Happy Halloween

Well it’s the end of the month, and a holiday to boot. My favorite holiday actually. Happy Halloween people, and remember it’s only a matter of moment until the strip malls put up the Christmas decorations.

Also a presidential election is right around the corner. This fills me with both hope and dread. What would a world be like with a president Palin? Fuck, it’s a nightmare. I’m not a sexist but that woman is a fucking nut job, and I don’t mean that in a good way. If the elderly John McCain had a running mate that was not… well retarded, I would not be so apprehensive. But I don’t see the old goat making it through a four-year stint in office. So a vote for McCain is basically a vote for a woman of very questionable intelligence becoming leader of the free world.

We’ve already endured on retarded president and look at the trouble it’s caused.

I would like to encourage you to go out and vote if you intend to vote for Obama. If you intend to vote other wise I have to wonder if you have be paying attention. If you intend to vote for McCain just stay the fuck home you stupid git.

There you go, fair and balanced.

As for the “Music thing” I do in second life, I’m still quite perplexed. The two shows I played yesterday were defiantly revenge for my humiliation at the “Unnamed venue”. I was “ON” and “BIGGER THEN LIFE” as I usually am. But the shows were sparsely populated. At the first show, Dark Castle Park, I could not add any group members because everybody there was already in the group. They second show had a few more people at it, but they seemed far more interested in the act after me. This did not prevent me from doing a good show, but it is an observation.

I’m kind of at a loss for ideas at this point. I am not sure how to proceed and grow. I seem to either play to my group, or play to people that probably don’t have the stream on. Night times are rough, and comprised of all AMERICAN audiences for the most part. It seems AMERICAN audiences have no taste in music. I don’t mean they have bad taste; they seem to have no taste. They only love what they have been programmed to love by their media mogul overlords. This is why performers doing covers seem to thrive. They play the orthodox liturgy of music. Stuff that has been approved by “THE MAN”. There are exceptions to the rule of course, but most of those exceptions that have heard me are already in my group.

When I play, the Jester Inn, Artic circle dock, or The lost continent I pack them in and keep them in. All these venues are either UK or Euro based.

If I were a more reasonable person, I would probably not accept any bookings after 3 PM SLT. The nighttime belongs to the Yankees and that is a very tough nut to crack. Just gotta keep chipping away and trying to get a foothold.

Seems my methodology has not changed. Just keep playing shows and hope you reach someone by the end of the day. In all likelihood, evening/nighttime shows will result in much “Poofing out”, but I’ve gotta remember I’m playing for the benefit of the one or two that stay. The ones that leave are not interested in music anyway, so fuck em.

While I might sound bitter, I have good cause to be bitter. But as bitter as a may or may not be, I’m more resolute then most people suspect. I’m going to continue, and in the end I will prevail.

Deceleration trauma

Last night I came this close to just packing it in and doing something else. I had played another amazing show at “The Lost Continent”, and was feeling quite good about myself. How good? Bordering on megalomania. I felt unstoppable and nothing is quite as disheartening as feeling unstoppable and being… well, stopped.

I was booked to play a show behind some fellow that had drawn quite a crowd. He was “Okay”, and as is often the case his popularly was not reflective of his talent. I was figuring on exposing the mob to my music and they would surely be impressed and follow me to the ends of the earth.

That didn’t happen. I kicked into my first song, and I was “ON FIRE”. When I looked up at the end of my first song, just about everybody was gone. Two staff member and two people who were probably IM-ing each other were all that remained.

Deceleration trauma means, it’s not the fall that kills you, it’s the sudden stop at the end. I went from the top of the world to the bottom in an instant, and looking out at that empty Sim made me feel horrible. Instantaneous depression. I wanted very much to just log off and say fuck it, but I did stick around until the next act showed up. Just stopped in the middle of a song, said good night and vanished. While that might not seem “Professional”, it was the best I could do at the time.

What happened between the packed set at “The Lost Continent” and any time before the end of the first song at “The Unnamed venue” (I don’t hold the venue in any way responsible for this debacle, so I’ll not name it and seem as if I am)? Well, the quality of the music had not changed. But the quality of the crowd had. The Unnamed venue tends to host very popular acts, and that is why people come there. They don’t come to hang out at the venue, they come to see their favorite act and that is it. That seems to me the most likely reason for their instant departure. They had somebody else they wanted to see, rather then give me a chance.

I’m just not designed to be a popular act, so playing further shows at “The Unnamed Venue” is a waste of both of our time. I work my ass off in an attempt to get my music in front of that one person that will understand it and embrace it. I don’t play covers and most popular acts are simple lounge singers. I attempt to do something significant and most people hate that. I’m not entertainment, but I drift rather close to the profound at times.

So what do I do now? The same thing I always do, work hard, and do the best I can. Try to find the people that will love my music almost as much as I do. Wisdom is not the absence of mistakes, but rather learning from them.

One footnote. Something really did get me pissed off last night. After I left the venue the “Popular Rock Star type” that played after me informed the venue owner he wanted to talk to me. Fuck you Mr. Popular Rock Star type. Mind your own fucking business. To assume you can give me advice, counsel or even correction, you have to understand what the hell I’m trying to accomplish, and I’m quite sure you don’t understand jack shit.

Maybe being in tour mode is paying off, the numbers

I think I’ve mentioned before my passion for numbers. A lot of things are subjective, but numbers just are. You could argue what those numbers mean, but in most cases the meaning is clear.

