2008 September | The Paisley Beebe Show

Sep 22, 2008

Ella and the Second Life Music Economy

Paisley Beebe Sings Ella

It was a real honor to perform a Tribute show to Ella Fitzgerald on the Weekend, I was asked by Saffia Widdershins from Prim Perfect and Metamakover to select a person to dedicate a tribute show too, and to be honest I picked Ella cause it meant I didn’t have to learn any new songs! not because I think or thought I could do her any justice. I barely skat and for a middle class white chick from the North Shore in Australia its really an insult to her memory. But it did give me pause to think about her contribution to Jazz singing and what it means to be a jazz singer or at least referred to as one…Thankyou Safia for organizing the concerts it was a nice thing for Freddy and I to do.

I posed a question on plurk/flickr the other day about SL music tips and crowd levels dropping.

Lately I’ve been gig hopping in my alt form to check out the potential talent for Tonight Live, and I noted that the crowd level at a lot of gigs has dropped considerably not to mention the tips. Some musicians have tip jars with the amount tipped so far, as hover text over it. And the average amount I saw towards the end of a gig. was about 800L with a good amount being 4K, and I think that was for one of our most popular performers. My question on Plurk/Twitter was why was this occuring, the amount of gigs per time slot was still huge..and getting bigger even if you count the venues that advertise twice and sometimes 3 times in the one time slot, and the odd Dj that is an alive DJ (lets not tackle that one…) I got a few respondents. Who basically told me they do not attend Live gigs anymore because they are budgeting and feel bad going and not tipping…and yes the downturn of the U.S economy was creating this need to budget. If you are spending time in SL and on a budget, entertainment as in Live Music, I guess is in the “luxury” Category.

So again… I question, after a week of checking out the scene, and noticing that the regular musicians who went away over summer in Europe and U.S are now flooding back into S.L and also that there is a new influx of new musicians, am I “off-base”? that the crowds are lower. Have we reached saturation point, not enough audience? too many shows? are the tips scaring people off?

From my perspective, as a now experienced musician in SL. If I’m working a gig and getting paid a fee…(so not a tips only gig)..I’d rather have a larger crowd than a well paying one…If in the future I advertised gigs as “no Tips required” would that make the crowd bigger? I might try it…Even when I do get a fee from the promoter or the venue owner some members of the audience ask where my tip jar is however..and I sometimes do put a tip jar out, and other times don’t depends on the gig, and the fee that Im getting. People can allways tip my head if they want too, but loads of people don’t even know you can do that.

In a depression it was said that entertainment flourished, people went to the movies and to dances ect…to forget their troubles and their situation…so whats happening here. Perhaps in the Depression the cost of the movies and dances was so much less than what tips or expected tip amounts are now in comparision to other things?

If Crowds are down due to people budgeting on tips, are other businesses feeling the pinch? hair shops clothes shops? and if they are, are they cutting prices?

If the economy is in a downturn in the U.S why are we now at peak concurrency? is it because SL can be free? and its a cheap form of entertainment, if you don’t spend anything? are those new people joining SL spending any money? and who are they? are they still mostly Americans?

I guess what it means to me and my contemporaries in music, is that with the prevalence of tips only venues, that Musicians will have to either work more often, to pay their SL expenses or find other jobs in here? But if they are gigging more than 5 times a week they will reach saturation point for their audience that much quicker..and the crowd numbers are dropping down to about 12 people a gig…and thats not a lot of tipping public…

Of course there are lots of musicians that just want to keep playing even if it is for 4 people in a crowd and no tips, as long as there is even one pair of ears they are happy, and they are probably not financing their Second life spending with income earned as a musician, in SL. But I can’t help feeling sorry for a great musician playing their heart out for an audience of 8 people…maybe that just me.

How is it for you?

I think Im going to go with the paid gigs and no tips needed model…and work at my 2nd job as a TV host to make money to pay my rent. There’s not many of the paid gigs around but Im not unhappy with one a month and some free ones thrown in for exposure and charity ect..

Paisley

Sep 18, 2008

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