Its in Your hands!

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

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

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

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



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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

I wish you the very best of luck and success.

Second Life Business Contract Obligations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pre-Thanksgiving Show

(Thanks to Butterfly Laa for the picture)

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


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

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


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


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

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!

Then came Second Life

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


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


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


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

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


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


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


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

There's only a first "first"! A background.

Seth Regan performs as Mankind Tracer in Second Life

As the first post for this new blog, I would like to give a bit of background on my musical journey.


As a little boy growing up in new York, for some reason or another I always took notice in the sounds I was hearing. My parents both loved music and there was always music playing in the house, be it Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Johnny Mathis, or other 40's - 60's popular music. I can remember the record player we had and how my mother would teach me how to use it. I took some piano lessons and all of my teachers were amazed with how I would pick things up by ear. I guess I was lazy and didn't really want to spend the time learning how to actually "read" the music. But I can remember being able to hear a melody and pick out the main notes on piano. I suppose I lost interested in piano until my early adult life but soon after moving and losing my piano teacher, I found the guitar.

My professional music career started in Greenwich Village, NY. I was sixteen years old and I was offered a 3 song set at a place called The Back Fence. A bunch of friends and family came out to support me and I had SUCH a blast. 15 minutes of live performing and I was hooked. I tell you, I've never tried heroin, nor will I, but they say it's very addicting. After 30 years, I can tell you... live performing should be illegal! I'm kidding of course but it's definitely addicting.


Fast forward to post college: One of the bands I toured with was called Route Nine. A couple of guys were looking to form a band. I auditioned and two days later got the call that I was in. So the first step was to compare notes and just jam together, feel each other out and put a solid song list together that we were all comfortable with. Now myself, having come from doing acoustic gigs and maybe toying with a band here or there (Toying: Def: Screwing around, not serious) this was all kind of new to me. There was that sense of "can I rely on these guys during a live performance?" at first. But you know, that quickly vanished. Our first show was at a Lion's Lodge or some place like that. We rented the place out on a Sunday and invited everyone we knew and you know, about 200 people came out to support this new band that their friends and family had put together.

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A few months go by and actually quite quickly, the word was spreading on us. Here are these four guys: One amazing guitarist, one solid bass player with skills and an awesome voice, one drummer who didn't know the meaning of the word "volume" and me, a singer and guitarist more interested in "how quick can I turn this into more women"! But faster than I knew it, we became a very well known cover band touring up and down the eastern USA and we got this stigma as THE rock party band. At the time, I had hair down to my butt and most gig nights consisted of a shot and a beer after setup and as the night progressed, more shots and beers and a topless and pretty buzzed "me" up on the bar with a wireless mic (usually accompanied by one or two similarly clad groupies). I mean who was I to turn down drinks from fans? Holy bat snot that was SO much fun... VEYR hard to do night after night but FUNNNNN!!! But we were young, oh and our drummer was quite DEAFENING! I mean come on Bert! We even tried caging "the animal" in a plexiglass cage but lasted about two weeks.

The problem with drinking and playing live is that the more you drink, the deafer you get and the more the instrumentalists need to turn up (closer to 11)! MY problem is that a singer can only push so much air, even the loudest opera singers have a limit. Also, raising the mixer volume on my vocal channel can only go so high before I blow the speakers... and MANY eardrums! So there I was most nights, coming to the final half of the third set, half deaf, half drunk and half dressed. But you know, I wouldn't change a thing. We had so much fun! I can go on and on with the stories but at the end of the day, after all was said and done and "Last Call" came around, it wasn't so much the fame. I mean let's face it, we weren't Pink Floyd in Madison Square Garden. But we had a tremendous following. No it wasn't the fame. It was the friendship, comradery and brotherhood between these four mid twenties guys who all had common goals and faith in each other. We so enjoyed being on that stage and partying together. It was a brotherhood. Yes. THAT'S what I enjoyed most.


So when you go out to see bands perform, enjoy the music, of course, but also don't take for granted the incredible amount of time and effort that goes on BEFORE the shows... AFTER the shows. Even in Second Life. There's rehearsal and more rehearsal. There's setup time. Beyond the "image" that fans get, there IS work that is done.


But look at the band members, see if they have that chemistry with each other, because I can tell you, Route Nine was ALL about that chemistry (and of course the booze and babes). I think it was that brotherhood that we shared which made our shows so incredible for us to play and put the amazing amount of effort in... to ensure they were the best they could be for our fans.


The brotherhood... I miss that.


Then Came Second Life....