Moving forward embracing the change

Okay, a vision is appearing before me now. First a bit of explanation may well be in order.

When I first started playing music on Second Life, I tried very hard to entertain people. That was the focus. Now it’s not the focus at all. I’m seeking a more profound experience with the listener then simple entertainment. Sharing my song, a bit of my soul, with every show might well be entertaining at some level, but I think the reason people come back time after time has more to do with emotional gestalt. The song bleed, they come from a real place.

The focus of my Un-career is not to become the biggest name in Second Life, but rather to bring my music to people and see if they embrace it. For those that do find worth in it, I do my best to bring them the best content I can.

In other words, build an audience and then service that audience.

While “real money, money” is part of the plan, it’s not the driving force. I’ll never insist on money I didn’t earn, and am quite content to allow the listener to determine the value of my music within the parameters of what they can afford. While I don’t turn down fees, I do explain the option to have me play for tips only is available.

This Blog is also part of the Zorch experience, and is centered on content and not entertainment value. While it seems some find it entertaining, the point here is expressing my ideas. Once again, I build a readership, and then service that readership.

Realizing these things has caused me to rethink the way I approach the “Zorch-cast”. I’ve been hung up on the “Production bits”, and then came to the realization they were so hard to do because they are not what I do. Yes people found them entertaining, but that is not the point of what I do.

Future Zorch-cast will have less production work in them and revolve around music, commentary, news, and I’m toying with the idea of dialog, meaning having a guest on the show to chat with. I believe this will make a better and more consistent show.

Other grand plans in the works.

I’ve come up with something I think will prove to be interesting. The other night I was sharing links with a friend of You Tube videos of my sorted past musical adventures. They found it fascinating. Later I thought, “Hey, you can put You Tube videos in Second Life. Perhaps others would find this interesting as well”.

Now I’m trying to figure out a way to promote “Story and Song Vol. 1” and I’m thinking perhaps a video retrospective of my past musical adventures might make for an interesting event. A thematic reason to do this is because these videos are also part of the story of my life. I’m thinking, a few people will come just out of morbid curiosity. People often wonder what the man behind the curtain looks like. This will be their chance. This will also give people a better idea of the scope of my musical pallet.

I’ve finally come up with the concept behind the next MP3 collection. It will be titled “Shadow and Light” and as the title implies, will be a collection of contrast.

For the record, the music industry despises contrast. They want things in a neat little format where every track is deeply reflective of the last. However, being a really Independent artist gives me the leeway to do really stupid things, and it’s a very thin line between stupid and brilliant.

So there is my agenda for change. I hope you enjoy my new direction.

The great Dot Com Boom… and Crash remembered

Gather round children and let me tell you of times of old, when nerds were bold and the new fangled interweb would bleed rivers of money for any one daring enough to wade in.

Now once upon a time, the king of the really excitable people proclaimed, “hey, this interweb is going to be a freaking marketing bonanza. Better step up… or be left lifeless in a heap at the side of the road of 20th century commerce”.

Many reputable businesses headed the words of the King of the really excitable people and dumped tons of money into start up web site. Secure in the knowledge that that people seeking information about a panorama of pop culture piffle would soon be charging there way, brain washed by a constant barrage of banner ads, money in hand.

Now in order to start this brave new anon, start up web sites needed “Writers” to contribute “Content” so people would have a reason to come under the ultra persuasive spell of the banner ads. A few real writers jumped in, but the nature of the new fangled interweb was more directed towards niche markets. Comic books, Role playing games, Movies, Anime, and of course computer games were more likely targets of searches then a over arching architectural review.

This meant a lot of nerds that weren’t really writers got jobs. I was one of those nerds. Times where good for those of the nerdish way, and thanks to the connectivity of the interweb, we didn’t even have to leave Mom’s basement to go to work. The nefarious plans of the great fiery ball in the sky to reduce us to ash were foiled.

