Would you pay to attend a live performance?

The difference with classifieds, however, is that it's available for people who are deliberately looking for something, instead of going to a place to watch a performance. And the audience is much wider.

I remember seeing MetaAdverse around several years back. Essentially it had two problems. First of all, the billboards were scripted to try and work out when somebody was looking at the ad, which meant they had to continuously run sensors and then process the results - which created a lot of lag. The second problem was, as I'm sure you can tell given what I just said - gaming by venues. I know there were many "clubs" which just had camping chairs in sectioned-off corners with lines of chairs pointed at the MetaAdverse boards.

I have scripted a networked advertising system in SL, but it doesn't use sensors in that way - it trades simply based on the popularity of the location it's at, NCI. Although the same programming model could work at a club, I'm not sure that the business model would, because it can't allow for "special events" that make one area much more popular but only for a few brief moments.

I actually don't mind if they're singing to karaoke tracks - as someone who does karaoke, I know that I spend a lot of time learning a song, and conditioning my voice to "nail" the song. Gives them the "full band" sound without having one.

The tribute shows...they're actually pretty cool - I don't want to make it sound like it's nothing - there's a ton of money tied into scripting them, their stages, and paying the performers. I'm just not thrilled at the idea of paying 10k for them and getting nothing in return from the audience.

There's a great article on MetaAdverse here:

http://www.secretlair.com/index.php?/clickableculture/entry/the_metaadverse/

MetaAdverse disappeared suddenly & with little warning in late 2005. No reasons were given by Rathe Underthorne.... but I'm guessing its closure had to do with a lack of profit for its creators.

They'll make that money back. If it's all scripted, they can play for tips.

I agree. I am not much for the live performances, but I would be willing to pay for something spectacular!

I'd never pay admission, though I have always tipped. It is reasonable, I suppose, to have an admission fee, and at the very beginning I wondered what I might see if I went to an admission fee concert, but I never found any. Now I just couldn't see myself paying to see a live performance. At least music. I can never seem to find humor (other than two musicians whose main work involves humor songs, though others mix in some humor sometimes), and might pay for that. I'd have paid to see the Shakespeare play I saw, but that was not an admission fee event.

Again, I do not have anything against the idea of an admission fee being charged, just that I've lived too long in SL to suddenly start paying an admission fee. On the other hand, I do tend to tip, so this aversion to an admission fee charge might change over time.

LOL...I'm certainly not going to mention who, but the entire entourage of at least one performer who plays my club gets muted the second they hit the ground - including the manager! I have to unmute them later, but for at least the duration of the concert, I'm blessed with relative screen silence.

Honey, I don't go to live music events, but since you're looking for opinions, I would be unlikely to pay a cover to get into an event. OTOH, at the few live music events I've been to, I've tipped the venue as well as the musician. I'm honestly surprised more people don't. (I've been RL broke, so it's not much each time, but I do try.)

I think it's reasonable to expect the audience to help defray the venue's costs, but I think you're fighting an uphill battle against the mass of free content that's available. Unless you can get other club owners to work together OR offer something extra that people are willing to pay for, I don't think you'll have a lot of luck getting people to pay a cover.

My perception is that there's a long-standing SL mindset that you shouldn't have to pay for events or activities, but you should tip, which is being displaced by a newer perception that you shouldn't have to do either.

It's nice that people are tipping the band, but it's really not fair not to support the venue as well. I don't know what the answer is, but I hope you find one.

....and so little space.

First off, let me say that I love music. It is part of my being. I have been blessed within SL to be able to DJ music I love, make some tips to cover my SL existence and have a lot of fun. Doing this has given me insight to how clubs work and how live performances work...to some degree. I am also a music snob....ask my wife. I hate American Idol with my entire being, as well as the pretty boy/girl crap singers and bands that flood the airwaves. I love MUSIC. I love people who perform well and from the heart.

One of the things that kept me in SL was live music, and I don't get to hear near as much as I used to, due to my busy schedule in RL and SL. There are some not so good acts in SL, I agree. Many of them are performing in SL because they can't make it in RL. And many are quite good and don't make it in RL because the music business these days is more concerned with how you look rather than whether you can sing or write a good song.

To answer Honeybear's question, normally I would not pay a cover. I always tip the performer, even if they are not so good (unless they are assholes...and there is one in particular I'm thinking of is not one of Mankind's more decent individuals,) and I always tip the venue. Clubs are money pits. Because of the way SL is set up, it's virtually impossible to make money in a club. That's a fact of life. Therefore, I always tip the venue. I am part owner in the Savoy Jazz Club and we have very small expenses since Bill and I DJ for free since we're the owners, but our income is virtually non-existent. We do it because we love jazz....real jazz, not Kenny G.....I told you I was a music snob.

One quick thing about live performances. Before you go spouting your mouth off about what crap performers there are in SL and they're not that good, shut the hell up. Really. There are some very good performers out there, and they pour their hearts into what they do for the love of it, not becuase they're making so much money. I'm not talking about tribute "bands" but rather actual artists who play music live, and some write their own songs. The other side of this is the logistics of making it happen so they sound good when you hear them in the club. I DJ and it can be a pain in the ass with buggy software and SL and having to multi-task. Multiply my stress in doing what I do well many times and that is what live performers deal with, and exponentially if they are a band. I love what some of these artists, and I use that term seriously, do. Some are very very good. Support them, and support the clubs that pay them to play live for you.