At least that is my point of view.

So what do the numbers say this month (so far). Well we seem to be drawing more traffic. The number this month is 45 going into the last week of the month. Let me break that down a bit for you.

Unique visits
Oct (so far) 45
Sep 37
Aug 22
Jul 14

While not the kind of numbers that make a bean counter splooge, it does represent growth, and growth is much to be desired. Starting out at square one establishing a brand, we have grown significantly from July.

Not only is the page getting more traffic, it’s getting more attention time wise. Let’s break down the numbers here.

Visit duration
0-30 sec 171
30sec-2mn 10
2mn-5mn 8
5mn-15mn 10
15mn-30mn 8
30mn-1hr 7
1hr+ 2

The music preview pages are also getting more traffic. A great sign because it’s supposed to be all about the music right? The total for all music preview pages is 64 pages. This could account for the amount of time visitors are spending at the page.

Some more positive numbers are, what is the most visited page? Well, it’s the calendar page. Woot, people are using the site to find out when and where I’m playing. This is one of the primary reasons I put this web page up. Out of the 45 unique visitors this month, 44 added the page to favorites (or bookmarked the page).

Of course the main reason I put this site together was to have a server to host downloads of my music. How are the numbers looking there? Great, 89 downloads so far this month. When I was marketing DAP on the interweb I sold 8 MP3 in 9 month. So in one month, I’ve moved 10 times the amount of MP3s I did in 9 month using the more conventional method.

The Zorch Nation now has 155 member, still pressing toward 200 by months end, but even if that goal is not achieved, we must remember we didn’t even have 100 members when the month started.

Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged when busting ass on the virtual road of Second Life. It’s good to look at the number and see growth.

Second Stock 2008

Where were you when Second Stock happened? Probably doing something else, at least when I was playing.

I use to have a phobia about BIG EVENTS, but I must say the whole Second Stock thing didn’t suck at all. It seemed to go off with out a hitch. Even my trepidations about the helicopter ride seemed unfounded. Good going Second Stock peoples.

I did observe and learn a few things. First off, since this was an offshoot of the whole “Humming bird/Streamteam” amalgam, they had some fellow introduce me. He babbled out for what seemed forever about the vendors, the security, how wonderful Second Stock was, and then read my old bio. As he was reading it I had to wonder, “Why don’t you just let me play now and people will know all they need to know”?

Keep in mind this was my old bio, the one before I made up the “So-called” funny one. God I hate Bios.

I also notice as I was wrapping up my set, I didn’t see the helicopter with the next act fly over head at all. I have to wonder if it was worth all the effort they put into it. Of course you could say, “Well the act got to see the whole panorama of Second Stock as they flew in”. But remember, this is second life. As I flew in I got to watch things try and rez as I flew by. I could not even see the audience. As I waited back stage I had to wonder if anybody was out there.

As to the issue of attendance, it seemed about the same as any well-attended show I’ve played. I probably should have gotten my group join board up. It’s possible I got to play for a few people that had never even heard of Zorch before.

An hour after Second Stock I did a short set at “The Lost Continent”. There seem to be as many, if not more people in attendance at that show. While Second Stock didn’t seem to hang up on the organizational level, I have to wonder if the event was not more work then it justified. I’m sure the POPULAR KIDS pulled in as many people as they usually do, but I don’t think at anytime the massive resources of the event were utilized. Yeah the stream handles 1,000 listeners, but there are only 30 out there.

I’ve seen an event where Digby Smalls and Maximillion Kleen played together. They had a crowd of 82. They are two of the biggest draws in second life.

It seems to me, something is horribly wrong. There is an invisible barrier that seems so far unreachable. People like music; Second Stock had a pretty high profile, why was attendance so freaking average?

I guess if I ever figure that out, I’ll only be a few steps short of turning lead into gold.

The view from here

It’s funny how the longer you do things the more your point of view changes on key topics. I thought I might share my observations from this point in the journey.

When I first stated selling MP3s, I really thought people would impulse buy the singles. Well, they aren’t. I’m selling collections of songs, but for the most part the singles are untouched. As a matter of fact most single download happen when I know someone is particularly fond of a song and I just give them the note card for the download for free.

The biggest sellers are Black and White, and White and Black. These have the songs people are most familiar with, so that is not surprising. But they also represent the most expensive Items I have for sale.

I read this fact as implying I’m not selling music at an impulse level. People see my music as something they want and want a good deal of. There aren’t hit singles; the whole catalog seems pretty sound (judging by sales).

While standard business practice would be to continue to make singles available, simply because there is a potential sale there, the fact of the matter is the singles vendor is probably more of a distraction then an advantage. There are LOTS of songs in the singles vendor and finding the one you might want is not easy. You have to wait for each graphic to load and rez. With over 30 songs available that is a lot of loading and rezing.

Setting up a web page for each song and making a graphic for each song, and setting up a vendor slot for each song makes marketing singles very labor intensive. Considering the negligible sales, it’s probably not worth the effort.

I’m probably going to phase out single sales and I don’t think anybody will even notice. For most artists it would make sense. Most have ONE CD worth of material and a few songs are vastly better then the others.

All this thinking is of course pointing forward to the impending release of “Songs in the key of Green”. I’m already promoting the songs in concert, so when the collection is finished people will be familiar with the material. However, as always there is a bi-directional agenda with this project. I want people to want the music, but will be attempting to create a recording that would appeal to anybody that happened across it.