About 18 months after the boom started, reputable businesses suddenly remembered why the king of the excitable people was the King of the excitable people.

They considered the viability of investing some 22k$ a month into a site that, as far as they could tell, might have generated 4.27$ in sales. The great interweb raging river of money was quickly damned up and thousands of nerds were out of work.

For the record, this nerd went to work for an actual newspaper. Well… it was kind of like a newspaper. But I continued to get paid for typing up my witty Bonn Motts and observations.

There was a great influx of unemployed nerds flocking to interweb forums to brainstorm ideas on how to actually get paid for writing about their own personal fetishes. Some suggested Subscriptions, or a reworking of the banner ad idea. But really all that happened was a bunch of masturbatory scheming. Whine, whine, whine, “I’m a professional writer, I should be getting paid for my content”.

Putting things in historical perspective, while they might have been “Writers” in practice, they never were professionals in any sense of the word. They may have made professional money doing job professionals do, but they never crossed that transcendent line to true professionalism.

Professional writers write things people want to read… even when it’s not free. Professional writers generate money for their employers. Cha-ching bitches.

Now you may be wonder why I’m writing about the Dot Com crash in a blog about the Second Life music scene.

In the last few days I’ve been informed some malcontents are trying to start a musicians union to wrest more money from those wicked venue owners. Then I got another copy and paste of a diatribe by more mullet heads in another music group’s group IM box.

The same shopworn arguments were made; the same lame ass solutions were suggested. It’s so amazingly self serving I’m astounded people call me arrogant. It honestly makes me sick to my stomach to read this shit. But I read it anyway.

But then I think, hey, this is just a twist on the elaborate schemes of the unemployed nerd writers of the Dot Com crash.

Those that whine about fees are not really professional musicians. Remember that transcendent line? Professional musicians play music people want to hear and make money for their employers. Those that whine loudest and scheme the most abstractly should see how much money they can get from the local bar owner. Go sell some beer hotshot.

There is money to be made making music; however, Second Life is not a reasonable career path at all. Real money, professional money is made in the real world where the “Artist” is just a cog in the wheel of commerce.

Putting things in further historical context, it’s far more likely venue owner will stop paying fees then be bullied in to paying them. There is no reason to pay fees because I’ll play for tips and I’m actually vastly superior to most charging fees anyway. A goodly number of very talented musicians will play for tips (yes most the time they get a fee, but they don’t seem to make an issue of it). Maybe when venue operators think about it, they’ll stop adding to the financial burden of their monthly expenses by taking money out of their own pocket to stroke the massive ego of some sub-standard musical functionary.

Every time I play for tips, every L$ in the venue tip jar goes toward covering the cost or operating the venue. I’m playing music people want to hear, and making money for my employer. I’ve crossed that transcendent line and am…professional. Hell I even make a little money while being professional.

I no longer see myself at odds with the Second life music community. I’m good with venue owners, I adore the people kind enough to attend my shows, and I get along just fine with some musicians. But these whiny scheming self serving bastards actually sicken me.

I hope you all get what you deserve, and that is nothing.

I blame me

The odd thing about wallowing in your success is you have to wallow in your failure as well.

Yes, things are starting to slide south and I’m not happy about it. While I’m not happy, I take comfort in knowing this is a problem I can address, and I’m to blame for things sliding anyway. I’ve made the mistake of thinking just showing up for gigs and playing the best show I can is enough. It’s not, not by a long shot.

Unique visits to the web site are down about a 100 from last month. This is the first non-growth month since the site opened. MP3 sales are slumping as well. At this point I’m showing 463.41 Megs downloaded. While this does represent about 154 MP3 downloads, for me, it’s quite dismal. The release of “Show 507 LIVE” did not do as well as I had hoped. Of course, when you consider the rather small investment in time involved with the project, it’s a smashing success, but contrasting it to actual releases it’s a dismal failure.

