The Zorch Nation hits 300 Citizens

I was checking my mail and received this screen cap from Nyx. Thought I would share the moment. You can click on it to make it bigger.

A good weekend for growth

There is a part of me that expects to plateau shortly. How long can an endeavor maintain growth? Especially one whose singular resource is the hard work of the people involved?

Well I’m please to announce January continues the trend towards growth.

Group membership in The Zorch Nation hit 285 yesterday, and that is an improvement over 250. We even managed to add ten new members in one show, also an improvement over the last single show record.

Downloads show 1.48 gigs worth of MP3 files have found their way to a new home in January. This is a vast improvement over the 638 megs downloaded in December.

As of the morning of January 26th, we show 139 unique visitors to the web site. That is one more then the very high 138 unique visitors we had in December, and there are still a few days left in the month.

Now, as to the matter of unique visitors, I feel I should point out this number does not reflect the total traffic to the page. It simply refers to IP addresses that have never logged on to the site since we’ve been keeping stats.

Amount of time spent view the site is up as well. The stats indicate 16 visitors spending between 30 minuets to one hour viewing the site. I would imagine this reflects people checking out the music section.

84 visitors out of 139 added the site to their favorites list (60.4%).

While we did have a new collection release this month, every collection in the catalog has been downloaded at least three times in January. Considering we do have a “Hit list” collection this would indicate to me I’ve got a pretty strong catalog.

Just about any indicator I look at present’s data reflecting growth. Of course there are plans in the works to keep things moving forward, but it’s good to know the current plan is bearing fruit.

Howard Roark and me

When people ask me what my favorite book is I say, “1984 by George Orwell”. When they ask what my favorite movie is, I say “The Fountainhead with Gary Cooper”. I feel I should point out, if there were no “1984”, “The Fountainhead” would be my favorite book hands down.

More poignant still, my favorite fictional character is without a doubt Howard Roark.

Howard is the protagonist of the book, an architect, and a genius of modern design.

The antagonist is a architecture critic at a newspaper who sees Howard’s designs and realizes Howard is a freaking genius… however, to this critic, this is a very bad thing indeed. You see, the critic gets his Jollies making sure every building is a shrine to mediocrity. The critic sees it as his duty to make sure Howard is destroyed because if unchecked, people might come to the realization that everything doesn’t have to suck.

Machiavellian schemes are hatched and put into motion. Howard’s integrity is tested over and over. Howard refuses to compromise.

I recommend the book, and even the movie at this point. Yes it’s fair to call the story both massively melodramatic, and pure objectivist propaganda, and while not put in a fantastic setting (no elves or fairies), it does push the limits of your willing suspension of disbelief. But even still, the story is compelling and to me quite inspirational.

At one point in the movie (this is one part the movie seems to work better at conveying), Howard is looking at a building project going up he wanted to design very badly, but didn’t get. The critic decides this would be a great time to unveil himself, make his evil machinations clear to Howard and crush his sprits forever.

The critic gets Howard’s attention and tells him all the things he’s done to actively destroy him. The critic makes it clear he recognizes Howard’s genius, but then drones on about how every building should be a shire to mediocrity. After a few dozen Mwha ha ha’s, the critic ends with the question, “So… what do you think of me Mr. Roark”?

Howard answers, “I don’t think of you” and walks off.

I gotta tell you seeing that scene really gave me goose bumps. It was almost like “Pardon me I wasn’t really listening to all that shit you said, but I really have to go now”.

Howard in the end wins. He prevails, and he never wavers, never compromises. He stoically remains true to his vision, and even goes to elaborate lengths to make sure no one imposes their ideas on his own designs.

Gary Cooper played many characters in his career. His least popular character was Howard Roark. Howard was viewed as an arrogant egomaniac, not a team player and frankly selfish. I however see the character differently. I see him as a man of integrity, and an artist of uncompromising vision.

Some view me as an arrogant egomaniac, not a team player and frankly a bit selfish. I view myself more of a man of integrity, and an artist of uncompromising vision.

See the trouble reading causes?

As to my critics, what do I think of you? I don’t think of you.

Observations

I spend a lot of my time just trying to figure things out in Second Life. I feel most people don’t really observe what is happening and then react to it. They seem to have a hypothesis and just pretend it’s real.

Let’s ask some questions and then I’ll share what I’ve observed.

Why do venues pay fees?

I’ve play a lot of show for tips only. There was a time when I said I would not seek or accept a fee, but after someone insisted I do so… it’s kind of hard to turn you back on money.

I’m sure some venues pay fees just because they respect the fact the artist deserves to be compensated for their time. That seems reasonable enough. But if it were just a matter of fair compensation, why would there be different fees?

Why are some artist worth 3k L$ per hour and others worth 6K L$ per hours? Are the 6K artists twice as good? Not from what I’ve observed.

In most cases the higher fee is paid to the artist that has the biggest draw. The venue owners are buying visitors. Note, not customers, but visitors. While the more visitors a venue has the more likely it is to receive tips, the fact remains that in 99.99999999% of the time, these tips the venue collects doesn’t even cover the fee they pay the artist that draws the crowd.