Many view music in a real life verse second life context. But music really does transcend this narrow-minded point of view. Harrie has mentioned she drives to work listening to my music. Luka listens to my music and shares it with her co-workers. Music in second life is as real and valuable, or worthless as it would be if is happened in real life.

If you are wondering if I’m implying I’m using my position in Second Life to launch into real life you are missing the point. I’m trying to connect my very real music with very real people.

Music needs to find a place in someone’s ear, home, and heart. This is the reason I record music.

Perhaps I made a mistake

I played a benefit last night, and I really have to get in the habit of saying no to benefits. There is a part of me that wishes to help out, but sometimes people seem to have their hand out at the wrong time.

The deal was, some fellow needed money to move to Pennsylvania to be with his children. I want people to be with their children. But upon closer inspection of the story, it seems what he wants to do is move to Pennsylvania, and the women running the benefit seems to be the fiancé of the man.

Once again, I have trouble saying no to people in need. But this seems like something that a person should deal with on their own. You want to change your life? Good, take action and change it. Save the fuck up. It might take a while, but I feel it’s kind of questionable to tax the charitable nature of people.

When I broke my guitar I was in a bind, and asked the Zorch Nation to help out. Because they responded so generously I managed to keep playing. With out a guitar I have no way to pay for a new guitar (talk about a catch 22). Thanks to the charitable nature of my good friends and supporters, I’m still doing shows. When I wanted another guitar to have tuned to DADGAD, I saved up and bought it with the money I earned with the guitar provided for me by the largess of my supporters.

Another thing that kind of made me leery of the cause last night was the fact the promoter of the event kept asking for tips for the venue. I understand the need for venue tips, but when I’m not collecting tips, why should she be holding her hand out?

It nice to help people out, but it’s not so nice when you gotta sit there and wonder if you had been taken advantage of. My involvement may have caused my group members to chip into a questionable cause.

Bottom line, I need to learn to say no. Not only to charities, but gigs I get a really bad feeling about. I remember the disaster at Qwertybob venue. I did say no at first, but the dude was like “Aw come on man”. He turned out to be a huge dick and I hope he’s moved on to his next failed project at this time.

While I’ve spent most of my life in the music field, but this is probably the closest I’ve been to being a Rockstar. While it is a rather virtual rockstardom, it seems to have many of the Pratt falls real rockstardom offers. One of those stumbling blocks is people using you to promote their personal agendas. However as morally questionable as that may seem, the bottom line is it is my responsibility to say “NO”.

Next recording project, “Songs in the key of Green”

Both “Black and White” and “White and Black” were bold concepts. Basically a live recording, with only voice and guitar. None of the standard recording tricks were used. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even agonize over the quality of the performance. Each track has… how shall we say? Character.

I feel these recording were what the supporters of my music wanted to hear, and for the most part I try to accommodate them. However, as an artist, I can’t just churn out what people expect to hear. After a while you turn in to AC/DC and I don’t have the legs to pull off the schoolboy look.

The next project is going to be a bit of a departure. If I were an anal retentive Englishman I would call it a “Proper recording”. I think I still remember how to make one. While it will be a bit more textured then the two preceding collections, I plan to keep it close to the guitar oriented minimalist sound that has become my personal voice.

The title of the next collection is going to be “Songs in the key of Green” and I’m posting the graphic for the collection with this blog. Yes, I do start from concept on up when making a recording. I have a few of the songs already written, and as for matters of content I may reinterpret a few of my previously released songs. However I’m still on the fence about that.

The goal, as always, is to make a “Classic Album”. Solid songs, with solid performances, rendered as well as I can with the technology at hand.

Another thing I’m considering is releasing an actual CD of this recording. I’m well aware that CDs are pretty much dead, and MP3s are the wave of the future. But there is a part of me that feels creating a CD makes it seem more real. I fully understand the business folly of this, but a short run of CDs might just break even or possibly turn a small profit. The last two CD projects I released from my very own record company “ColaRolla”, turned a small profit and allowed me to buy some PA monitors and a really cool printer.

Of course two factors will kind of impede my progress on this project. I’m currently in “Tour” mode in Second life, and I have to migrate out of the man cave shortly. It’s getting cold and it’s time to move the operation inside the house. So it might take a week, a month or a year. But I’m quite excited about the possibilities.

Un-filtered

I was talking to a music promotion today and found the conversation quite interesting. It was not so much what she was saying that I found interesting but rather the conclusion I came to during the discussion.

The biggest impediment to growth on a community level is the lack of filters. When I say filters, I’m refereeing to the apparatus that makes sure the music you are exposed to in real life doesn’t sap your will to live.

You go to a bar featuring live music. You know the experience is not going to be horrible because no bar owner hires someone that is going to drive off customers or affect sales. This is a filter.

In second life the filters are non-existent. As a matter of fact it seems you are far more likely to see a horrible act then a good act because it seems to serve venue operators best to hire as many “For tips only” players as possible and hope they have enough friends to keep things hopping.

While things do hop as tradition dictates, there is no growth there. I actually wonder if the majority of people emoting like crazy monkeys even have the stream on.

If you don’t have a vested interest in horrible music (and yes some people do), you really don’t want to waste your time listening to some jack off play Rockstar for an hour. This is why live music represents such a narrow niche of the Second Life population. Most people have a horrible first experience.