Of course there are factors to consider. Second Life does slow down a bit in the summer months. I experienced it last year, but didn’t really notice it so much because at that time I was pretty close to the bottom of the barrel anyway. I had commented the traffic numbers had gone down about 15,000. But that is quite in-line with the traffic numbers last year in the summer months.

Another factor is, while I don’t really operate in the prime American time slot, a healthy number of my supporters are Americans and America is having a bit of an economic meltdown. I do believe this factor will effect Second Life, how profoundly only time will tell.

While there are extenuating factors, I can’t hide behind them. I’ve been quite slack in the promotion department. I’ve let the turmoil of my personal life effect my ability to campaign effectively in Second Life. I’ve gotten lazy and complacent.

When opportunities are scarce is when you must be on the top of your game. So I need to get back to the business of doing business.

Sick of it all

The other day in the Live Music Enthusiast group a venue owner made a horrible mistake. He offered to pay musicians to play at his venue. While that might seem like you or I as a quite generous act, the problem is he offered to pay them L$ 1,000 for their performance.

The reaction was as if he took a crap in their outstretched hand. It was not NEARLY enough for the self-proclaimed professionals of Second Life.

The odd thing is, if they were all that professional they would have just ignored the offer. But the reaction was more like a public pillory. How dare he?

He also asked that people responding to the offer play live music and not use backing tracks. Once again the Karaoke crowd lamented his snobbishness.

Then the unwashed mob started the grand dance of bullshit. Some venue operators boasted how much they paid artist. Some artist bitched about their expenses. Karaoke types whined about being some of the best voices in Second life. Some former venue owners told the sad tale of how they had to close down because they could no longer afford to stay open. Then some mullet head pipes in with, “Venue owners need a better business model” and of course, “Maybe we should charge admission”.

Now let me say, I’m sick of all you whiny bastards.

To the Karaoke types, try booking your show in real life. Nobody running a real world venue would bother because even if you voice is amazing, the real draw of Karaoke is the fact any fucktard can get on stage and humiliate themselves.

To the Guitar-aoke type, shut the fuck up. I’ve seen two amazing guitarist in second life, and both of them managed to make valid musical statements without the aid of backing tracks. It’s supposed to be “LIVE MUSIC”, playing with backing tracks is one step short of a recording. So why not just make a recording?

As to the matter of fees, when I play a show in Second Life, I’m not missing work. I play in my free time (or the time I can wrest free). So if I make one dollar that is one more dollar then I would have made then if I sat around surfing for porn.

To people that insist you get what you pay for. I feel I should point out you are saying because I choose to play for tips (Money I actually earn because people asses value to what I do) I’m somehow inferior to your mercenary self. Ummm pardon me but FUCK YOU. I’ve seen most the people that bitch and whine about fees, and most of them are mediocre at best, some actually suck. I play an all original set, play two to four shows a day and manage to draw an audience every time. I make good money playing for tips and for the record I have one fee paying gig each week. I’ve offered to play the show for tips only, but the owner insists of paying me. She also shows up at my shows at other venues so I think she is a fan.

To the venue operators, I love you guys. You ROCK. You pay the freight on the whole Second Life music scene. If you support me, I’ll support you. If you choose to pay a fee, bless you for your generosity. But I feel I should comment some are taking advantage of you and feel entitled to the fee you pay them. Every time I put out a tip jar I make money. Sometimes I don’t even put out a tip jar, offering to just play a show for free and people still tip me.

I’m so fucking sick of the whiners, and I’m happy to be too arrogant to be a vital part of the Second Life Music Scene. I’m arrogant enough to play for tips, I’m arrogant enough to play my music, and I’m arrogant enough to call you all a bunch of prima donna.

The venue operator that offered L$ 1,000 was directed by a friend to my show. He offered me a gig and yeah, I took it. I’ll have two fee paying shows this week, and I’ve been tipped L$ 1,000 before so I really don’t have an ethical problem with accepting the fee.