Artists that I think are wonderful are Cylindrian Rutubaga, Juel Resistance,KelvinBlue Oh, SRV4U Conacher, Joaquin Gustav, OhMy Kidd and Anakin Gallacher come to mind. If you don't any of these, I'm guessing you're into Justin Timberlake or Xtina or Brittany.....

Support live musicians when you find ones you like and don't criticize those you don't like, you have no idea what they're trying to do. And, for content creators out there....these people are content creators too....and many of them are artists in their own right.

QFT. It's funny that a lot of people sell products....virtual, intangible products within SL, but look down upon musicians who create in a different manner and the clubs that give the musicians the forum to bring us their "content."

"Please pay me for my creations, but I'm not paying you for yours." Sad really.

They're trying to poke my eardrum out with a knitting needle.
Last I understood, people are free to voice an opion in these forums and being told to "shut the hell up" isn't really called for if it happens. You're not the only music snob around, nor are you the authority on what is "good".

I can appreciate your enthusiasm but the fact is that there are some truly crappy 'artists' in SL and all the good intentions of the world aren't going to imbue them with talent. Fortunately, I can TP out as fast as I TP'd in so it's really no loss except a few minutes of my time.

SRV and Kelvin are on my rotation list, as is Noma Falta...I love Noma's voice! Juel is so good, as is Cylindrian. None of these people should be missed in a live performance

If I don't like this small handful of musicians you love, it follows that I must like this small handful that you hate.

Wow, you weren't kidding about the snob thing!!



/me nods ... but the ones *you* don't like, you understand perfectly what they are trying to do, and it's crap, huh?

Wow, you *really* weren't kidding about the snob thing!!


To try to stay remotely on topic: I am not a huge lover of live music in SL. I have been only to a small handful of performances, and have found them very mixed in quality. Part of the problem for me in particular is that the mechanics of SL favors single musicians - usually a singer with a guitar - and that's not always to my taste. Add to that the technical hurdles of keeping the stream running, plus crowded venues that slow my poor computer to a crawl, and the live music experience for me is not the funnest thing I can do.

So having said all of that, I would probably not pay to hear a live musician in SL, unless I had a really compelling reason to do so.

I don't know if Honeybear cares about my answer - even though her original post didn't specify that the question was only directed at people who are avid consumers of live music in SL, I did see her get annoyed at someone for answering even though they were not such - but there's my datapoint anyhow.

I have been to a lot of SL live performances and there are none that I would "pay" to see. They just aren't that good.

I will admit that I've had a couple that were...um...less than stellar. On the other hand, I've had many who were incredibly good, as mentioned above. Obviously, one would charge accordingly...or not at all.

You offered other opinions besides "I don't do it" and constructive reasons on why you wouldn't pay. That's fine.

Why I got annoyed, exactly, is fuel for another thread

So only you can criticize, that's it? When you say



You're basically criticizing people for not liking what you like. And last time I checked, there was something called freedom of speech here.

Anyway, as I said before, I ALWAYS tip the venue, and only sometimes tip the artists, and the reason for that is that MOST of the time the artist has alredy being paid by the venue owner, and I tip him/her if they REALLY deserve it IN MY OPINION (which probably and hopefully is not the same as yours), but the venue owner is the one giving us the chance to enjoy the artist in his/her facilities, like HoneyBear always does.

Fair 'nuff. I should have added one thing though - praise for the one SL musician who I really enjoyed in my limited experience of SL live music, and that is Nance Brody. Damn that lady puts on a hot show!

When I saw her I tipped her as generously as I could - the venue was her own place, so no need to tip the venue. Being the owner myself of a hangout that relies upon donations, I hope I would remember to tip the venue was well as the musician if it were appropriate to do so.

I saw Nance for the first time the other night...one heck of a voice, but a wee bit bawdy for my venue

Another thought in regard to paying for musical entertainment is customer satisfaction.

As I said earlier, if I don't like an entertainer, I can just get out of there. Ditto if the place is too lagged or I'm having other problems. What if I just can/want to stay for a little while rather than for the whole event?

If I've paid for the event in such situations, is there a way to get my money back? Or do I pay the entrance fee and take my chances?

Likely such entry fees would not be terribly high but some folks do count their pennies and, in general, people expect to get what they paid for.

This thought has occurred to me. However, I think 25L for a concert ticket would be easier to stomach than say 400L for a pair of boots that didn't look quite as good as you had hoped. You have no basis to ask for a refund on the boots, other than "I don't like them" and I don't know too many that will fly with

I think 10-25L is fair, all things considered. It won't cover the cost of most artists, but it's fair. If that means that people won't tip the artist, that would be wrong. But there are musicians who are professionals. It is a paltry sum, but considering that I only got about 100L on a 5k performance, I would have been better off once 5 people showed up.

Oh, I did mute her. I left because she was talking on the stream between songs.
"Show her some linden love."
"Buy our tee shirts."
"Will whore my self-respect for loose change."
"Join us tomorrow at someone elses club."
And other lines to those effects.

No no no. Not what I meant at all. I know now that someone is footing the bill up front and I always thought they played for tips only. It just means my entertainment dollars need to be split differently than I have been doing.