Unofficial Poll on clubs

If you were told that a cool DeeJay was playing at a club, but there was no linden prize involved, would you bother to go to the club for good music and possibly to meet new friends?

How important is it for the club you attend to offer a cash prize for you to hang out for two hours?

The reason I ask is because I'm having a sort of Second Life Midlife crisis. Seems I have to bribe my friends to turn up to events, even though they all claim I'm one of the best DeeJays in SL. If there's no cash prize involved, nobody will turn up, but if there is a cash prize involved the greater the amount, the more people turn up. People I thought were friends at one time.

I don't want to have to bribe people to come out and dance to some good music. Am I off base here?

Am I also off base for expecting the club to support its staff? When I got there, a notice went out to their group for some other event at a sister club, so basically I got the shaft. I almost walked when I saw the notice, but professionalism kept me there as long as I had a couple of friends listening.

If anyone needs me, I'll be in my Angry Dome.

Johnny, I'd rather go to a club where there IS no cash prize. I'd go for the music and the dancing and the chat. But NOT the ascii text that takes up my whole screen, lol.

I'm with Maureen on this one. I never pay attention to cash prizes. I go to clubs to meet people and listen to music, and maybe dance, if the lag isn't too bad. I go to clubs for fun, not for L$.

The people you need to ask are not reading this forum.

On a personal note i dont care if there is a contest going on, although i do enjoy them and i enjoy getting dressed up for them. From the perspective of a club owner... well people do like them and at some places yes I do think they come to expect them. From the get go we have mad almost all our contests small no more than 300L. This stops one of to things, it stops people turning up for the sole reason of winning lots of linden and it stops the TPing in of friends for votes cos no onebothers for that amount. On the other hand it does allow those who enjoy the contests for the dressing up and the fun of entering a chance to do that.

If your friends will only come to events you DJ at where there are lindens for them to win then they are crap friends, and if the club you are DJing at s one where you eed to bribe people to sttend then to be honest I would be looking for another place to DJ.

As for the sending a notice for another event while they have you hired to DJ?? well that is just plain bloody rude and if i had been you i would have quit striaght after the gig.


Clubs are suposed to be social and about making friends, having some fun and listening to good music. Any club that needs a linden prize to attract peopel to hang around is probably not going to exist in a few onths anyway cos the owners will get sick of forking out more and more money.

Djing shoud be for the fun of it. If it has gotten you angry and upset then maybe it is stime to take a step back for a week and re assess if and where you want to DJ at?

I have a slightly different view. I don't see that friends *ought* to turn up at all. People do their own things. Supporting a friend in his/her early days is often done - friends' clubs, DJs, etc., but I see no reason to continue ad infinitum just because there's an event.

For me, DJ's are only good if they are good between the songs. Playing good music doesn't make a good DJ to my of thinking. Anyone who knows what songs are out there can do that.

As for clubs supporting their own events, it's essential, imo. Clubs that rely on DJs and others to bring friends/supporters are not doing it well. It's the clubs that should attract people by putting on good events or by their style. From a DJ's point of view, if they bring lots of people with them, they'll do good, but that's not the way it should be, imo.

Don't get me wrong. I love playing music for people. What I don't love is having to bribe people to turn up. When I IM people about my gigs, they say "I can't right now. I'm trying to win 400L" or whatever the prize is.

So a buck thirty is more important to you than a friend who will play any music you want, engage in conversation, dance, and generally help you have a good time? Yeah, you know that makes a guy feel pretty good about himself.

If you want 500L that bad, PayPal accounts are pretty easy to set up, and it's what, $2 to purchase?

Honestly, I'd like to know where all the people are who'd turn up whether there's money involved or not, because out of all the people in my dj group I think maybe four people fit that bill.

I *Rarely* go to a contest, or If I'm there I usually forget to enter.
I usually go to socialize or listen to music.

If I like the DJ, I go for the DJ. The DJs that I return for are not only great mixers with interesting music choices and great technique, but the atmosphere is more fun, whether it's because the management team and or the DJ keep up the chatter or because there's a core group of fans that keep up the chat. Real chat, not that hooting, howling, screen filling crap.

If you don't want to blow Lindens every time you spin, consider some other ways to promote yourself:

1. Give your set a specific/special theme: "The worst of the 80s," "Covers only," "Divas, divas, divas!" "Movie Music." "Madonna songs that are not about sex." I would certainly stop in, just for the curiosity factor.

2. Audience participation like Costume nights with specific themes: sports, gladiators, nuns, big shoes, big hats, nothing but plywood prim clothing. Many people in SL, love the creativity they can bring to SL. And the opportunity to see other's creativity.

