Money

The title should warn you, I'm about to broach a controversial subject. I'm probably as uncomfortable writing about it as you might be reading about it, but the situation is such I feel letting it slide just exacerbates the problem.

At the outset I would like to say I'm well aware there are people that attend live music events that are broke. They really don't have a lot of money to spend on anything, and I don't have a problem with those people. I personally have no discretionary money... or more to the point I'm effectively broke as well. All moneys earned in Second Life, go to paying for my stream rental (my one in world expenditure) and buying groceries and paying bills in real life.

But I'm not here to talk about the nickel and dime matters of my personal life because I think we both agree that is my problem.

What I am here to talk about is the compensation live music artist should get. Basically, I'm trying to make it clear why a performance is different from buying a pair of virtual shoes. The economic of the difference.

The content provider.

Now when somebody sets about to create a virtual product for Second Life, they invest their time, and yes they deserve compensation for that time. But the investment is very different. When you make a virtual item, you invest time in it and then sell copies.

If it take them four hours to create that flashy thing-a-ma-bob, if they sell one for 300 L$, they make 300 L$ for those hours.

That is not much for an hourly wage, but every time they sell another copy Their hourly wage goes up.
If they sell ten thing-a-ma-bobs they make ten times as much money for the hours invested. The hours invested never change, but the amount they get compensated for those hours goes up with every sale.

Part of my economy uses this paradigm.

When I make an MP3 collection, the amount of time invested in the recording of those songs never goes up, so every collection I sell increases the value of the time invested. I can afford to sell my music for half of what a third party aggregator might sell them for, because once it's done, any money made is profit.

The Live event content provider.

Here is where it gets grim. If I play a one hour show, whatever I make during that hour is all I'm ever going to compensated for that hour. The next show is not a copy of the last show but a whole new hour invested. I only have so many hours in my life, when you sit there and enjoy my labors but withhold compensation you are not only stealing an hour of my time, but stealing an hour of my life.

I hope I'm not being overly dramatic, but I'm trying to make a point. Everything is cheap in second life, you can buy a house for about 2 $ American. But it's not a real house. You can't live in it, but you can pay real money (Lindens do equate to real money) on buying a copy.

Live music in Second Life serves all the purposes live music does in real life. While the delivery is different, the effort involved in performance (provided it's real live music and not the Karaoke or Guitar-eokie version) is identical. When I do play live in real life, I play the same music I play in Second Life and get considerably more pay for it.

When you sit and listen for an hour and tip me 20 L$, you are basically tipping me 0.13 $. Thirteen cents? Really, would you watch a street performer and throw a dime and three pennies in his guitar case? If you sat there for an hour and did that, the guy would probably slap you in the face.

Now once again, I mention, if you are short on cash I understand, but this is not really addressed to the broke, but rather the cheap. I understand it take an hour of your life to listen to my hour long show and as I have said in the past, I do appreciate the attention.

If you enjoy the music, and have the cash to spend, simply support the musicians with a reasonable tip. Remember, lots of people are freeloading, either because they are short on finances or just cheap bastards. Make a difference. TIP.

Now you may ask what a reasonable tip might be. Well for the record, 269 L$ is about a one American dollar. 500 L$ is about two bucks and about half what you would spend on a cover charge if you went to a bar. What do you think it reasonable?

I do earn my crust of bread on Second Life and recently it's been quite a hardship. I'm use to a Spartan life style, but lately it's taken a swing toward the catastrophic. In the last four months, earning have dropped 300$ real life dollars.

Now in my defense, I'm not expecting Venue owners to start paying me humongous fees, as I've always been a champion of those that pay the bill for all the music scene in Second life. The Venue owner pay significant tier fees just to have a place for live music to happen, so while I do appreciate any fee offered I do not demand a fee to show up and play. Perhaps if I did, I would not be writing this blog, but in my personal estimation, it would be wrong of me to demand money from the people paying freight on the whole shebang.

I'm not making any unreasonable demands at all. All I ask for is what is fair. If you attend the shows and have some discretionary funds, don't be cheap. If you enjoy the artist, any artist, tip them and tip them well. 250L$ (around a buck) 500 L$ (around two bucks) 1,000 L$ ( around four whole dollars, remember, not everybody can tip, and some people are being cheap bastards) would be peachy, reasonable and fair.

You can't make the music scene better, or give it more visibility, but you can make it more fair. You have the power and only you know if you are being cheap. If you are being cheap... stop that.

One more thing I would like to address. A while back I played a show behind an incredibly popular performer in Second Life. I know what he charges for an hour show and the venue owner booked me for tips because, he really couldn't afford to pay a fee. Some would say this is good and fair as well because Venue owner can pay what they wish. This is true, but don't tell me you can't afford a fee then hire Joe Popular for 10,000 L$ per-hour. My hour has the same amount of seconds in it as Joe Popular's hour. If the venue owner want to pay for an audience, pay me one quarter the fee, for one quarter the audience, that is fair. But do not exploit me and shower riches on those favored by the unwashed masses.

When all is said and done, I feel the donation based economy can work. People just have to compensate those involved fairly. If you have money, and if you are having a profound enough of an listening experience to invest an hour of your time in... don't be a cheap bastard.

If you think about it, if you do have thousands of Lindens in your account, and sit there for an hour listening, and only tip 20L$, what are you saying about the value of your time?