Sponsors for Second Life Live Music Venues

For those who don't know, Second Life Live Music Venue owners typically carry all the costs of running the venues. They pay tier for land to have the venue on, some venues pay the performers and some are tips only and some pay a staff.  Most rely on venue tips to help recoup just a small fraction of those costs, however, it rarely comes close to covering even the costs of paying performers. So it is very important that people do tip the venues when they can. Tipping is a kind gesture to thank venues for providing free entertainment.

To further help alleviate some of the costs, I recommend venues try to find sponsors. I have had success in the past with finding sponsors for the performers I manage for their individual shows. Also, I have had success with sponsors covering costs for big events.

Here are a few ways to get started finding sponsors.....

1. Figure out your venues numbers. How many shows a week for how many hours. Then keep track of your average draw per hour. This can be done simply by looking at how many people are at the show at the mid way point which is typically the peak time. Keep track of those numbers for a few weeks and then you have something to approach sponsors with.

In real life events are sponsored all the time.

2. Know how much of your costs you are trying to cover. If you spend L$XXXXX a week, what % would you like to get sponsors to help with?

3. Put together a note card that outlines the data from your venue numbers to show the sponsors how many people they can reach by sponsoring your shows. Also, include how long the sponsorship would last.... weekly? monthly?

4. Reach out to content creators that are suitable for your venue and explain to them that you can offer to place their Logo on a clickable prim or adboard with a LM to their location near your stage for X amount of time for X amount of L$. Also, it will help to explain that the sponsors will be mentioned by you or your staff through out the shows X number of times.

Don't fear rejection, this is after all a sales pitch to the content creators. You have to go through some no's before you get to yes's but if you can point out the benefit to the creators, then eventually you will find some willing to give it a chance.

Start with creators from stores where you shop, then you can tell them that you are a regular customer and you will feel good about promoting their brand at your venue.

This is just a quick blog post with ideas, its up to you to put in the time and effort to make it happen. I'm happy to consult with venue owners if you need more information or tips on how to go about finding sponsors. Just drop me a notecard in Second Life, Kalli Birman is my legacy name.

Marketing for Second Life Venues

Marketing your venue is important to both the venue and the performers you hire. I’m sure you would like to see that the money you are putting out to hire performers, pay tier and staff is being put to its best use. One of the ways to do that is to market your venue shows to get the best possible audience you can. As most of you are aware, I manage and am business partners with musician Seth Regan, also known as Mankind Tracer in Second Life. When we are promoting anything, the following are just a few of the things we do to get the information out there to the SL public.

One of the important ways you can market shows at your venue is to list them in Second Life events. This is a very critical step in marketing as the majority of fans are looking in events to see who is performing. You should list in events as early as possible. If you book the performer a month before they actually play then list it right then because the sooner you can, the closer to the top of the event listing for that time you will be. Make sure to ask the performers if they have any promotional text just for SL Events.

When you are hiring musicians to perform at your venue, consider the time you are booking them and have realistic expectations. In SL the most live shows are starting between 6pm and 8pm. There could be 40 other shows happening at the same time and there are only so many concurrent users to attend those shows. This makes marketing even more important because if people do not know what is happening at your venue then how will they show up?

In SL another great resource is SL event groups. You can join groups and send notices and group messages about your events. There are a plethora of groups out there like Musical Metaverse, Live Music 24, Shooting Star and many more. If you do not have many group spots left, you can create an alt and join the groups and then log into your alt 30 minutes before the show and send notices.

Seth Regan performing at To The Stars live music venue.

Social media is also another great way to market your shows. Facebook has tons of groups specifically for Second Life and SL Events. There are a lot of SLers that have Facebook accounts either as their avatar or under their real life name and they use FB as a way to communicate. There is Google Plus and Twitter as well but with both of those, you need to follow people for them to follow you back, there are few groups on G+ that are SL events related and you cannot have groups on Twitter. There is also Second Friends, an SL only social media website where you can create groups, a profile, blog and list events for free.

Another great marketing tool is booking performers back to back that play similar styles of music. Then you will get carry over from one performer to the next keeping people at your venue longer. Also, keep consistent events, even if it is just once a week for a couple of hours will let people know that they can count on your venue at those times to have performances.

These are just a few ideas on how to market the shows at your venue. You can also take cues from real life and adapt them to Second Life. Think outside of what everyone else is doing or not doing to come up with some fun creative ways to get the word out there and build up a regular crowd who come back week to week. Coming soon, Seth will be posting a follow up to this topic on his blog with even more great marketing tips for SL venues.

