Posted by Paisley Beebe in Tonight Live Show | 0 Comments
Bones Writer Live Musician Managers and YOU on Tonight Live
Tomorrow on Tonight Live Bone’s Writer from TRAX in Second Life will be playing Blues, and talking to us about Music Careers in Second Life. What are the things you must do if you want to get gigs in Second Life? Bone’s runs TRAX Music centre in Second Life. Its a sim full of listening booths from musicians who play in Second Life. He also advises new musicians to SL on their equipment and their technical set up, so they can get the best sound possible and look great. There are resources there that advise on Venues, Agents, streaming providers, and much more. I’ll be talking to Bones about some of the issues that Musicians face here in Second Life and what you should be doing as a Musician to get your music out there!
But I thought I’d also toss in my 2 Lindens.
Those that don’t know. Im a Jazz Vocalist in real life with 20 years professional experience. I also hosted my own Jazz Radio Show in RL on Public Radio here in Sydney for 3 years. I joined SL in 2006 to play music in Second Life, and spent the first few years here playing a hell of a lot of gigs. I rarely play in SL now as I’m producing Television in Second Life.
ON MANAGERS:
What does a manager of Musicians do? What should they be doing?
When I first had a manager in Second Life to manage my Music side of Second Life business as a Jazz Singer, I was lucky. I had a manager that really knew how to look after an artist. She charged me 10% of my fees and arranged gigs, negotiated with Venue owners, and got me precious publicity. Your manager should be actively looking for great gigs for you, places where you can be seen, and helping to build up your fan base. That includes radio stations in S.L TV shows where you will be seen by thousands not just a few 30 or so, and contacting bloggers and magazines that publish Music related stories. On Tonight Live we are often contacted by people who are freinds or managers of Acts and many of those acts will end up on our show, to be seen by the largest SL audience you could ever get too. Tonight Live has the largest consistent viewership of any TV show in Second Life, between 15 thousand and 18 thousand viewers average per show. But far too often we don’t hear about Acts because Managers either assume its not worth it to contact us, or think that we won’t take their artist or they just don’t care. This is NOT the manager you want. You want a manager that will go the extra distance, if they are only taking enquiries and not actively sourcing great gigs, paying gigs, and publicity opportunities you have a booking agent NOT a MANAGER! and yes I have had a manager in RL…a very good one.
READ MORE HERE….
Why should you have a manager in Second Life?
You should have a manager if you have absolutley no talent for dealing with people, if you need a leg up to get going, if you are terrible at promoting yourself, too shy, too nervous, too clueless, or you get sooo successful and busy you just don’t have time to filter the hopeless gigs from the great ones. But how do you know if a manager is really going to make any difference?
Both managers I have had on Second Life for my music were freinds, neither had any experience managing. But they loved what I did, and loved people, and were really exited to promote me and my band. I was very happy with both my managers. If your’e manager cannot show you where they have been working on your behalf that may be a sign that you are wasting your time and your money with them. I believe my S.L managers, did everything that was possible to do with negotiations and finding work and areas to promote myself and my band. Of course it helps if YOU have the goods. A great manager will be useless if your are useless.
Things you can do to maximise your’e chances of getting work and being promoted are:
1. Turn up way earlier than the gig start time, 1/2 hour is good, 15 minutes is minimum
2. Get on stage fast, and set up fast. (Do not push the musician on before you off! or start setting up when they are still playing!!! yep it happens…sigh..) Start as close to on time as SL Lagg will allow.
3. Test your stream BEFORE the gig, and test your sound LEVELS!!
4. Make sure your settings are set so you are not over modulated nor too quiet, get a freind or manager to listen carefully someone who has a decent pair of ears and save those settings!
5. When you open get straight into a great song, don’t ramble on for ages about how you lost your’e music…or your girl/guy/dog just left, let the audience know what they are going to get for the next hour, and pump it out! put a great song up front one that will knock their socks off…
6. DO NOT EVER!!!! say “This is one for all the ladies out there…” even Barry White can’t get away with that today….
7. If your patter between songs sucks, just say hello to people in the audience and comment on the lagg….just keep playing. But remember part of the attraction of people seeing you live is to talk to you and interact with you. Some people are naturally better at this than other. Just stay away from long rambles, and cliche’s
8. Get yourself properly dressed. Do not look like a noob! put your hair on straight, and make sure your clothes fit and your style fits your music. Or…go totally the other way and get yourself a really cool avatar that is non human! but YES people will be judging you on your look!
9. Sort out your set list BEFORE the gig…please no shuffling through your’e charts..”um now where is that chart for ….Hotel California..”
