipment like a guitar, which has strings, which most pros will change quite often. There is setup time, rehearsal time, writing new songs (as original artists do), learning new covers, purchasing backing tracks (for track singers). 

Brandy and I spend a good amount of time writing and sending out promos and marketing in Second Life, Facebook, blogs, the web, etc. for each and every performance/event I hold. Then the artist gets to the venue... early... because they have to setup the venue with their tip jar, group invite, etc. They then perform, usually for an hour, many playing free at tips only venues, hoping that the residents who have just spent $L1,000 on their avatar's hair will tip them a few hundred. Sadly, as I have experienced, most attendees do not tip. So an artist walks away after all this work and expense with maybe $10-$20.


Wait, it gets better. As I mentioned before, the jeans designer is done once they've finished designing and setting out their merchandise for sale. After that, each and every sale that comes in is what I like to call "cake".. A.K.A. recurring revenue or even Passive Income. They don't have to do any more work on those jeans that are already set for sale.


This is the major difference. An artist does not have that luxury of being passive with their work. They MUST constantly be engaging, looking for new shows and bookings, creating events, on and on the list goes as does the work for both artist, their booking agent, their manager and even hosts (all of which also need to be paid).

The short of it is, I am writing this blog because I am seeing some incredibly talented artists in SL, both veterans and new artists, busting their asses entertaining, showing people a great time and sadly, going unrewarded for their hard work. Why is it so hard for people to understand that artists are "working" too and that they too deserve to be paid for their work. Is the "content" that performers provide any less valuable than those jeans? Performing is a service and some artists do sell products in their CD's and other merchandise. So if nothing else, show your support by purchasing their merchandise.


I'll close this blog with a reminder $L250 = $1.00 USD


In SL you don't need to drive to a see your favorite live performers. You don't need to shower, get dressed, buy food or even buy drinks. That's a whole bunch of money saved. If everyone in attendance at a performance would tip one dollar to the venue and one dollar to the artist, things would change in a big way. So in essence, for two dollars, you CAN make a BIG difference! I've owned and operated businesses for most of my adult life and after over 5 years of performing live in Second Life, seeing things, watching and personally being on the front lines, you can trust that I do know a thing or two about it.


I certainly don't mean to come off in a bad light or stir up controversy here, but I have friends that are struggling and it frustrates the hell out of me when I see a very good artist walking away with $3.00 USD for a full one hour show and all the work that goes into it. Yes three dollars! As for the venues, well even more importantly, as they are the ones footing the bill for the residents' entertainment pleasure.


Let's all do our part to help keep live music alive and well in Second Life. PLEASE think about this and in the kind heart that I know you have, do the right thing.

Where is the Concert? HUNT!

“Where 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.... GOING ON NOW!

START AT THE VILLAGE - One of two Concert Hunt hubs: Click Here to Get there!


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, one of Second Life's most widely recognized live performers, 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: HERE


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

Awesome Celebration of MVW 2012

What a great time and turnout today for the party that Brandy/Kalli and I threw for Miss Virtual World 2012, Anna Sapphire, over at our venue, Club Graffiti in The Village, in Second Life.


I definitely wouldn't call myself a fashionista in ANY sense, I'll leave that to the pros so have a look at the article on the BOSL Website, written by "rusalka"


I will say that with about 80 people on sim at peak, the sim held up fine, laggy yes, but crash we did NOT! This is likely because we started off with a 60 person limit and slowly raised it to control how quickly new people arrived. There is such a thing as "Crash Lag" which occurs when too many people are teleporting in to one place at the same time. Controlling the speed at which they are allowed to TP in seems to help... A LOT! 


Thanks much to those who came out. I really had a great time performing for Anna and everyone else in attendance and welcoming her in as MVW 2012.  For those who couldn't get in, well I hope to catch you at future shows and events :-)


Anyways, here's the article.
http://thebestofsl.com/2011/12/celebrating-anna-sapphire-miss-virtual-world-2012


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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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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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Black Friday event at Ground Zero

If you read my previous post, Thanksgiving Gift, you can probably understand that I was a bit nervous about being able to perform today. Thea and G Metal, both fiends and long time supporters of my live music performances in Second Life, are the owners of this fairly new Second Life Live Music Venue.


Kalli/Brandy and I had booked this event a few months back and I SO hate having to cancel last minute. The truth is, I had been looking forward to performing an afternoon show for some time, as my daily schedule doesn't allow for them as much as it used to. I've seen great support and friendship from fellow SL'ers across the pond. So much so that the "Friends of Mankind" group in SL banded together not once, but twice, to fly me out to Amsterdam to perform shows in Summer of both 2008 and 2009. So when I call the group "Family", I really do mean it.


Anyways, this morning I woke up feeling much much better and was really happy thinking I was going to be able to do this gig. Brandy and I got on the marketing at about 12PM SLT, and spread it out as we always do, to many different social sites, emails, SL notices, etc. I decided today, and this isn't an every day thing, to actually "MAKE" a set list for this show. Why? Well, as we all probably feel, we like to go that extra mile for people in our lives closer to us. Thea and G have been so amazingly supportive of me, of SL music and of fellow musicians, Brandy and I both felt that we really needed to pump it up for them.

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At the gig, I was SO happy to see a lot of overseas friends and fans, I've missed you guys. Frankee, Renee, even Roos came in to the event along with about 60 others. An amazing turnout and not only because I was playing, but because I believe people in general will be more supportive of those that support others. Case in point: Thea and G. As I said earlier they are long time supporters of my own music but they work diligently to keep their venue booked with some of SL's best live artists. Further, I see them out there at other artists' performances as well.


So hat's off to you both and of course to Brandy for her amazing efforts and skills in marketing and promoting for our friends' venue. I really enjoyed performing at <<Ground Zero>> and hope to be invited back soon.


On a side note, I saw many new faces as well. It's good to see the music community growing with more people going to shows lately. The main thing is I saw a lot of audience interaction, not only to me and my show but moreover, with EACH OTHER"! I really love seeing people making friends and if it happens because of my show being the meeting place, then I'm truly flattered that much more.


Very large thanks to all who came out. It was a great time!