Quality Vs. Quantity: Performing In Second Life

Something I’ve noticed about myself when considering going to a concert in Second Life is that I look at who is playing at a certain time, say 7 pm slt/pdt, and if there is a performer that I enjoy but performs multiple shows a day many days a week, I will pass over their show for someone who does not play as much. I will basically say to myself “Oh X will have more shows tomorrow or later tonight, I will maybe catch them then.”

I’ve known performers in SL that are doing multiple shows a day, sometimes with only an hour between shows. I really feel like they are doing a disservice to both their career and the venues that are booking them. Second Life.

Playing multiple shows close together will affect your potential draw. People will have more possible times where they can come see you, so instead of having one really well attended show, you end up with several less attended. The exception for this in SL is if you put 6 hours between your shows, which will be targeting different time zones. If you have a show at 5pm, 7pm and 9pm, you are essentially targeting the same basic audience but if you have a 2pm show and 8pm show, there are different people on for each time period.

As a venue owner and longtime venue manager, I have also seen how overbooking negatively impacts the venue. The owner pays for a performer to come play, often the venue has stores or something that helps them generate income to pay for the performers. If you are losing draw because you are booking a lot of shows close together, you devalue yourself to the venue since your draw suffers and consequently, the venue traffic. Then venue owners will be less likely to rebook you and even want to pay less because you are not bringing in the traffic to justify  paying the full price. There are venues who book and pay for shows for the love of music and do not have an expectation of draw. However, since many venues have stores that pay rent - as their main source of revenue - they will simply will not pay performers if traffic is not repeatedly maintained.

Potentially, in performing fewer shows, you can actually generate more money. You can charge a little more per show and expect higher attendance. This means better tips for you and better donations to a happier venue (who is more likely to have you back).

Also, by performing less, you can help reduce the 6pm to 8pm slt “event congestion”. On any given day there could be 50+ concerts happening at 7pm slt. Having so many possible concerts at one time also can hurt attendance. If you eliminate a few shows a week during those “prime times” it can help the community over all.

Second Life Performers Support Each Other

One of the things I love about the live music scene in Second Life is how much performers support each other.

I am arranging an event in Second Life in support of Seth Regan’s (Mankind Tracer) Indiegogo campaign to help fund his next album, “Left of Center”. If you are reading this and don’t know who Seth and I are, he is my best friend, business partner and I manage his musical career. He is one of the most generous people I know. He is always there for me when I need someone and for others too. So arranging this event was the least I could do for him. If you don’t know his music...check HERE.

I approached a few performers and asked them to do 30 minute sets during this event. Without a blink Noma Falta, Maximillion Kleene and Savannah Coronet said yes. I also wanted to make the event more than just music, so I asked well known SL stand-up comic Lauren Weyland to be involved as well and she agreed right away.  Find the event deails HERE.

This sort of support from SL performers just made me smile ear to ear. Seth has given over 6 years to the Second Life music community with live concerts, donating his time and shows to charity events and even helping friends with personal events to cover a need. It is great to see performers coming together to support him.

Check out Seth’s Indiegogo campaign HERE

My heartfelt thanks go out to Noma, Max, Savannah and Lauren!

Help Seth Regan Produce His New CD "Left of Center"

Seth Regan, known in Second Life as "Mankind Tracer", has just launched a new Indiegogo campaign. The goal of this campaign is to help raise some of the funds needed to get into the studio to record, produce and get the word out about his next album, "Left of Center".

If you don't know who Seth is, he has been performing in Second Life since November 2006 and is considered by many to be SL's top rock artist. He has been asked to headline major Linden Labs Second Life events like the Second Life Birthdays, Winter Fest, Burning Man (now Burn2) and other significant launches. He has also been awarded some of Second Life's most prestigious awards such as, most recently a Lifetime Achievement Award from "Best of SL Magazine".

With your help, he will be able to professionally record and produce his next original album "Left of Center". This campaign on Indiegogo makes it possible for family, friends and fans from all over the world to help Seth to achieve this goal. As many of you know from either knowing me or reading my blog, Seth is my very best friend and business partner. So this is extra important to me and I appreciate any help you can give.

Depending on what “Level” you donate at, there are some cool and unique perks that you'll receive by helping Seth get this album recorded and produced. Some include Free Music and Limited Edition T-Shirts, while others offer a Live Concert in Second Life or Facebook... even at your home!

Jump on over to Indiegogo and read all the details and how you can help out one of Second Life's own in reaching his goals to share his original music with Second Life and the world.

View the Campaign Here

Seth Regan Official Website

Seth Regan on YouTube