10. NO HOTEL CALIFORNIA!!! believe me, we’ve all heard it…and no matter what you think..your’e version IS NOT BETTER!
11. Do not under any circumstances go over your time….if there is another musician on after you, Don’t even ask!…
12. Always announce the next Musician coming on after you, give them a build up. Yes! find out before you go on who that is.
13. Thank the venue for having you on, and acknowledge your manager assistants and the Venue Owner, they may be paying you, but its common courtesy.
14. Always finish your set with a blinder! a Song that will want your audience to hear more!
15. Pace your set with different Key changes, tempos and feels. Don’t send your’e audience to sleep, or go so big you have no where to go!
16. Dont get into fights with your audience, let your assistant or Venue owner take care of it…(if they are there…)
17. Learn ways to deal with hecklers, usually with a sense of humour (if you have some of that..) works well.
18. Promote your gigs, create a fan group build it…If you have a blog or message board you are a member of, promote it there…but …don’t…please…do Group Conference calls on your freinds list…you will lose freinds believe me…join some large music groups but make sure they are promoting your style of music. DON’T Spam!
19. When writing your posts and event announcements use words that grab attention but don’t bullshit, if you are not gods gift to the guitar, and the bestest musician evah! please just keep that to yourself and your mum….Write something different we have all heard the “come on down best music RAWKIN!!! dress in green and purple”…notices Yawn…
20. IF you have only 5 or less people turn up to your gig…make it a dinner party! get your guests to meet each other, get them involved in your act! a bad sport would complain and leave…and you never know…one of those people might be ME!!! looking to see if you are right for my TV show..yes I do go to gigs with only 3 people at them….I may think, “wow this persons gig really fell through”, (if they are talented) or gees they must be the most hated musician on the grid who did they piss off!!! (but thats usually not true) or…the venue has no pull, and neither do they why? but….I will take another look at the musician if I can hear something that sounds good, and see if they can pull a crowd another time.
What do I look for when I’m “gig hopping”
The first thing I do is go thru the events list, if your’e event is not listed then I won’t see you, unless Delinda finds a “gem” and TP’s me to the gig. Then I start at the top, avoid the DJ’s and obvious scams to get people to venues that do not involve a live musician (even though they are on the live musician list…) and start TPing out. most times I don’t even pay attention to where I’ve landed, I’m probably in another screen working on something, it takes me about 10-20 secs to find out if the person is total rubbish, and rubbish to me is….cannot sing/play in tune….there is no way around that I’m sorry…some people have a great tone in their voice, but if they cannot sing in tune its a total deal breaker. And its a very sorry affliction from which there is no cure…you really cannot be taught to sing in tune. So I’m onto the next gig if the person is sadly tuneless.
I then listen what are they singing, is it original? is it a really hackneyed…ie Hotel California, (sorry folks if I hear H.C Im outer there)….can they keep time? and then what is their performance like? are they bored? are they into it? are they just singing the words or feeling the song. Are they over modulated? what is their sound like…THEN I look at them, if they look a total fright…like clueless fright, not like scary ok fright, and they are not that amazing..then I will think hmmm too much work to get them to look reasonable…we have done makeovers on our show before, but only for amazing, (this is not about superficiality this is about protecting YOU from scorn!)
If I like them think they are great! then they are on the list!
One last piece of advice here then I’m done ,and you guys can add to it, I’m sure there’s more! If you get a call from someone wanting to book you, always, always! (unless you don’t want to work….) be polite and thankful. If you want to find out if the booker is a scammer or lame or a loser, do not indicate that, because…. Its so embarrassing to treat an enquiry with “yeh whatever.. I’ll look into your notecard …one day…um whatever” and then find out its a great opportunity and you then have to do a double back flip to get on the show or into the venue… I’m cool that you don’t know who we are…totally! but never cool with the “sneery who the hell are you attitude” that just warns me in big Red Flippin Letters that you have attitude, and will be a PROBLEM!!! and the last thing we want when we are getting 2 other guest on T.L and all the technicals up and running is a Muso that gets all Diva on us, and carry’s on like a twat on stage during our rehearsal…(oh boy do I have some stories I could share there….whew)
Lastley:
I’m thrilled that Linden Lab have done a newsletter to promote Music in Second Life and thrilled to have been asked what my favorite musicians on Live n Kickin and Tonight Live are. That took some time going thru hundreds of shows to pick the songs that I wanted to list. Please note, they are in no particular order, and I had way more than that! I had to get totally ruthless to get them down to 10 per show. I had over 20 per show easily, and then I culled to showcase different styles and genres it was brutal! If you didn’t make this particular list don’t fret, because I’m sure that all the old shows will be watched and you will be seen. Its all good!
Watch Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe Sunday 6pm slt 7th Nov to meet Bones Writer and find out more!
Come to the Studio Doors open at 5.30!
