MUSICAL OBJECTS

You should acquire a representation of your instrument so that your avatar can wear this during performance. Your avatar’s musical instrument may well be the most expensive object you have to buy in order to get going. There are low-cost items available in the game but they look it. A high-quality musical instrument will come with built-in animations and features. It will be composed of many prims that are carefully positioned to shape the instrument body to a precision degree. Your avatar will look quite presentable with a high-prim quality instrument.

Some musical objects also have HUD (Heads Up Display) instrument device menus and built in sound animations as well. Be careful to turn off all these embedded sound functions when you perform live. All high-quality instruments will come with explanatory note cards.

PERFORMER PRESENTATION

Use your profile to market your self as a musician. You can provide links to web pages, images, notes about your gig schedule and your favorite picks.

As a performer you should take care with your appearance. Do not make your avatar self look as if you were making fun of the virtual environment. - i.e. stupid or rude looking body parts. There would be an exception to this if your dumb ass look is supposed to be the artistic message. i.e.  we are punk we don’t give a f**k. . Even so, whatever you make yourself look like, the one thing you must avoid doing is presenting the ‘newbie’ look. Once you are in the game for a while you will recognize how this looks and will find yourself tending to be dismissive of people who sport it. That is because ‘newbies’ often act rudely. To change yourself from your ‘newbie’ look you must buy a custom skin, a prim hairstyle, designer clothes, cool footwear, fashion accessories and walk animations. The SL world is full of malls and vendors giving away free items as well as priced objects. Go shopping.

REVENUES

­­When you perform live you can earn Linden revenue from the audience and in many cases a performance guarantee from the club owner. The guarantee you are able to negotiate is dependent on your perceived talent and ability to draw a crowd. A typical rate for a performance guarantee will be between $2000-4000 Linden, but if you are not a “draw” and want an opportunity to play, you can suggest waiving the fee and play for tips only.

The tips you collect at performance time are paid into your tip jar or to you directly by right-clicking on your profile. Whenever you receive a tip it is a good policy to thank the person responsible. Some people are very generous. A good tip is usually more than $200Linden. A tip jar or similar device is expected to be in place. Make sure you put it in front or prominently to the side of the stage so that it is not blocked by any scripted light patterns. These can interrupt a person’s mouse click when they try to pay you. Tip jars are good to use because they can perform a multitude of functions such as tracking the amount that has been tipped during a performance, automatically thanking people and dispensing merchandise. We provide a basic tip jar for you to use as part of your rental at Rehearsal Beach. You can seek out more deluxe options as you develop your persona.

Guarantees are negotiated or, if you are in demand, set arbitrarily. It is a good idea to ask for a refundable deposit before you accept a booking at a new club. There have been incidents where performers are stood up. If you are at all familiar with RL gigging you will already be aware that the music business is full of people who talk more than they act. SL is particularly this way because it is very easy to open a club. Everyone seems to be a club owner or intends to be one. A guarantee protects you and forces the booker to behave professionally.

AUDIENCES

Audiences in SECOND LIFE are often composed of people who regularly tour through all the available live musical offerings at any given time. They share information with each other about what they have seen and heard

The audiences will tip you so it is important to place your tip jar prominently so that they can see it. It is expected that you will publicly thank individuals who tip you. B­­­­anter is appreciated. Dead air sucks during your performance as it does on the radio.

From time to time, your performances will be disrupted by technical problems such as server re-starts and avatar crashes. When this happens it is accepted as being part of the game and you will need to adapt to the circumstances. As well, you will likely encounter at some point what are known as ‘griefers’. These are avatars that will deliberately try to ruin the show. They do this by being offensive in the chat or by attempting to crash the SIM with scripted objects. The club should have security precautions in place to handle them. You can also acquire security devices that will do things such as freeze your avatar’s physical position so that you cannot be bumped off the stage. The MYSTI-TOOL and the MULTI-GADGET are two commonly used devices.

PROMOTION

There are a variety of ways to promote a show in Second Life. There is usually competition for all the available time slots relevant to Europe and North America. You will want to make use of all means at your disposal to get the audience out. Some of the most common techniques are as follows.