Whenever you see a pile of promo images, you can rest assured most of them suck ass. Because of this I’ve come to the conclusion is probably in my best interest to avoid piles.

In a more music friendly Second Life, there would be an established filter system could count on. Venues where you could rest assured you could avoid the Kite Loomings, Lou Mannok, and Bosco Constantine’s of music. You could also expect to be free of the jack offs that play with back up tracks. In my humble and 100% right opinion, unless the music is preformed live, it’s not live music.

No I’m not suggesting these kinds of performers vanish from the face of the earth. No matter how much I wish that could happen it won’t. But if you sing with back up tracks you should be in a separate Karaoke listing/venue. The “D” list live talent could also play in there own venues.

There are some venues very particular about whom they book. Those are the venues I need to be playing at. Bay Vista, a relatively new venue to me has been impressing the hell out of me lately. Before they booked me both operators came out to see me play, and when I suggested they hire POL and myself to do a back to back show, they didn’t jump at the idea. Instead they went to a POL show, checked him out and then said yes.

While there are venues that care, unless you know about those venues you are shit out of luck. Most people wondering about will more likely see a crap show then a good one, and that in a nutshell is the major impediment to growth.

Hello, Good-bye

I was online a few nights back playing a show, and I received an IM from Plankton, personable owner of one of my favorite Venues “Cheers”. He informed me he had to cancel our long running Hump day MEGA set show because he was closing the Sim.

Bummer.

Last night I went to dutifully play my show at Roscoe Village. When I transported to where the landmark pointed… the venue was gone. In it’s place were a bunch of vendor prims and not much else. Another venue closed, this time without even the courtesies of telling me my Thursday evenings were open for bookings.

What a rude bummer.

Yesterday I played another show at “Dark Castle Park”. The show, only the third show I’ve played there was very well attended and while talking to the operator, she mentioned even the venue tips were impressive.

Why do some venues thrive and have good attendance, and other limp along and close?

Both Roscoe Village and Cheers counted of my ability to draw a crowd. When things started off poorly they figured it would pick up in time due to word of mouth. At both shows, only the Zorch Nation members online showed up. They seemed to be the only people to know about the shows. Both venues didn’t bother to post the show to the in-world events listing.

Dark Castle Park has been well attended since day one. They also posted the show to the events listing. Yesterday was not only a packed show, but I added four new members to the Zorch Nation.

Venues that put forth the minimal effort to post shows to the events listing seem to do better. It’s such a simple thing to do I don’t know why it’s such a rare occurrence. These show are better attended and it gives both the performer and venue a higher profile in the Second life music scene.

200 chances to get it right

Well, Sunday the 12th was the big 200th show in Second Life show. I must say, and ask any in attendance it was one of my best shows yet. I always do a great show at the Jester Inn but this one was better then the normal great show I do.

Did I mention I’m humble?

200 shows in about 6 months brake down to a bit more then one show a day. Of course when I started out it was more like three shows a week. Now it’s more like three shows a day.

During the celebrations people kept saying “here is looking forward to the next 200 shows” at the rate I’m going that might take three months. Let’s face it, I’m ambitious, motivated, and I’ve got nothing better to do. I’m the perfect foot soldier to tour the various urine soaked venues of Second Life.

For the humor impaired out there, I meant urine soaked metaphorically.

But as always, let look at the bigger picture.

I’m often hearing about music magazine popping up to cover the scene in Second Life. When people talk about this, the Naysayers dutifully say nay, and then point out the problem of distributions and format.

The more salient point would be the lack of CONTENT. Nothing really happens on the music scene in Second Life. People book shows. People play shows. People attend shows. Everything else is just… stuff.

Bob has a new CD coming out. Cool Bob, everybody has a CD now. Bill is going to play a show in REAL LIFE ™. Cool Bill, but I don’t live near you so this has no direct impact on my life. Bob, Bill, and Tammy are going to JAM online together. Who cares? I don’t maybe I’m jaded (only took 6 months).

As long as we are talking about things that are no big deal, Zorch plays his 200th show. Who cares? Most people don’t. But for the friends at the Jester inn it was a very big deal indeed. And while I don’t care about Bob, Bill, and Tammy, it did matter to me.

So what is the moral Aesop? Community is where you find it, scene is where you make it, and everything else is nothing more then a gnat farting in a hurricane.

Where’s the support????

Now I’m not talking about my Friends/Fans/Zorch Nation member. They are the very best. But a shocking revelation has come to my attention. In the 12 remaining shows I have booked this week, only one is listed in the Events section.

So unless you are a citizen of the Zorch Nation, or a member of the Venues group, you have no idea Second Life’s second best singer/songwriter is performing. I’m not one to sit idly by and let issues go un-addressed. With this in mind I’m writing an open letter to venue owners (I’ll send it as a note card in world).

Greetings and thank you for booking me to perform at your venue.

I’m sure we want this event to be as successful as possible, and it’s come to my attention that very few of the venue operators that book me actually bother to list shows on Second Life’s event calendar.

I’ve recently checked and with 12 shows remaining in the week, only one showed up on the events listing. I would imagine the venue operators felt they had a sufficient group to draw people to the show, and perhaps that is true. However, both the artist and venue only grow when we reach the people outside of our sphere of influence.

