Will Ross here, welcome to The Traveling Avatar’s Quick and Dirty Tips for a Better Second Life. On this show we discuss tips and tricks for the game Second Life, created by Linden Labs.

This Week’s Episode: Live Music in Second Life: Part Two

But first, this podcast is brought to you by Audible.com,  The internet’s leading provider of spoken word entertainment.  Get a FREE Audiobook download of your choice when you sign up today.  And while you’re there you can pick up the audio version of any of the books in James Clavells “Asian Saga,” unless of course you’re not into samurai, pirates, high stakes capitalism, love, lust and revenge.  And considering the print versions of these books run about a thousand pages each, you’ll be pretty well set for the next six hundred years worth of commutes.  Logon to audible.com/avatar today for details.

Last week we talked about where to see live music and had some tips on being a good fan.  This week we give some tips on performing live in Second Life and for hosting live performers.  Just a note, we don’t get into the technical issues of streaming feeds or gear for performers, since that would be way to much to tackle in our short time together.

First up, we’re going to talk about how to make your venue “musician friendly.”

Venue advice

Venue design. When designing a space for a live event, try to keep all of your seating within 20 meters of the prim microphone, and preferably within 15 meters, especially if there’s an entire band. This will make sure that performers can hear all of the audience kudos.

Also, try to leave a little headroom in the venue above and behind the audience, because if the audience is anything like I am, they’ll want to move their camera into a cinematic position for the event so  they can see the performer--and the audience.

Dance balls. Make sure to buy at least one dance ball and put it in an easy to click place.  You don’t want your audience standing around like a bunch of junior-high kids at their first formal. You can also put down a few couples poseballs, but don’t overdo it on these, as not everyone is going to bring a date.  If you need a good source of poseballs, check out Bits and Bobs.  I’ll put the SLURL on the website. http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Island/230/97/23

It should also go without saying that you should turn off local voice chat during live performances.  But I said it anyway.  

Keeping the stage clear. Try to remove rotating spotlights and any invisible prims between the audience and the performer, because these can get in the way when trying to tip the artist or trying to look at his profile and get the information that a fan needs to become a stalker.

Event notices. Also, event notices are a good thing, but please just send out one, unless there’s some large change during the event. If the performer is playing another set, feel free to send out a new group notice, but notices like “The party is still going on” are likely to get people to drop from the group.

Encourage tipping. Finally, if you’re going to host a live act, make sure to do everything you can to make the performers feel welcome and assist them in giving your customers the best experience possible. Have a tip jar on hand that you can loan them, and tastefully encourage your customers to tip.  (Note that I said, “tastefully.”)

If you’re enjoying the music, please consider donating to the artist and help support live music in Second Life. – Right

Tip the (bleeped expletive) band or I’ll kill you you cheap (beeped expletives). – Wrong

You can also set aside a block of lindens and tip a little bit of it after every song as a little reminder to the crowd. Because remember, tipped performers are happy performers.

Security. Also, make sure to have at least one person available the entire time with full security privileges, just in case you catch a random griefer or an overly enthusiastic fan.  

Musicians talk, and a good reputation will go a long way to helping you book great acts in the future.

Performer Advice

So you want to be a rock superstar? Live large? Prim house? Flying cars?  Yeah, yeah, so I’m ripping off both Cyprus Hill and Alan Cumming with that intro, but in my defense how many people really saw “Josie and the Pussy Cats?”  The answer … not nearly enough. Anyway, I can’t give you advice on how to be a better musician, but I can help you avoid a few common pitfalls. Here are a couple of tips for musicians playing in Second Life.

Groups. Create a group and let your fans know where and when you’re playing, but as I said earlier regarding venues, don’t flood people with messages.  

Tip jars. Also, bring your tip jar and make it obvious.  A tip jar shaped like a guitar case is cool, but if we don’t know it’s a tip jar, it won’t get filled up with lindens. If you are going to use a nonstandard tip jar, let people know, and toss a floating text script into it that says “Tip Jar” so we know where to put our cash.

Promotion. Finally, pimp your website, pimp your CD, pimp whatever you want.  But try to do it no more often than every couple songs. Don’t be that radio station that’s 60% commercials and 40% content. Not that I dislike those stations--bad radio keeps us podcasters in business.

That’s it for this episode!  Stop by our website and check out my Twitter page, if you want to see what I’m up to on any given day! Send your feedback or question to secondlife@quickanddirtytips.com, and the comment line is 206-888-6975, that’s 206-888-mysl.  The Traveling Avatar’s Quick and Dirty Tips for a Better Second Life is part of the Quick and Dirty Tips network, so be sure to check us out on the web at QuickAndDirtyTips.com.  

So until next time, remember, it’s considered psychotic to check the grid status every three minutes on update days. Every four minutes is more than sufficient.

Remember to get your free audiobook at Audible.com.

Just like last week we're throwing on a bonus track from one of the performers at one of the performers at the upcoming Woodstock Second Life concert. This week's track is from PA Second Life, a band straight out of Portugal. For more details on the concert, check out our webpage at SLWoodstock.