As a footnote, one of the whiners mentioned when people offer him a show he informs them he charges L$ 4,000 for a show and they seem shocked. On the other hand, I have venue owners that are hesitant to approach me because they assume I charge more than they can afford. What does that say about, “You get what you pay for”?

What’s the point?

Now when most people ask, “what’s the point” they are throwing in the towel and writing the entire endeavor off as futile. That is not what I’m asking. I really want to know what people think the point is.

My attention has been directed to two Items posted on the interweb. I got this from an anonymous source (winks).

"If enough SL musicians submit CDs to http://hounddogradio.net (url pointless, the entire comment is no longer there) he'll do an SL Segment on the station. You must have product on the market".

Now I’m not going to dwell on how freaking pointless such a segment would be on some interweb radio station, but I will ask the question, what does PRODUCT have to with MUSIC?

Now I do have product available, but featuring my music on a radio show because I do have something to sell kind of misses the point. Lots of goobers on Second Life have stuff to sell. Most of it doesn’t sell because either it sucks, or they don’t market it right. But shouldn’t a radio show be interested in music that would be of value to the listener even if there was no product available?

Is music only serious if the artist seeks to be grist for the music industry mill? I don’t think so. But lots of people see it just that way. While I care very deeply about my music, I don’t care at all about the music industry.

The second post was in “Sweet SL Music”, a blog posted by a dear supporter of mine, Sweetmunster.

“What is really going to become of all the musicians here in sl? Is this a stepping stone to the big bad world of rl stardom or will it all become a little too comfortable? It is easy to lose sight of your initial goals here.”

This really got me thinking. Second Life fits in with my goals remarkably well. I play music for people that reaching in the real world would be prohibitively expensive. So many of my supporters live in either the UK or Europe that the odds of them ever finding my music without the aid Second Life are astronomically small.

I’ve seen a lot of very talented musicians in Second Life, and only a very select few could ever stand a hope in hell of becoming anything significant in a real world setting. But that is okay, you is what you am, and if your music finds an audience anywhere the musician is well served, music is well served and the people that enjoy that music are well served.

Frankly I’m a bit tired of people treating Second Life as some kind of inferior outlet for half assed music. Yeah, a lot of it is pretty bad, but some of it is quite good. I’m freaking brilliant, and I play on Second Life. The music is good or not so good because it either has or lacks merit. The setting is irrelevant to the quality of the music.

So what is the point? To have product available? To seek the approval of the “Music Biz”? To use Second Life as a stepping stone to REAL LIFE STARDOM? I can only really answer for myself. The point to me is to write great songs, play great shows and make great recordings. To reach the people I can reach and make a stab at wresting a few dollars out of the system along the way. I could do all this in “Real Life™” or Second life.

When all is said and done, the point is the music to me.

It’s in my mind to ramble

Welcome to the first blog generated from my new computer. I must comment this new computer really makes a difference in my efforts in Second Life. It’s much like the difference between walking to work and driving to work. Now ever feature seems to work as it should… at least when Second Life is working when it should.

Of course the set up seems to take forever with a new computer. Yes, you are up and running in short order but the real work of a new computer is finding all your program disks that you’ve not use in years and getting all your tools as you like them.

One benefit of starting clean is you really get to evaluate your tools. Especially when it comes to my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). I really had collected a bunch of stuff that I hardly (if ever) used. I use to be a big fan of browsing the VST plug in sites and picking up all kinds of free piffle. Most of it worked, and some of it even sounded good. But time after time I found myself going back to the commercial versions of programs that seem to get the job done with consistency.
The current set up… for those that care, consist of Sonar Producer version 7 (I don’t plan on upgrading), Reason version 4 (God help me I love it so), and Ozone for the mastering (out of everything you could buy… get this).

I do have one hardware issue I need to address at some point. Back when I was using my Laptop computer I plugged in a 19 inch CRT monitor as a second monitor. I’ve been using two monitor since window supported the feature. As it stands now I’m using one monitor and it’s driving me a bit nuts. I really can imagine working with the DAW and one screen. I tend to keep the mixer up in the second monitor at all times so I know what the signal routing is at a glance.