I remember my first day in Second Life; I wanted to see live music. I saw Dann Numbers in the listings and went to the show. I didn’t know the artist, I didn’t know the venue. I just new I wanted to check out live music in Second Life.

I’m closing in on my 200th show in world. I’ve played several high profile shows (Relay for life, Amnesty International, and SL5B), and I’ve also played a good number of shows at well-attended showcases (The Originals, Freestar bay, The Humming bird café, and Merry Pranksters). All theses show serve the purpose of getting my name in front of people and giving them a taste of the Zorch-tastic goodness.

I think I’ve put a good deal of hard work establishing the Zorch brand. All you need to do now is let people know where they can come to hear me. You don’t need to write much more then “Zorch, Venue, time, date”. You can even copy and paste my funky bio for the description or make up something. I don’t really quibble over the content.

To post an event just go to the official Second Life web site( http://secondlife.com/ ) and click the “Search for events” link. You’ll find a button that allows you to add an event. I won’t give you a detailed instructions because if you can run a live music venue with all the scripts and such I’m sure you can figure it out.

Please note, they ask for you to post your event 24-48 hours before it starts. This ensures time to have it listed in world, and that is very much where we want it listed.

I can’t really insist on this, it’s only a suggestion, and I can’t do it myself, because the parcel/venue owner is suppose to list the event. However, if you do take this simple extra step, I’m sure you’ll find it worth the effort. More people in attendance are beneficial to the both of us.

Many thanks again for booking me to perform at your venue. I hope it’s a enjoyable and successful relationship.

Having a “Second Life” day

Man today was weird. The boys and girls at Linden Labs decided everybody was going to update their client today. This is the first time in recent history I remember them forcing the issue, but they really have to force the issue. Nobody really trusts the updates, they always seem to cause more trouble then they fix.

Today your options where update, or don’t log on. I had shows booked so my only option was to update and hope for the best. So far, my computer has not burst in to flames, but I’m keeping a fire extinguisher handy just in case.

Everybody updating at the same time cased a rather sever bottleneck. My first show a “Mandolin Reign” was poorly attended. As a matter of fact the women that booked me didn’t show up until half way through the show. Luckily the venue operator has it so group members can change the media settings so the show went on.

Super fan Luka was in attendance, quite sick from what she tells me, but at least she was upright at this show. She knows my music has the power to cure all illness. Luka also informed me we had 127 members in the group. Woot Zorch Nation. However, checking tonight I find we have 124. As I have mentioned before groups swell and shrink.

Anyway, by the end of the show we had about 8 people bopping about, and I was 800 L$ richer, and had one more group member to show for my trouble. Baby steps right?

I had about an hour until my next show, logged out, made something for the kids to eat and hopped back online. About a half an hour before Showtime I sent notice to the group, and headed on out to the venue. It was at this point I discovered the amended Teleport point I had created didn’t work as I hoped, and I landed at the “Official” landing point, which requires you to use a special teleporting device to get to the Pavilion where the show was to take place. Nothing like making things more complicated for people.

I sent out an appended notice with an explanation of just how to get to where I was playing and hoped for the best. Set up went quickly and there was nobody on before me, so I took my spot on stage and got read for the influx. Around show time Luka showed up… then Piet, and a few more people I really didn’t know. Hey there is Susu. One person is conspicuously absent. The woman that hired me to play the show, and it seem that group members cannot change the media stream at this venue. I’m standing there like an idiot making small talk, explaining how the show can’t start until we find someone to change the stream. More people show… none of them have the rights to change media settings. At about 45 minutes after the scheduled start of the show, I decided it kind of wrong to have all these people standing around waiting for me to play. I debate just ditching, or moving to another venue. POL is in the audience and I ask him if we can use WAM-TV as an alternative venue. He says yes and once again a whole audience makes the trek to hear a show.

Now please don’t think I’m bitching about the venue operator. I understand that real life stuff happens, and the fact that nobody with stream rights was on is just another wrinkle in the story. Venue operators when they offer a musician a group tag should also offer them the ability to change the media stream so in dire emergencies the show can in fact go on.

The Show at WAM-TV went well, everybody… including me seems to make it to the venue, and a sudden sense or normalcy returned. Yeah this was a show, the stream was working and there were some people in the audience. Woot Bootleg concerts.

I feel I must comment on the people listening at this point. They waited 45 minutes before they had any sign of a show, and when the call to exodus came down they troop off to a new venue. I wonder how many Karaoke fucktards could pull that off. Well, probably more then I care to think. But I bet Bosco Constantine couldn’t do it.

Thanks for the Hand POL.

Boogie Beach Bootleg experiment

The other day I took Jackie Cushing up on her offer to hold impromptu concerts at her venue Boogie Beach.

The point of the experiment was to find out if I could take control of the stream using the interface she is employing. Until you actually do something it’s always theoretical. From that point of view the experiment was a resounding success. I got on the stream and returned the stream to “The 80s radio” station after the show, no problem.

I love success.

The attendance of the show was rather spotty. I only sent notice to my group and I did hold the show at 9 AM SLT. The tips were not impressive but it seems I did pick up four new group members.

Had I sent notice to the Boogie Beach group I might have picked up a few more listeners, but I had not checked with Jackie about that before hand.

Also, posting the show in the events listing might have brought a bunch of listeners simply because there is not much live music going on at 9 AM.