Since there is no sound commercial sense to paying a huge fee, I have to conclude the reasons are more abstract then profit motivations. If there are 100 fee-paying venues, they probably have 100 different reasons they pay fees.

What conclusion is safe to arrive at with this observation? Well, don’t sweat the fees. They only amount to a few dollars either way. If a good venue offers you a “tips only” show and some strip club offers you 4K for an hour of your time, I would recommend the good venue (if it was an “either or” situation). People go to a music venue because they are interested in music. People go to a strip club because… well your guess is as good as mine, but I think they are less interested in music. Your support group has more long-term value then some fee will ever provide.

Music Management in Second Life?

Yes, that is a question. For those of you paying attention, I’ve had some dealing with being “Represented” and at this point I can claim some informed opinions about the experience, base of course on my observations.

I’m not a Rockstar in real life, and if I were… that would be my little secret in Second Life. In reality, the Rockstar bar is set pretty low in Second Life. What passes for Karaoke in real life passes as entertainment in Second life. Now there are some people with actual talent in Second Life, but it would be far simpler to list the acts that suck then the act that are amazing.

While you need almost no talent to become a performer, there are still people that lack the most rudimentary talent to make the leap into Second life rockstardom. Those talent less few take up Second life careers in music management.

When you combine insecure, and questionable talent with the utterly talent less brood of music management types, making all kinds of promises, you have a volatile mix.

Now if it seems as if I’m painting all management types with the same brush, perhaps I am. There are probably a few management types that are simply helping out artists they really believe in.

I can only speak with any authority about my specific situation during my short association with “Mars needs Puppies”, or “Many nobodies pretending”, or “ Moody needs Prozac”, whatever MNP really stands for.

I gave it a try… it didn’t work. Should I say more? Probably not, but if you know me at all you must know I am going to say more.

I’m often accused of being arrogant. I don’t see myself that way at all, and frankly those that point a finger and angrily grunt out “ARROGANT” confuse me. I see myself more as very secure about my music. You either like it or you don’t. If you like it, I think you have remarkable musical taste and if you don’t like it…well, you probably enjoy your gold medals from the Special Olympics. Different people like different things. I like my music; I listen to it all the time.

From the “Get go” I met the Queen of MNP and she gave me a laundry list of things to do, and if of course didn’t do any of them. We should have both parted ways shortly after that first meeting. But we didn’t. I think we were both trying to give each other a fair shake.

I know by the end of December I was trying to figure out a polite way to end the…relationship. I feel Moody was probably doing the same. I was not going to be one of her submissive “Do what I say” type artist, and if you wonder why I was so resistant to her suggestions, well frankly, they all sounded stupid. Perhaps that is how I earned my arrogant tag, questioning Moody.

But this is not about my checkered past, but rather the value of management in Second Life.

Most venue owners are easy to get along with. Communication is pretty simple in Second Life. I seem to keep my calendar full without representation. I’m pretty sure most artists could do as well without representation.

I think when I agreed to work with MNP I was expecting some kind of comprehensive plan to help me attain my goals. That is what management does in real life. I didn’t get that. What I did get was a few gigs that paid a fee (last one being in a strip club…good going Moody), and being followed around by MNP Pod People.

My experience with management in Second Life indicates to me it’s pretty much pointless. At least in my case it is. What I want is pretty simple. Play my music and try to find people that want to listen to it. I don’t really need representation to prop up my ego, because believe it or not, it’s not about my ego. It’s about my music.

Warning: we are at CODE RED!!! (What a menacing title for such a happy entry)

Yesterday Barack Obama was inaugurated as president of the United States, and The Sound of RED was released as well (BONUS).

The release party was a blast. Once again Harrie bedeck the Jester Inn with appropriate décor. Red balloons all over the place and a plethora of Sound of RED flags. Great Job Harrie, You flat out RAWK!!!

Hempgrl also provided some free The Sound of RED t-shirts for the event as well. Thanks Hemp.

The party was well attended; I really don’t have a number. But the place was hopping for sure.

As tradition dictates, I gave away two free copies of the new release, and the winners were JoBeth and Lundy. Jo Beth was also a winner at “The Hit List 2008” party. Way to go girl.

Nyx was in constant motion, as always, and four new members where added to the Zorch Nation.

How did the new collection sell? Well, 13 archives were downloaded last night. This brings the over all total of downloads for the month to well over one gig of files. This means in less then a month into the New Year, we’ve downloaded 36% of the total for last year. In other word, downloading MP3s is catching on.

The pixilated air of Second Life seems rife with the sweet smell of success. Wasn’t it less then a week ago somebody told me I would never find success? The best revenge is to live well.

Thanks to all in attendance and all supporters in general. I’ll continue to write, record and perform the best music I can.

The view from here: Turning a corner?

Something has changed and things seem to be getting better. The attendance seems to be solid, and even at night I’m seeing a marked improvement.