Speaking of software… let’s talk about what I’m retiring. I have a copy of Sound forge somewhere. I’m not going to dig it up; because I had it installed on the laptop and didn’t ever use it. In its place I’ve been using Audacity. A free program that seems to have a vastly superior work flow compared to Sound Forge. Perhaps I should qualify that a bit, a better work flow for what I use it for. Sound Forge is feature rich, but do most of my feature intensive work in Sonar.

Also not making the install is my trusty version one Sample Tank. Simply speaking, it doesn’t sound quite as good as it should, and I had become quite use to using it, in spite of its 16 bit samples. All future sample playback will be handled via Reason’s NNXT advance sampler.

Wow, this may be the most boring blog I’ve ever written. But it’s what is on my mind.

I do have the “Story and Song Vol. 1” project ready to ship. I just need to find time to have an event for it.

I do plan on doing another Zorch-cast soon as well.

That about covers it for now. Thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far.

Time is my enemy

Crap, it’ hard to get anything done with all the stuff I’m getting done. I know that sounds contradictory, but keep in mind I do have two lives. One in the real world where I’m a semi-responsible adult with a fist full of children to deal with daily, and my other life as a virtual rock star.

Of course the semi-responsible adult gig gets top priority.

While I do make it to the vast majority of my shows, it’s the other stuff that is damn near impossible to find time for. Also, my show calendar is remarkably tight. If I wanted to do something different at this point it would be hard to find time for it.

Projects and status report.

The next Zorch-cast. Ummm, if it was just a matter of turning on the mic and yacking I could probably get it done. But the production work involved is kind of time consuming, and I would not put one out that didn’t have a bit of polish on it.

“Story and Song vol. 1”, waiting on the artwork from Talia, but even if I had the artwork I would be hard pressed to have a release party.

The Summer MP3 collection release, for the first time… I’m visionless. I don’t have a working title or even a release date in mind. I do have new songs, but not much time for pre-production.

New computer, well there is an end in sight for this project. I’ve got the hardware ordered and it should be here Friday. By weekend, I should be moved into a new computer. Of course I’ve gotta find all my program and driver disks. But this is kind of a top tier project. I’ve been working on this laptop for well over a year now and it’s not really getting the job done. Frankly, I’m not mobile enough to need a Laptop computer. I feel this is a keystone project.

In other news…

For the first time since it’s start, Zorchboom.com is not showing good numbers. The trend on unique visits while respectable is not looking promising for exceeding the unique visits from last month.

MP3 sales are slumping as well. So far only 360 Megs of downloads. While that represents about 100 MP3s, it’s way off the normal pace.

Group membership is bleeding off as well. Last time I checked it was about 270 members.

Side note… the number of people online in Second Life is also markedly off. About 15,000 less per time zone.

Am I slipping into the gaping maws of failure? Not likely. But I want to report the good as well as the not so good.

I sometimes wonder if my inabilities to attend the many ancillary tasks of my un-career are affecting my results.

Of course, when you are up to your ass in alligators it’s hard to remember the initial job was to drain the swamp.

Perhaps I’ll find some time to get my ducks in a row and get things moving forward again.

Economics and Imagination

I’ve always been a fan of imagination. Every thing that is, was once a dream. You are probably sitting in a building as you read this. Take a quick look around and think for a moment, once there was no building there. Then somebody said, “hey, maybe I should put a building here, and there will be a door over there and a room here and a hallway”. Before anything exists, it’s a simple dream.

It’s almost like magic… except it takes a lot of work to make dreams come true.

I spent most of this morning working on my next MP3 collection, “Story and Song vol. 1”, and it really got me thinking about my long-term business plan.