Actually time slots represent the undiscovered country in Second Life. People involved in Second Life live their first life all over the world. They get up and participate at different times. While there is a possibility for a language gap, there is still room for growth.

An early morning following could be quite a boon to my five-year plan for world domination. I would also like to develop a more active nighttime group. Right now I seem to be able to pull a pretty good crowd in the afternoon. But a good deal of that crowd is people that know me via my affiliation to POL.

I have to be ever mindful my music will always only appeal to a niche audience. I don’t think I live in the “Pure entertainment” spectrum of the musicscape. My music is thoughtful, emotional, and closer to art then most are comfortable with. But a few people live for the kind of music I make. I’ve seen impressive displays of support from some of my listeners. Aprille take a late lunch to catch my “Lost continent” show, and Natascha has attended shows that take place at 3 AM in her time zone. Nya, after six hours of Hosting at the artic circle shows up for my shows. I often look out and see Harrie at my shows. Any time you see a venue operator at another venue to see your show that is support.

These are just a few acts of support, but each one touches, and motivates me. I want to keep providing the best show I can for the people that seem to love my music. While I treasure the support of my friends, I wish to make more friends. That is why I’m branching out into new time zones.

So many see Second Life as a world of limits. You can only do “This”, because that is all that has been done. I seem to view things differently. Not because I’m an optimist, but rather because I believe what I do is very good, and very profound. It means a good deal to me, and it seems to mean a good deal to others. The more people I present it to, the more people will find value in it.

To put this in perspective, I’ve heard so many songwriters here lament, “I have to play some covers or nobody will book me”. I have never played a popular cover song, and it’s been a good number of shows since I’ve bothered to play “Eat your brain”. I have 51 shows booked this month. I not only book shows, people attend the shows, and I’m playing all original music.

I’m not bragging here, just pointing out, you can do more then the common wisdom says you can do. Good music, good shows and some hard work to get the good stuff in front of people with good taste can do wonders.

Zorch’s tips for beginners (AKA Noobies)

The top ten things you can do to start out on the right foot.

1. Relax.
Seriously, that is the most important thing you can do. Remember people aren’t really paying attention when you first start playing. They are jabbering to friends in IM, cooking dinner, sorting laundry, and picking their nose. They really only start to take notice when you start doing something good. Remember most the music in Second Life sucks ass, so if you really start off on the wrong foot, nobody is going to piss in your popcorn.

2 Voice up front.
Most musicians feel they’ve spent a lot of time mastering (snicker) their instrument and want to feature it prominently. Many are also not very confident about their voice. But the sad fact of the matter is most people connect to the music via the singer. We all can relate to the act of singing. Even if the listener knows they can’t sing well, they still understand it. Words make sense. Notes are either right or wrong, but words convey emotional content.

3. Remember, “I’m having technical difficulties”.
Okay, you have just started a song, and suddenly you can’t remember how to play it, what the words are, or why you thought it was a good idea to get out of bed in the morning. Most try to pull it together, fumble about, flail about, start to panic, have a major bout of insecurity, and spend the rest of the show thinking, “God I suck”.

While you might well suck, you don’t suck because you had a mind fart. It happens to everybody… except of course me.

If you are totally stuck just stop, and use this phrase. “I’m having technical difficulties”. People listening assume you were distracted by some glitch in the system, and still hope you might provide them with a good listening experience.

This works best for total melts downs, Minor booboos can be covered with the phrase, “That is how you know it’s live music”.

4. Sound good
While this might seem like a no brainer, it’s funny how many people don’t seem to realize their sound is sapping my will to live. The guitar might be way to loud and sound like it’s crammed up a baboon’s ass, the voice is breaking up, the stream is skipping. All kinds of sonic evil can be happening while the performer bears their soul. If you have headphones, use them. Do listen to what is going out on the stream. If you don’t have headphone, and are going uber low tech, let me suggest a single mic and an acoustic guitar. Not acoustic/electric, or if you have one don’t plug it in unless you can hear the mix (I’m talking earphones again).

Put your mic about eight inches from your mouth, with the mic pointed right at your face. This is a lot further away then most people are use to, but what you are doing is picking up the voice and guitar in the same mic. The position of the mic makes sure the voice is up front. Take a look at the VU meters in your streaming software to make sure you have a good signal, not too high or low.

While this is not perfect sound (you could debate the best way to go about that for ages) it is almost always (like 98% of the time, depending mostly on the quality of your mic) good sound with a solid mix. It’s so simple it really lets you concentrate on your show.

While this is not the set up I currently use, it was what I started out streaming to Second life with. It gave me a solid base to work out my show with. I still use a good deal of acoustic feed from the guitar, and a small amount of pick up. But I have played some shows without being plugged in and didn’t even realize it until mid show (some songs require a bit more emphasis from the pick up, and until I play one of those songs it’s only purpose is to shore up the bottom end a bit).

5. Relax.
Not a typo. It’s that important.


6. Remember you are playing to one person.
I know there might be a bunch of Avatars at the venue you are playing. But don’t freak out. All shows are the same in the fact each person listening is just one person sitting in front of their computer. This works in your favor if you remember it. Don’t treat the audience like a group of people because at the end of the chain, that is not how they are experiencing the show. Be personable. Be nice. Tell the story behind the song. Allow your listener to come to realize there is a person on your end of the chain singing songs to them.

7. Don’t read chat when you are playing
This is probably the most difficult thing to ignore when you start out. You want to know how you are doing, and you seem to think if you read chat it will give you a clue.