MP3 downloads have really moved to the next level. I no longer bother to count the individual downloads, but rather, tabulate the amount of bandwidth used. If the trend continues, I’ll have over one Gig of downloads in the first month of the year. The release of “The Sound of RED” almost guarantees it.

Unique visits on the web site have always been an indicator of growth to me. In the first 15 days of the month, the web site found 91 new visitors. While this is notable, the over all traffic to the site is up as well. Way up. As normal, the most visited section of the site is the calendar page, and that is a very good thing indeed.

Another good sign is the freebie download MP3 at the site is getting a good deal of attention. While some might see that as a bad thing (because I’m not making any money on a fee download), I see it as quite an accomplishment. There are millions of free downloads at MySpace that never get downloaded. People equate free with worthless. However, if say… Metalica were to host a free download, millions would be grabbing a fistful o’ files. People are not downloading because it’s free; they are downloading because they are interested.

If I had to point to one factor in the forward movement, I would only need three letters to mark it down. N-Y-X. While I do supply the music, Nyx is for the most part the wind beneath my wings. She does all the things Moody’s pod people use to do, but does it about ten fold better. Why? Because when all is said and done, she is a fan of the music. She knows the lyrics, what songs are on what collection, what is going on at the web site, and the events to mention during the show. She is a virtual Swiss army knife of music promotion. I’ve offered many times to pay her, but she refuses. She is just supporting the music she loves.

Booyah Nyx, you full on RAWK!!!

Of course I can’t mention Nyx without mentioning Nya. While she is far less vocal, her support is very real indeed. I’ve booked a few shows simply because she gave me a recommendation, and when things go horribly wrong, Nya has Plan “B” covered.

While I have been removed from the “Mars Need Puppies” (or whatever MNP really stands for) roster, things are going very well indeed. The biggest reason for this, is the many Venue operators that have been long standing supporters. Harrie, Jackie, Lucincia, Bubbles, Sternchen, Cerowain, Shilow, Kalita, Hempgrl, Ab, Lundy, and Drusilla. The list goes on and I’m sorry if I’ve forgotten anybody. But these good people are the people that allow me to do my job, no fuss no muss, just plug in and play.

And while I’m handing out “Mad Props”, I would be quite remiss if I didn’t mention the good citizens of the Zorch Nation. With out them I would be playing to empty venues, and Nyx and Nya would just be chatting back and forth. You good people make the wheels on the bus go round and round. Thanks you all for your support.

I’ve just come to a realization, and permit me to share it with you.

Many of the self-proclaimed experts insist you must immerse yourself in the “Second Life Music community” to get ahead. Say everybody that fires up a stream is brilliant, and praise even the most suspect venue. But this is a load of shit and I’ll tell you why. Whatever comes from this paradigm is an artificial by product of community first thinking. This is why the music community is so freaking stagnant. Nobody outside of the community cares about the community.

I have developed a community of core supporters, venues and listeners that support my music because they like my music. Of course this community does reach out to embrace other artist that present good original music, and this makes sense because good music is good music and if community is music oriented it’s going to encompass artist of worth.. Almost everybody likes music of some sort. When things revolve around music, there is room to grow.

Things seem to be growing.

Get ready for RED week begins

Exciting times my dear reader. Get ready for RED week is in motion. Please keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times… unless you don’t want to.

We kicked off the week with a new release of old material, “Hit List 2008”. I’ve been asked if the Hit List 2008 collection indicates that I’m retiring the older collections, and the answer to that is “NO”. The reason behind the Hit List 2008 is to give newer fans a chance to catch up. Once upon a time there was one collection to consider, as it stands now there are 5, and one greatest hits of 2008 collection. If you are starting from Square one, Hit list 2008 is a great buy.

The kick off event was held at Melodies, and many thanks go out to Hempgrl and her staff. About 20 minutes into the show we started to crash the Sim, the stream dropped and Hemp started pulling some of the more scripted objects to make the Sim more secure. If you are wondering how many attended the event, the official number is a ba-zillion. Not quite the Ka-jillion I was hoping for… but a good start.

Speaking of getting ready for RED, lets not forget the release we are getting ready for, “The Sound of RED”. It’s currently, “in the can” and just going through the critical listening portion of the process. This is when I take the primary mixes and listen to them over and over to see what annoys the crap out of me and change it before I unleash it on the public.

What can you expect from “The Sound of RED”? Well, while it may sound cliché, you can expect the unexpected. “Songs in the key of Green” was very tightly themed, but this collection wants to take you for a ride where you are never sure what is around the next bend. If I had to pick a classic album to compare it to, I would have to point at Queen’s Night at the Opera (but nothing on “The Sound of RED” is remotely like Bohemian Rhapsody).

Other events planned for the upcoming week include a songwriter’s summit with POL Arida, Blindboy Gumbo and myself. This should prove to be interesting. We are doing three songs and passing the stream but taking a moment to talk about the act and art of song writing between each song. The round robin nature of this even might really bring out some interesting points.

I’m also considering having a listening party at my pirate shack the Monday afternoon before the actual release of the collection. This would not be a public event, but a Zorch Nation only party.

Time to get excited good reader, time to get ready for RED.