Dance Clubs

Hey all!

I'm thinking of building a (money pit) dance club. I don't want to directly steal ideas from any other club, but I'd like to know what brings you back to a certain club? Or if you have any clubs you like that I could check out for myself.

I have a plan for an interesting/fun club, but I'd like to realy make it awesome!

Thanks for your thoughts!

Lugi

Sploders, trivia games, friendly atmosphere (which obviously you can't buy), not too much lag, varied music.

Really, varied music, I've been too 80's clubs, rock clubs and dance clubs, I'm not at all keen on dance but it's a decent club but a club that had 80's, rock, indie, dance sessions would be very appealing to me.

forget the abouve

been going to PIER and only there as the ppl are great to be around with, music i`m 99% on winamp but been there almost every day for a month

get good staff and run it well and ppl will come back, try doing requests most of the day so u know what ppl want to hear in general and switch to that and keep requests up

oh and stay off the zombies, that`s 1 thing ppl don`t want to see, artificial traffic increase is bad

Why do you need a staff? If there's good music streaming in and I'm there semi-frequently to see what people like and make changes as needed, what does a staff do? Just hang out and talk to people? Don't you get that from the people visiting?

Also... If you know... How do clubs make money? I mean a lot of the clubs I go to you just walk in and dance and chat... Besides the hookers I don't see things to be bought....

To be honest I don't want to do it to make money, I jst want to break even and have ap lace people like to go to...

Thanks so much for the tips!

staff as in to get the conversations rolling and interact with ppl so they stay and have something to come back for, depending on ppl to start for themselfs at new places can be abit of a challange

use tip jars and get shifts so ppl have time off that every one nows about or else it will wear ppl out pritty fast

don`t know clubs make money but by the few i`ve been to i must say merchendise as most have shops aswell and use the club to attract traffic and have them walk past the shops or next to the shops

Thanks for the feedback! I plan on checking out the Pier club you mention... Maybe I'll see you there!

I'm glad you mentioned merchandise because my club concept revolves around a series of stuff I'm creating to sell...

See ya later!

What brings me back to a club is the music and the people

My fav club is one that starts with the letter P and is named after a fish that eats people

if i knew how to spell it i would have typed the name of it

its really the music tho, if the music is not to my taste i won't stay.

Here's a question. Should there be a moritorium on Club building until something is done about all the failed empty husks lying around SL?

Staff is also good to deal with "difficult patrons " at times.

no

do you think in real life every club is full 24 hours a day 7 days a week? most are empty for most of the time and fill up on fri/sat nites only


should we stop real life clubs from opening because they are not used 24/7/365?

LL will never restrict a build on anyones property as long as it adheres to the TOS/CS

Sanctuary Rock is the main club I go to as I was just amazed by the place first time I want there last September. It has been rebuilt since then. What keeps me going there? I know a few of the regulars and most of the music is OK. Lag is bad but that hasn't stopped me going.

I would say the visual appeal is the main attraction, with music also being important. I could imagine a place like Sanctuary Rock existing in an RL dream.

I also go to the re-built Tiki Lounge on Hedonistic Isle - again good visuals.

I've trailed round various empty clubs with lime green floors or suchlike and dance trance music that were obviously built to cater for seething masses of folks who never turned up!

empty husk not yet sold off clubs are the SL version of Old factorys in much of Urban America.

Someone will tear them down to make a park or a parking lot.

Meanwhile someone will open a new more modern factory/club somewhere in the "Suburbs"

Here's you're answer to everything: NO.

Unless you're an experienced businessman already in SL or RL, you're not going to be able to manage a club.

For one, everyone and their sister thinks they're popular enough to run a club. I've sat in my store and watched club after club after club pop up in my sim. Each has NO ONE in it, and each folds after the owner realizes they have fewer friends than they thought and run out of money.

It's a common SL dream to run a successful nightclub, it's TOO common. And if you can stick with it, it's like a new puppy to deal with. Sure it's cute and you want it to grow, but it pees on your floors chews up your socks and if you turn your back for two seconds it's out the door and down the street. O_o

My tips, build something large, with long lines of sight so everyone can see everyone else without feeling cramped. Plenty of games for people to waste time on. Random drawings and cash prizes help. Hiring a DJ to belt out some nice toons, and security to keep the riffraff out.

