Putting On a Great Live Music Show

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It's the big day and you are about to put on your live music show. If you have an artistic vision of how it should go, trust your gut. If you would like some tips gleaned from watching many, many performances consider the following ideas.

Check Your Levels

Go to a friend's parcel, or one of the inworld test places to check your levels before the show. Have a friend come over and let you know if your sound is too loud, too soft, distorted, compressed, etc. Trying to fix levels during a show can be a major distraction and can shake your confidence. When setting levels use this little trick to overcome the problem of stream lag (there is anywhere from a 20 second to one minute delay with streaming). Don't play the same song over and over and ask if everything is okay. It gets confusing real fast. Instead play a nonsense song at your normal levels with the lyrics "This is setup one, setup one, setup one" or..well..you get the idea. WAIT for feedback on the "Setup One" song before making adjustments. Then sing the "Setup Two" song, etc. until everything is good. Make sure to remind your friend to listen to the left and right channel separately to make sure you are broadcasting in stereo, a problem that is more common than you would think. Remember to sing at normal volume and be as close to the mic as you would during a performance.

Visit and Learn About the Venue

Many venues have performers to pull people to the attractions of the parcel or SIM. It may be shopping, it may be some inworld promotion. Whatever it is, take a little time to find out before the show and mention it. You don't have to constantly talk about it. Usually mentioning it 20 minutes in and 20 minutes before the end of the show is sufficient. Make sure and check the rating of the SIM. You will also want to know if the venue takes tips, and where their tip jar is so you can remind the audience to tip the venue. Mentioning tipping the venue almost always gets the host/hostess to mention to tip you! So take good care of the venue and the venue will take good care of you. The perfect time to do this is when you go to make sure you have rez permissions on the SIM.

Find Out If Someone Is Playing After You

Get the name of the next performer and plug them within the last 20 minutes of the show. If there is no one playing after you and you don't have another show - ask the crowd if they would like to hear an extra song and give them an encore.

Rez Your Stuff In An Obvious Place

A venue owner told me a story once of a performer who rezzed an elaborate stage setup with flames and spinning things and huge TIPS signs that were the tip jars. Unfortunately the audience thought they were just signs. So they tipped the simple little jars the venue had put out instead. The venue owner said they raked it in. Make sure your tip jar LOOKS like a tip jar, is obviously a tip jar, and is somewhere near you on stage. Don't have a tip jar that takes 5 minutes to explain during a show. If you have an information board instead mention it often enough but not so often it breaks or slows the pace of the show. If you don't care about making Linden great! Do what you like but don't make your audience members think if they are inspired to show you a little "Linden Love."

Ambient Room Noise

It can be cute when the dog starts howling while you play but stopping to take a cell call borders on being rude if the venue owner has given you Linden to play. Turn off your cell. Unplug the phone. Try to deal with any ambient RL noise that may intrude in the background before you play.

Interact with Your Audience By Name

This can be a challenge with so many different names in SL but as best you can recognize and talk to your audience. Thank people for tips and dedicate songs to them. They are the life blood of live music in Second Life. Venue owners would not pay for shows if avatars did not attend so take care of your audience.

If you book an hour show make sure you have an hour of material. Also try to keep the between song banter to a reasonable amount. It can be more than a little annoying to go see an artist who talks for 7 minutes and plays for 3. If you are a comedian this doesn't apply but keep in mind people are there to hear you play music.

Build Your Group

Almost as important as getting tips is adding avatars to your group. Make sure your group is open enrollment so anyone can join. Have helpers to invite people to the group. There are several basic strategies in use at shows these days:

  • Shotgun Invite
  • Announce and Name the Person to IM
  • IM and Ask
  • Open Chat Announce and Shotgun

A shotgun invite is you just invite anyone in the audience without a tag. You can shotgun invite by right-clicking on the avatar, selecting "More", then "Group Invite". Make sure you are in the group you want to invite them to. This is probably the most annoying way to do it. When the artist announces who to IM to be in the group - they wait until contacted to send the invite. This is least annoying but also least effective in adding new folks. IMing each person at the show and asking is super polite but extremely time consuming and probably very ineffective at a show with a large crowd. The last strategy works by making announcement in open chat that you are going to invite everyone and if they decline it is not a problem, that you understand. Then shotgun the crowd. This can be a good compromise of consideration and high yield. It seemed to be most effective in recent tests. Also be sure and ask people to put on their tag at the beginning of the show, to help your group builders recognize who to invite.

A Suggested Checklist

To sum it up here is a simple suggested checklist:

  • Check levels (if they have changed) offsite
  • Call up stream information
  • Set your streaming software
  • Arrive 5 minutes early
  • Verify you are in the group that can rez things, and activate it.
  • Rez your items on stage and position them.
  • Connect to the stream
  • Welcome everyone to the venue and mention venue features
  • Mention who in the crowd can give an invite to your group and ask your fans to proudly wear their group tag
  • 20 after the hour mention tipping the venue and your group. If you have a website mention it too.
  • 20 minutes before the end mention tipping the venue, your group, your website, and to stick around for the next performer if there is one.
  • 5 minutes to go thank everyone for coming, stick around for next artist.
  • If no next artist, perform an encore and dedicate it to the crowd

Playing live music in Second Life can be as fun and as rewarding as many real life gigs. Just think, an audience that isn't talking (usually) over your songs, no heavy lifting to set up, and you can play in 3 cities in a single day! You can hardly beat if for a good time. Going the extra mile to make sure your show is entertaining, fun, and professional can reap big rewards.

Learn more at Getting Started As A Second Life Performer

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