I think I’ve been pretty up front about my interest in making “real money money” in Second Life. However, I don’t want to extort it from some venue owner. I’m good with tips because people listening decide if and how much they will tip. They assign a value to what I do and pay me accordingly. I can’t really manipulate how much they will tips. It’s a crapshoot; some days are good, some days not so good. But regardless of the bottom line… it’s money earned.

At this point I’m learning there are only so many shows I can play before I start to fall apart. At first I figured this limit was defined by mental fatigue, but I’m learning there is a physical toll to pay as well. During a particularly busy week, I found my right arm became quite sore. While it’s okay now, I’m aware there are only so many shows I can play. So playing 400 shows a week is not an option for growth. So how do I grow?

Recorded music seems to be the answer.

During the show/listening party I earned as much from sales as I would have if I played four shows for tips, and frankly the sale from that show were not spectacular. For some other artist they might have been, but when I released “Shades of Blue”, between sale and tips for that show I cleared 30,000 L$. Keep in mind that is one show, and I’m still making money off “Shades of Blue”.

Of course selling recorded music is part of the answer, but the methodology of selling it is the big question. My vendors seem to work well. So far I’ve not gotten a single costumer service issue in well over one hundred sales. So the infrastructure is in place to get the job done. So now the issue is marketing the recorded music.

So far release parties seem to do landmark business. 80% of all sales come from release day events. Leaving 20% for impulse purchases at shows. However, this is a short-term perspective. It’s hard to say what old collections will continue to sell and how much. So in time that percentage may become inverse.

The bold new step is the Zorch Center. A shop that sells my MP3 collections 24/7,offers previews, offers group membership and a venue for impromptu shows. The first show proved to be profitable. But since this is brand spanking new, it’s kind of hard to measure the long-term benefit from it.

I’ll admit to groping in the dark as to how to market things. This is probably the major difference between the self-appointed experts and myself. Well… that, and I have some measure of success.

As of now, my best guess as to moving forward is keeping things dynamic.

I remember hearing an interview with Brian Epstein once (The manager of the Beatles) and he said the reason the Beatles did so well is because they were that band that was either in your ear or between them. When you weren’t listening to the Beatles you were thinking about them.

The more you think about someone or something the more invested you get in it.

Frankly this Blog is a shameless marketing tool. As is the Zorch-cast, and the Interactive listening party. Even the MP3 collections are a Marketing tool. Every show is a marketing tool.

You might be saying right now, “Hey Zorch… I thought it was all about the music”?

Well in the end it is. All the effort and planning work toward the end of getting the music I love in front of people that will love it almost as much as I do.

But money does matter. Money allows you to buy your time back and invest it in what you love to do. Money gives the artist a means to practice his or her art. How you earn that money should always be an issue. I present music and people choose to tip me for a performance, and or buy the recorded music. I’m developing an actual market for what I do. I don’t have my hand in anybody’s pocket. And the music is freaking amazing.

Imagination, talent and hard work… what a combination.

I love…success

You try things and sometimes they work. Of course, the person claiming to achieve it often defines success.

Perhaps this is the case here.

The show at the Zorch Center the other day was well attended. As far as I know only a group notice was sent and still some twenty odd people showed up. Of course a Live show seems to be a draw, but I was a bit nervous about how the “Listening party” after the live show would go.

The “Interactive listening party” is an idea that as far as I know has never been tried before. I was kind of wondering if it was uber lame and if anybody at all would want to be involved it in.

But in retrospect it was a quite a success. It was well attended, and the people there stayed though the whole thing, being exposed to new music, and… it was fun. Lots of fun. So much fun… a few people asked if we could do it again, and I don’t see any reason why not.

The real boon here is I tried a new way to present music to listeners and it seems to work marvelously. Oddly, I didn’t sell any DAP collections during the show, but sold quite a few before the show. Some might suggest this means the “Interactive listening party” was a dismal failure. But I would have to disagree. The fact that a few collections were bought says there is a interest in my music, and exposing more people to that music can only raise my profile as an artist.

And besides… it was FUN.