One warning, if you DO become popular, the larger clubs will notice you, and try to shut you down. You'll have grief attacks, sim crashes and sometimes all out war. Make sure your security knows its crap.

Good luck with your puppy.

Funny

It's true, what he says. The best way to get people into your club is word of mouth, and if you have no one to tell about it... Well, you'll have no one in the club.

I personally don't like going, because I think dancing is silly and pointless in Second Life. I can't dance in RL. I don't see why my avatar should dance around while I am sitting on my ass. BUT my girl does like going, and my friends like going, and I like dressing up for events.

So events are what really brings me in. It's not even just winning money, it's just winning. I get into dressing my avatar up in cool outfits/styles. That's what brings me back. If the people are cool, the music is good... Heck, even the sploders can be fun if you get them up to a couple thousand Lindens.

Dancers are pointless, unless they are strippers, and even then I don't see any point in them. All you end up doing is paying regular dancers for doing exactly what everyone else is doing; dancing. Event coordinators are cool, if they are creative, but people can only go to so many "BEST IN PINK!" events or things of that nature. They gotta get really out there, doing something completely different. But you could probably come up with a lot of that stuff on your own, if you are smart about it.

Atmosphere is another big thing. Clubs are so... Stereotypical. Psychadelic floor, weird colored or dark walls... Clubs are so cookie cutter. Do something wild with it, something totally unique! If you can't build so good, find someone to help you out! If the club is awesome looking, people will come back for that fact more often than not.

Awesome dances. Like I said before, I hate watching my avatar dance. It's silly. But a lot of people really love it, so while it's silly to me, to a lot of people it's important. I will admit a nice slowdance with my girl is very cool, so you gotta have a good mixture of danceballs and good dances in the club. You need to get one of those dancefu's for the wall, so people can click it and start dancing, and have at least a dozen or so dances in it. Also, as an aside, good seating is nice too. Get some nice couches and chairs that have really nice poses in them.

These aren't all the things you can do to make it a good club, but they are some of them. I'm also not saying that if you did all of these things that you'd still draw a crowd. Offering prizes of 500L /male|female for the events helps, people are always in it to win money, but you really need to work hard to develop a core 'group' of people that always attend your events. Doing an event on the same night every week helps, the same people can always come, eventually they'll always come.

Good luck. Clubs are like a hole for money, you'll never make money off a club, just lose it.

I used to go to a great club

They had good dances, nice hosts and hostesses, a good sploder, a random money giver, and a raffle ball and events you had a chance of winning.

The they changed the weighting on the sploder, and you would lose more often than you would win, they doubled the amount of campers increasing the lag by half, you saw the same people winning the events time after time (and a lot of fixed voting, so there felt like there was no point entering). and they put in a new dancefloor that dazzled me. The stream was half the time not working.

I stopped going, and i notice a lot of others did too.. always the same few names in the latter days of my visits there, and guess what, they were all people mentioned in the picks of the staff and owners.... a clique.

but when it was good, the hosts always welcomed you personally, they played good music, and you got a nice mixed crowd..

I voted with my feet...shame really.

I agree with lots of the advice in earlier posts. you need experience and a lot of word of mouth, and good staff. If you are asking "why do you need staff" then i think you will not succeed... or you will burn yourself into the ground trying to do everything yourself

Good luck

Some staff is good. Friends are awesome if you have other people who are interested in running a club with you, especially if you have the hookup and have a friend who is a DJ too. I can't stress this enough; HAVE A DJ. People like requesting songs. People like hearing someone talk during the event. They may complain about it, or say they don't, but they DO. Out of all the staff you could possibly have, the DJ is at the top of the list for me.

i built a small club last nite, IM'ed my friends and posted a event, had about 20 or so ppl come and dance, it was fun, it's not there today.


anyone can make a club and throw a weekend party! its fun don't discourage this person from his SL dream