It won’t. There will be a lot of crap like “Wow, I love this song”, “Beautiful”, “Wooot” and of course, “RUUUUUGGGGBBBAAAAA”. But these comments indicate NOTHING. Most are emotes that the brain dead seem to use to pass the time. You can’t really play well if you are trying to read.

We all get “BUSTED” reading the chat during songs, do try to avoid it the best you can. Close you eyes if you need to.

While you should not read chat during songs, you might want to look at your IM’s in-between songs. They might have an important message in them like, ”Hey your mic seems to be off”.

8. Woodshed
Find a dump that will book anybody and play there often to get your show up to speed. Don’t run off to the “Career making” shows until you have some kind of grip on the mechanics of what you are doing. By the way, while it’s rumored there are some venues that will put you on the path to glory, that is a myth. It’s all hard work and grinding away building you fan group and working on your performance. It doesn’t really matter if you are the best thing since the wonder bra.

9. Take your music seriously, everything else not so much
Now some are going to accuse me of being an elitist asshole here. But when it comes to Music in Second Life all that should really matter is the music. Take it dead seriously or you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

If you have nothing to contribute, then don’t waste people’s time. There are too many self-indulgent assholes playing rock star. The sad fact of the matter is the system in place seems to only encourage this behavior. So many Karaoke fucktards with chick managers seem to pop up at every “Open mic”, most of the non-music community population thinks that is what makes up “Live music in Second life”.

Play something real. Play something you love. Play something that will touch someone. Make a difference and don’t let the bullshit get you down.

You’ll play shows and only a few people will be there. It doesn’t mean you suck.

You’ll play shows and it will seem like the whole world is there. It doesn’t mean you’ve made it to the big time

Your group will swell and shrink. Don’t worry about that.

People will cancel shows, don’t take it personally.

The stream will fuck up.

You won’t be able to TP to your show.

The Sim crashed.

Your Internet service provider is having problems providing you service.

Money transfers are suspended during you show (thank you Linden labs)

A million and one problems can and will try to prevent you from doing the one thing that matters most. Play your music. If you music is important to you, you’ll endure these indignities with as little grumbling as possible. It’s actually amazing when things work the way they should

Laugh it off little Buckaroo. It’s only Second Life.

If getting your music to the people that will enjoy it is important to you, all the other crap doesn’t matter a wit. Don’t get hung up on tips and fees. It only amounts to a few bucks either way in real life. Play the shows that will get you in front of the people that need to hear your music.

10. Relax.

Bootleg concerts

I was at a POL show the other day, and the venue owner was offline and it seems somebody had set the stream to a radio station after the previous crappy alleged jazz bands performance. Effectively leaving POL to stand on the stage with his… guitar in hand. No stream, now sound, no music = NO FUN.

We were left with two options. Pack it in and chalk it up to the multitude of pratfalls Second Life provides, or go somewhere else and have the concert without the sanction (basically the stream) of the Venue.

POL decided to go BOOTLEG and held the show at Wam TV a parcel he owns and can change the stream to whatever he wants. It seems like just about everybody at the official show made the jump to the new venue and the show went off without a hitch. I even played a short pick up set after POL was done.

During my stay on the SLMC forum I’ve heard many Venue owner whine about the difficulty of hosting a show. They have to hire staff, put out notices to various music groups and post to the events listing, and then deal with getting people on and off the stage.

While this seems to be the paradigm most shows run under, they seem to be somewhat superfluous when the artist has an actual fan base.

Please note I’m not disrespecting venue owners, because I’m sure when hosting a mega show with a bunch of so-called artist of various experiences, it’s probably a good thing to have someone on hand to help herd the cats. Get people on and off stage, make sure they have the stream info, and god forbid, if there is a last minuet cancellation, shuffle the deck a bit.

But when was the last time you sat through a whole mega show? I don’t think I’ve ever done it. I tend to sit through about 30 minuets of the act before me, because I show up early in order to avoid last moment TP issues. Then I hear about three songs of the next act while I answer my post show IM’s. In most cases the acts are horrible at both ends, but that is what happens when you book anybody and stack them up for an eight-hour mega show.

I know this if off topic, but just a though. If anybody were paying attention would any of these Karaoke fucktards get booked?

I’ve actually played a Bootleg concert once myself, and it seemed to work out just fine. I was schedule to play “Cheers”, and the Sim was crashed. Sent a notice to my group that I was moving the show to Vincent’s and had a well attended show.

I do have permission from a few venue owners to hold bootleg concerts on off hours and I might just take them up on this. It could become a more music driven kind of concert. No Karaoke fucktards, no bullshit, no host spamming “TIP THE ARTIST”. Just good music.

What an anarchistic idea. Good music in Second Life.

173 show and counting, the Zorch World tour 2008

I’ve counted all the shows I’ve played as reflected via my booking calendar and came up with the magic number of 173 shows in the past six month. Keep in mind, this dose not reflect all the shows I’ve played because I played a handful before I started using the calendar and there are some pick up shows not reflected on the calendar.

That is a pretty good number of shows.

During these shows I’ve added 100 some odd people to “The Zorch Nation”.

During the latter part of the six-month time period I released four MP3 collections. “Black and White”, “White and Black”, “Get Zorched”, and “Love songs, hate songs, in-between”.

