One venue owner is piloting a new business model beginning this fall. The owner of Rasta Ventures, TributeTim Kwak, has 3 venues, Red Rock Amphitheater (Pop, Country and other genres), Mama's (Blues), and a brand new Urban Alt Rock venue. Also on the sim is Rasta Beach (reggae DJs and one regular live performer a week).
Previously, Red Rock and Mama's have been operated separately from Rasta Beach and sharing staff. Beginning in September, Tim plans on linking the 3 live venues. with the reopening of Red Rock and Mama's and the opening of the new club. These 3 venues have formed a co-op consisting of quite a few live performers.
The concept is that an admission fee of $L200 will be charged. This admission fee will defray the cost of the venue owner of paying the high fees of the performers, as well as supporting the venues for their financial needs. Very often, venue owners are paying money out of their RL pockets to pay tier fees and performers' fees. It is understood that this is an expensive undertaking when one decides to open a live performance venue. As a result, many quality clubs close their doors because they can no longer afford to pay their tiers. planning 15 shows.
The revenue from the co-op will be equally distributed among the co-op members. The venue owner is responsible for coordinating scheduling, supporting venue builds, and providing "professional, well trained hosts," and streams. The objective is to "put on regularly scheduled, high quality performances 4 or 5 nights each week, with each event involving 3 or 4 musicians" "....lasting 3 or 4 hours." The expectation is a 30 avatar attendance, at $L200 a head, for a total revenue of L$90,000 per week in ticket revenues, split between (currently) 8 people, or L$11,250 each per week. At the current conversion rate, that equates to $43.27USD per week for each co-op member. Tim will use his share to pay hosts and managers, and stream fees, etc., but he noted it would not defray all of his costs.
Performers who would be invited to join this co-op would typically be "popular musicians (who) are interested and able to work well with a group of people." The term "popular" might be defined as "an artist with the demonstrated ability to consistently attract at least 30 people to their performances."
This concept is not entirely new. I, as well as others, including performers, have heard of such a thing through the music community grapevine, etc. I have done a small poll of concert goers and performers alike, and some have even said it's been tried before and been unsuccessful. One source explained that another venue owner/performer is also trying a new pay system at his venue.
According to Tim, an ongoing debate has been taking place on the Rasta blog http://rastaliveco-op.blogspot.com. I have collected comments from friends who have been going to live shows in SL for years, a venue owner, and some well know performers here in SL.
The general consensus is that it will not work. Some will go to fewer shows since music has been free from day one. One venue owner fears that if this does become the way music will go in SL, it will make live music "only available to the elite in SL who can afford to pay." This will "reduce the number of SL music fans" and that "one of the few free pleasures available to a new residents is live music." Another comment along those lines was "It won't work as I see it...most people won't wanna be in the 'Elite' group" and "other than groupies and loyal 'gotta catch every show possible' fan," he forsees "a pretty bleak future there." One very popular performer and his manager said they would want no part of it. Others feel it's just plain greed.
Some feel that SL should be an outlet for exposure, as many performers share the website links where RL CDs can be purchased. One comment was on the fact that the fans are never consulted and this is why it has failed in the past.
A big debate was on the "high quality" factor. Many balked at that since who can define high quality? It is a subjective issue, it is not science. Different people see quality in something/ someone that others will not.
On the positive side, some just accept it as the way of the future for music in SL, acknowledging that when venues can no longer afford to stay open, the musicians will have to create their own if they don't already have one, and they will have to charge for admission to cover their expenses, as well as their music.
An interesting point to note is, as many of you may know, often venue owners and musicians encourage fans to get the word out about live music through their blogs, newspapers, other writing avenues, etc. As a reporter covering live music in SL, the price of admission will exceed what I get paid for these articles. How will it then make sense to continue to write about live music as the musicians would like?
Answers to these and other questions remain to be seen. I anxiously await to see how it all plays out. Look for a follow-up piece here as things get underway and the wheels are set in motion.Shellie Sands
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