3. Give away stuff other than Lindens: Posters, T-shirts, nun outfits. There are so many freebies out there that you can give away freely. Or ask a business owner to donate a copyable item for you to give away as a promotion for their business. Heck, I'll give you a cool chair to give away. Just IM me.

4. Host a new release event.

5. Offer podcasts of your mixes! Ooh, that's a good one! And they can only get them, if they come to the event. And maybe the person has to stay for a certain amount of time, so that they don't just pop in with the request and then leave... (there are some technical details to work out here, but I think this one rocks the rutabagas!)

6. "Dance with your alt night." Now that would be weird.

Heck, any club that tries an event that does NOT include 'sploders has got my attention. Good luck, man!

First I'll have to say that neither in SL or RL would I go anywhere because of a DJ.
Actually, I would prefer that there was just music and no DJ (or that the DJ kept quiet).

But if a friend was DJ'ing somewhere, I'd go if I thought that friend would like me to come. And I wouldn't need to be bribed.
Either I'll go without being bribed or I will not go at all.

A cash prize will not attract me to anywhere.

I usually go to whatever club pepole send me a teleport for unless I am busy buiilding, skiing, walking, or swimming. I go to dance. I hope I don't get my head stuck in the dance floor. I don't mind putting my feet in the air. I like to see other avatarim in the same perdicament.

Why not just stay home and listen to the radio then?

When I DJ I play all requests, and get them up quickly. I don't do voice, so I'm not going to talk over all the songs like I hear some people doing. My favorite was this one dude who was hacking into his mic like a lung cancer patient between each song. Turned me off completely. I think I stayed for two songs that time. Actually, that is one of the big reasons I hate voice: listening to other people's bodily functions amplified, in stereo, and often with static.

What I do end up doing is talking in local chat, keeping the conversation going, sending out bits of trivia (whatever I happen to think of), and enjoying some play on words with some of the song titles. The only time I don't keep up with the local chat is when I'm digging out song requests and/or buried in IM for song requests. I do make the claim I'll play anything as long as it's not Celine Dion, but I bent that rule by playing a punk version of My Heart Will Go On. So I guess anything does go.

Because there may not be a whole lot of other people at home

I dont pay that much attention to prizes or contests.

I go there for Friendship or to listen to a DJ or music style I like...or even better ..Both!

I'm fairly well off in RL so dont need any Lindens myself, but I know not everyone has a Platinum No Limit Visa card so I can understand how some look at contests as a way to make Lindens...after all it certianly is more fun that sitting on a bench for half an hour to make 2 lindens.

Heck if I like a club or DJ I often add money to the prize board. Sort of warms my heart to see a person in freebie clothes win a 1000 Lindens or so. Though as EC said if it gets to high all of a sudden right at voting the Alt Bot army shows up and votes...

I also agree that the club has some responibility to promote the DJ, I have a friend who just started to DJ and got a offer to DJ at a club... when she was playing I tped over and found her standing by herself with a Bot dancing in the corner of the floor. It was one of those "mall disguided as a club" that had traffic under 1000 (most of which were probably the Bots)... thing that got me, I could not even find the Club in Search! they never even bothered to get it listed, never put any Event adds in and as far as my friend knew didnt even have a Group you could join for notices. ... needless to say she quit within a week.

i go for the music..i like the events only because of costumes or whatever they are..i never enter them myself..i just like to dress up for them if i am in the mood ..but if it were just a Dj there with good music .thats the attraction for me..good music..
if i wanted to dance for money i would go back to dancing on stage and make what an event would pay in my first few tips lol..
it's just not worth giving up the fun to worry about winning an event..give me the music any day of the week and i'll be there..

If you were told that a cool DeeJay was playing at a club, but there was no linden prize involved, would you bother to go to the club for good music and possibly to meet new friends?

***I rarely go to clubs anymore, and when I did frequent them, I was the DJ. If I want to listen to music I just turn on my own. Clubs give me a headache with the flashing lights, and spinning crap, and add to that the constant spamming hoooo's and ascii crap

How important is it for the club you attend to offer a cash prize for you to hang out for two hours?
***Don't attend clubs, however when I did go as a patron, cash prizes were the bottom of my list

The reason I ask is because I'm having a sort of Second Life Midlife crisis. Seems I have to bribe my friends to turn up to events, even though they all claim I'm one of the best DeeJays in SL. If there's no cash prize involved, nobody will turn up, but if there is a cash prize involved the greater the amount, the more people turn up. People I thought were friends at one time.
***No offence to you as I have not heard you on the air, but it seems every DJ I have heard of is the best DJ in SL. Every ad you see about an event will say so and so is the best DJ in SL, so for the love of god I hope they are not plugging you that way, as the best DJ in SL. (I don't think anyone ever put that claim to fame on me and if they did I would soon clear it away)
as for your friends, well as a friend of someone who DJ's and I used to get a lot of requests to come hear her, I can say as the friend it becomes annoying. IF I want to go hear my friend DJ I will contact my friend and find out when she is on the air, otherwise don't keep spamming me. I am a friend not a pawn to fill up a club and have the club owners spam me for tips for the dancers, host and club. Maybe your friends feel the same way. OH and please do not send them any unasked for TP's as those are extremely annoying and rude.