I’ve incorporated two new guitar techniques, Hammer guitar (thanks POL) and songs using the DADGAD tuning.

I’ve done a mega set at the “unwinding hour” consisting of songs I’ve written while performing in Second life and it took 96 minuets to play them all.

Now I’m not bringing this up in a lame attempt to impress you. But every now and then you have to notice how much road lies behind you, and just how far you’ve come.

I’ve made many good friends, I would start to list them, but fear of forgetting someone prevents me from doing so. So many good venue operators, so many supportive fans, frankly I’m quite amazed taking it all in.

So what do I do now?

Keep on keeping on. Pressing toward the 200th show, the 200th Nation citizen, and the next collection of songs. I don’t see any ceiling here. Just keep pressing on and see how far I can take this thing with a little talent, hard work, and a huge ego.

Order you “Get Zorched world tour” t-shirt now. Quantities are limited.

Value based strategy

Okay, I’ve been thinking again and you know that can only lead to a long pointless rant on the old Blog. But I’m bound and determined to crack this thing. There really can’t be a hard ceiling for a listenership. Some seem to suggest the listener pool is only so big in Second life. But that population only reflects a fraction of the over all online population. One of the more fashionable cultural pursuits is the enjoyment of music. In theory everybody likes music, so why is live music in Second life so marginal?

Easy answer, because the vast majority of it sucks ass. Lame, self indulgent and self-serving posturing is what makes up the lions share of performers in Second Life.

There is no way to salvage the music community in Second life. It values sociability over actual talent. Yes, like little league everybody gets to play. The fan base for little league is Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad reflect a very small portion of the world population.

To sum up, there is not help or hope at a community level. The high tide does not life all boats if most the boats are actually anvils.

So I’ve developed a value-based strategy and hope you’ll follow along with me.

Today I was looking at another artist MP3 vendor. He was charging 250 L$ per-song. This is comparable to what you would buy and MP3 for in the “Real world ™”, and while it might seem fair good and right, he’s probably losing site of what is really valuable to him as a struggling artist in the wacky world of Second Life.

What is really important is establishing his brand and making hard-core fans. This is in fact the cardinal tenant of value-based strategy.

Sell MP3 for 100L$

Consider for a moment Joe Music fan, he likes your music, enjoys a few of your songs right away. Looks at your MP3 vendor and finds out they go for 250 a pop. Joe likes three songs but does not want to invest the sum of money required to buy all three songs. He tries to decide which song he likes the best. After much consideration he decides to pass on the whole deal. Joe would tip you 100 L$ without blinking an eye. He probably did. It seems to be a very consistent tip amount. Come on now, do more people tip you 100L$ or 250L$?

For the record, I get tipped various amounts, but if you averaged the 500L$ tips against the 20L$ tips it would probably average 100L$.

Making the price of an MP3 conform to a tip average, rather then a market value price of 250L$ might seem like a loss of valuable revenue. But the pennies the 150L$ shortfall represent are meaningless. The value of your MP3 in the hands of a listener is almost worth paying for.

Now before you get on your horses and ride off to the far end of the spectrum of giving MP3s away. Let me warn you that doesn’t really work. I’ve posted a few MP3s on the MySpace page for free download as part of fan appreciation day. Nobody downloaded them for free, but when I put them in the vendor and charged people for them. They bought the same MP3s they would not download for free. When things have a price they seem to have value. Perception is reality in marketing.

Now back to Joe Music fan, he’s at your show, having a good time, he’s about to tip you 100L$ because he’s not a cheap bastard. Then he notices he can buy an MP3 for the same amount. Hey… Joe is not even all that crazy about your music, but he thinks “Why not get a little extra for my tip money”. He’s only heard your song once; he’s not even sure which one he likes. But he figures what the heck. He buys a song, and listens to it. Even if he’s only listened once, that is one more time then he’s heard the song on concert. But he’ll probably listen a few times. Maybe he’ll grow to LOVE that song. He sees your name of an event calendar and says, “Hey I love that song he does” and pops in. listens a bit closer then he did the first time. He listening for songs he likes, new songs to love. He’s buying another MP3 and joining your group. He’s telling all his friends about your music and even sending them copies of your MP3s (yes Joe is stealing from you but still doing you a huge favor. He’s helping you establish your brand). I could go on and on. But I hope you see my point.

Always understand what is actually valuable. A few Lindens here and there are meaningless in the long run.

Play a venue with a large group for tips rather then a paying show where they hope you can draw a few people.

Try and share the stage, if you must share one, with other talented performers. The over all effect is an enjoyable experience for the listener. They will react in a more positive manner if they are having a positive experience.

Nurture relationships with venues that let you do your job (which is actually establishing your brand by putting on the best show humanly possible), and be willing to say “NO” to venues that offer no real benefit. Every show should be a step forward.

The secondary tenant of Value-based strategy is, STAY DYNAMIC.

Always have something new. Stay on the move. I’ve seen acts that are the same every time you see them. If you want to GROW you have to be open to CHANGE. Write new songs, record new songs, update the blog, and always look for new and interesting ways to promote your music and establish your brand.

If you wish to maintain your fan base, you better keep providing them with good reasons to remain interested.

I firmly believe that my fate is in my own hands. I’ll not only work hard, but also work smart. I don’t believe in limitations. Never have. My motto has always been, “Attempt the impossible. If you fail nobody is surprised and if you succeed people will be really impressed”.