1. Use the Second Life EVENT posting system. The LIVE MUSIC listings are one of the most coveted sections to be in because it is the least populated and therefore most effective listing among which to stand out. Many people, in particular DJ’s, will try to have their events listed under this category. It is a controversial issue for some. As a live musician you are entitled to have your events posted under LIVE MUSIC. The search listing title field should feature your avatar name first. This is because the SL search tool is not as sophisticated as Yahoo for example, and, it will only return results on your name if it appears first in the title field.
2. Create a fan group. Invite your audience to join your fan group. Creating a group costs $100 Linden in SL. Send notices to the group before a show with the time and place information. Show the time of the event in the title of the notice. Attach a Landmark link to the notice by dragging the landmark from inventory to the notice field that says attachment. Take care when you make time zone conversions with SL time. It is a common mistake made and often people send out corrections because they have listed the wrong time in their group notice for a show.
3. Ask the club you are performing in to place a poster onsite and a listing in their public schedule for your event. Most clubs have a regular series of performers each week and this is a good way to reach people who are already pre-disposed to attend live music events.
4. Develop a promotional note card that contains information about your musical act. You can give this to prospective bookers instead of relaying all the details into chat. Create a note card in your inventory that details your requirements when you play i.e. time availability, stage prims required for your gear and tip jar, song list, music description, bio and reviews.

PERFORMING ENVIRONMENT

There are hundreds of clubs available in Second Life and many of them book live music. Second Life has the population of a small town distributed over a continent wide geography.

Most of the clubs that present live music are owned by small groups of one or two people. In order to perform on their stages you will often be asked to join a ‘group’. This is so you will have the necessary permissions in place to drag your tip jar from Inventory onto the stage as well as whatever musical ‘gear’ you have. You need to have the group tag activated in order to access the group land permissions.

It is expected that you will present a representation in software form of the music you intend to present. So, if you play a piano, you should not show up with an acoustic guitar for the avatar performance.

Many of the clubs are located amongst commercial businesses like shopping malls. When they hire you to play it is because they believe your performance will attract people to their business. You should be aware of these things so that you can either promote their products, or not, as the case may be.

When avatars arrive to witness your performance in the club’s environment one of the first things they will look for are dance balls and animations. The club will usually have a number of these installed. You should familiarize yourself with what is in place at the club so that you can suggest them to people during your performance.

STREAMING SERVER

A streaming web server takes your incoming audio/video signal and splits it into multiple outgoing channels.  The STREAMING server used in the REHEARSAL BEACH studio can stream up to 100 listeners simultaneously with CD quality stereo audio (128 Kbits). The max number of avatars you can pack into one SIM at any time is about 75.

When you stream audio there is a lag of about 30 seconds. The listener will hear you 30 seconds after the fact. 

COMPUTER SOFTWARE

The software you need is free!

1. You will need to install WINAMP software. http://www.winamp.com/player .

2. You will also need a specific DSP Plugin from SHOUTCAST.com. [select the “I want to be a DJ” option]  http://shoutcast.com/download/broadcast.phtml#plugdownload  .

Once you have these two software systems set up and installed you are ready to send audio to the STREAMING SERVER. From there, it is streamed into Second Life.

AUDIO I/O (Input/Output)

Most computers have a mini-plug input that is used for a microphone. You can use this as the audio input port. However, it is recommended that you upgrade this capability on your system by getting a high-quality audio input device (Pci Card or USB) in order to stream your sound into Second Life. This Audio Input (I/0) device will connect into your existing computer and give you the capability to upload a balanced stereo signal. You can purchase a high quality sound card that has Left and Right ¼”(guitar patch cord size) inputs for less than $100 US Dollars. You can also get a stand-alone USB device that does the same (this is what I use). Go to your local computer retailer and ask for an Audio Input (I/O) device or card that takes ¼” or better connectors. There should be a variety of input output (RCA, XLR, ¼”) options on whatever you choose to purchase.

COMPUTER HARDWARE

If you are already using Second Life it is assumed you have a good computer system with a powerful graphics card and at least 2 gigs of RAM.  If you do not have this kind of setup then performing live is not a good idea until you get one in place.  The avatars attending the live music events are often sophisticated and adept on the technical front. Some of them use web servers as their personal PC’s. Using a ploddingly slow computer means you will crash frequently. You have to upgrade your old computer if you intend to perform regularly in SL.