I don't want to have to bribe people to come out and dance to some good music. Am I off base here?
***you should not bribe people, and you should also not expect your friends to always come to your events. it is not up to you to fill up an event, that is the club owners/managers job, done with good advertising and promoting and good events to draw the people.

Am I also off base for expecting the club to support its staff? When I got there, a notice went out to their group for some other event at a sister club, so basically I got the shaft. I almost walked when I saw the notice, but professionalism kept me there as long as I had a couple of friends listening.

***If a club staff did that to me, I would have IM'd my friends explaining what just happened, and walked right then and there. That is a slap in the face, basically saying you are not worth their time. To send out a notice about another club, WHILE you are DJing for them at the club that the group belongs to, is totally rude and unprofessional.

If anyone needs me, I'll be in my Angry Dome.

***If you want to DJ and have fun at it, don't try getting your friends there all the time, and find a better place to do it.


I used to have my club open to the general public, and told many a DJ if they wanted a place that they could come and DJ whenever they wanted, that they could freely use the club, all they needed was their own stream, which I would put on the stream changer, giving them the ability to switch streams, then they could either set up events themselves, or just invite friends for a private party....

ya know what... no one took me up on it, not even one.
DJ's want a ready made club with a ready made group of ppl already there, and ya know why, because the friends of DJ's either are too busy to attend anything or just plain do not want to.

(I have since taken down the club once again)

that is just plain sad, your poor friend, if it were me I would have not waited to quit, I would have left when you showed up, gone off together to do something fun.

Sadly that is pretty much the state of clubs now a days

I have not been to a club with a DJ in a very long time. I go to live music or places or where I like the radio station. Cash prizes mean nothing to me. I have never been anywhere because of a prize. There are only a few places I will go despite the fact that there is a prize.

The trend of more people showing up if there is a Linden prize is generally more noticeable in a club that is not managed well. That is a sign of either the wrong group base, or a sign that there is something that the club is not doing right.

If a club is truly entertaining, and has good music, people will show up regardless of a prize. I personally will go to places even if there is no contest/sploder/etc going on.

If I'm djing and there isn't many people around, all the more reason for me to play whatever I feel like, without fear of repercussion or lost customers ^____^

/me pokes you in the arm and asks why you havent sent her to us to join the family hmmm?

/me pokes back... she is =^.^=

I go to clubs all the time, even dress for the events, and never even vote or enter the contest. I do it because i like to meet people, dance, have fun, show off, flirt, etc.. Honestly, only once has prize money (that was really a lot) gotten me to go to a club. Turned out to be a GLBT club, won the event, but the best part wasn't the winnings.. it was watching the BF at the time squirm as he got hit on


IMO it's not so much the DJ or their private group of fans as it is the venue your DJing at.

Club A - high lag, annoying regulars, or poor management - money prize event - good turn out - and then the place clears out when there's no money to be had. Speaks volumes about what people think of the place without the extra incentive to be there.

Club B - Low lag - friendly open atmosphere - No prizes or no events at all - always seems to be a decent crowd reguardless of what's going on because it's just a fun place to be.

I know a LOT of people who'll hang out thru what they think is a not-so-great DJ because the atmosphere is good there. These are the same people who'll bail real soon on a great DJ if everything else about the place is annoying the crap outta them. It's the total sum of their experience at a place that adds up to whether its fun or not, not just who the particular DJ is.

ooohhh ... thats not good ... well tell her if she wants another shift or two to let us know (cept if is it our favourite little kitty.... she needs some time off)

Depends on the age of the avatar I'd guess. As a noob I liked contests a lot. Now I tend to ignore them. I rarely go to clubs anymore at all, but I like to listen to live music (not a DJ, people singing and/or playing instruments).

What Dana said.

If the club management and/or hosts are keeping things fun and friendly and the other people are relaxed and enjoying themselves then I'll hang around even if I don't like music (can always play my own). But if the place is cold and boring, I'm outta there.

I rarely enter or even care about L$ contests but, if folks are having fun with it and not making it All About the Money, then I may join in.