MAKE A CLUB and invite me!

on the topic of DJ's and clubs and ppl listening to them

from my experience over the past year as a DJ in SL, who has DJ'd at some of the #1 clubs to some lesser known ones....

on average about 50% of the ppl who are in the club, are actually listening to the stream

so while DJ's are nice, they are not a must, you can always used a nice stream and ppl will still enjoy the music... well 50% of them will hehe

Thanks for all the comments, even the discouraging ones... To be honest I don't really care about making money, just possibly staying close to even... I have a cool idea for a theme (I know, they all say that) and a store that will sell merchandise that relates to the club... I want it to be as lag-free as possible - No camping chairs - Maybe a game or two for fun... Just a bunch of cool ideas, along with some nice events every once in a while... It's worth it to me to at least try...

Thanks all!

Luigi unless you build on a 512 or 1024 you more than likely wont even come close to breaking even. just some info
I built my first club pn a 1024 plot and ran in the green for 6 months, built it the second week I was in SL, had a friend that helped run events best in etc. did a raffle ball with stuff dropping every so often and trivia dancing I DJ'ed live as she hosted and chated w/ patrons (a must is a very outgoing, nice, fun and social host that can type well and keep up with chat) we ran 2-3 weekly nights every week. it was so great I bought 9800sm in another sim to build a more open bigger club so that I could play and host live music. It still stands today, I don't even put a ding in my tier payment, don't mind I do this because I am a dj and a live musician, I do it because I love it, cost me about 80-150USD a month to run the club, this includes a money tree, tips to musician on open mic might, adding some cushion to the sploder, and paying out on trivia questions answered correctly, tier and server relay rent.

my partner in the original club has been gone from SL for 5 months, I had let the club die out it never did come back like the original small club, there are so many now... so many and not enough people to fill them. many of the original regulars and my friends have there own things going on from stores to teaching to running there own events, you need something to draw new patrons in constantly.
I recently started events again each day of the week - Su/M but I am a DJ not a good host. and I do talk live w/ patrons the stream delay makes it hard to interact with chat, I have hired 6 host not one has ever shown up!
My SL partner helps me but she prefers to not be the social one. I have now 3 friends DJ'ing and helping host these events "free" for tips only, its really hard to make these work

Good luck in your club and if you have fun and your friends have fun, it is all worth it.

and Rhaorth is correct about 50% actually listen to land streams even I use mine while I am out at other clubs unless its Live Music

Paying Dance pads were a draw for me when I was new because I liked the idea of getting "paid" to waste time. Also, I was shy and liked the idea of being stuck in one spot, being able to watch myself and not being expected to interact.

Now I am more mature : ) I like two clubs I won't mention, cause I dont want them to get too popular: they have unique dance animations that make my avater look great and I laughed the first time I tried 'em. They have places to SIT with varied animations, so again, they make you look cool! The music is Indie, rockabilly, 30's...NOT 80's! DJs are not obnoxious, they use customers names on air, so you feel seen. They are big enough you can get away from people you are sick of seeing, without having to just leave.

What I would like to SEE is a trend towards concept clubs.For example, I like to go to United, which is dedicated to Manchester United futball club fans. If you go to a place with a theme you already have something in common with people and you can dress to fit the scene : )

Here are my suggestions...

If you start a club and people join your group, please do not SPAM IN CAPS every few minutes or so. This is very annoying.

If you have "pole dancers" at least make sure they can spell before they start their mindless chatter about feeling "hawt and sweety". Advise them to not IM with cyber if they do not know the customer.

Contests are nice, and so are games, but these experiences are not very fun for new people if your staff keeps winning them.

Bugging customers for tips is annoying also. If you have a good club, perhaps a cover charge would make more sense?


Personally, I would like to see a club that plays alternative music, either current or from the 90s (Tool, Rage Against the Machine, Alice in Chains, and so on), and encourages conversation. I know, I know, it's rather hard to actually dance to Alice in Chains, hence the conversation suggestion. There are probably clubs somewhere in SL that do this but I haven't found them yet - if anyone knows of one, please tell me.