Venues in Black and White

Many venues pop up in SL and just as many pop out shortly after. Not nescessarily the same ones and some for different reasons though many of them vanish from the grid because of poor management and no economic understanding at all. Maybe the title should have been "Venues in Red and White" instead but me being from Denmark that would have been more like a national anthem.


"I wanna have a live music venue!"


Sure you do and I think you should just go ahead but there are a few things you do need to think about before starting.


Size and type of venue

Land tier

Artist fee

Stream fee

Employee fee


Size/Tier


Size and tier often go hand in hand because the bigger venue you want with all the amazing surroundings you can think of, the bigger land you need to fullfill your dream and we all know Linden Labs policy on that one: "You pay!". That is the first expense you can always count on will be there every month.

I have seen venues build on a 512 sqm parcel which is free from tier every month and it can work for some because basically all you need is a stage, maybe a floor to dance on, a danceball and maybe a few lights here and there.

Yup, that is all!

Now just make a group for the venue with a fitting title for yourself and you can call yourself a venueowner.

Dreams tend to evolve though, I know that from my own experience, so if you are thinking a big venue with hanging gardens or a major festival venue.....Then eventually you will have to pay tier.


Type


When it comes to type of venue we are all different and mostly it is based on the type of music we prefer if any. (openminded...right?). Some venues are created to reflect a certain period in time i.e 1940's type venues, gangster type venues or sci-fi type of venues just to name a few but you get the picture. It is all up to you and frankly....most artists that you get on your stage don't care where they play...as long as they get paid. Sure you will meet artists that check out the place to select dress or outfit and to see where you build the stage but often they arrive 5 mins before showtime and says: "Hey Bro, Good to see you, where's the stage?"

Heh, so much for the hanging gardens or the hell-themed venue with flames jumping out from every corner;o).


Artist fee


All people like to get paid for their efforts and artists are no exception so when you plan to book an artist you also need to plan on paying a fee for his or hers time on your stage. Sometimes you can be lucky and have an artist playing for tips only but that is not the normal thing and because they offer it one time doesn't mean they are willing to do it everytime.

Tips only events are mostly Open Mics with 30/60 mins slots or benefits/charities that collects money for a good cause and you can gather many different artists on that account.

Let me say this though: A friend having all christmas-presents stolen from the car while it was parked outside a mall and you wanna ensure they have a merry christmas is only a good cause for you and your friend so YOU pay to help your friend. Don't ask everybody else to!


Fees may vary a lot from artist to artist and some artists claim a fee because they heard that was the amount other artists claimed. I have seen as low as 1500 L$ for an hour and as high as 15000 L$ for an hour. Generally the amount pr hour is centered around 4000/5000 L$ and you can find really good entertainment for that and the opposite ofcourse but then let's hope you don't book those, right?

To avoid getting artists on stage that you really think suck or they claim a price because they heard it was the normal amount I only have one advice:

Check them out!

Go to their shows around the grid and maybe even more than once so you get the full picture of their performance. That is a good thing to do because the first time you were there might have been a bad sl-day with connection or stream. Maybe something else happened in RL that affected the performance it's difficult to know. After the second listen you can better decide if that is the artist you want to spend your lindens on.


Already at this point you should have decided how much money you want to spend on artists every month because together with land tier and stream rental it could quickly get really expensive running your venue. If you did make a budget make sure you stick to it and don't let any kick-ass artist roll you over because they are this and that good.

Many artists swarm the grid for venues that are willing to pay and if they can force a fee out of you...they will. The loser is you! They don't care. They just fly off to find another venue and so on.

In time you will learn what people most often try to force something on you and you have to be able to say: "Well, I guess he/she is not going to play at my venue then."


Stream fee


Just a short notice about stream rentals because they vary a lot and the cheaper ones can be just as good as the more expensive. Check out the market and talk to artists/venueowners and then make your own decision.

The good things with having a stream yourself is that artists at open mics often do not have their own and if the stream from the paid artist fails...you have a back-up ready.

Oh, if you have a paid artist coming to your venue you should point out to them that you expect them to bring their own stream. With the fee you pay them and whatever they get elsewhere, they can afford it. Otherwise make them reduce their price if not already or do not book them.


Employee fee


Do you want to run the whole thing yourself or do you want to get a manager and/or a host to help you out.?

They need to be paid too and come in different packages. Some will work for tips only. Some will want to get paid pr hour/week/month and again it's just to find one that suits your budget.

The advantages of having someone to help you is that you can be more people helping each other cheking out artists before booking them and during the event at your venue you can help each other with greeting the guests and keep an eye out for griefers that could ruin the experience for everyone.

Now if you do decide to hire people then please be cautious about what people you assign to what roles and to illustrate that I have a funny but true story from sl:


I was performing at a venue on a late saturday and we had arranged with some people from another venue to come listen to me so they knew what they were getting for their lindens. As I was performing on stage it was Jess that had the contact with the people and at some point during the concert she received an IM from the Owner of the venue that was listening in saying that his Entertainment Manager had left the concert because she couldn't hear and hardly understand what was going on onstage so they had decided that they did not want to hire me. Jess was surprised because everyone else enjoyed the show and had the sound coming out just fine so naturally she had to disagree with that statement from the Entertainment Manager. The Owner had only one comment to that: "That may be but she is my Entertainment Manager and I trust her judgement. SHE DOES HAVE A HEARING PROBLEM THOUGH".


???


Well, no wonder she couldn't hear anything, Professor!!


No one in their right state of mind would hire a person with a hearing problem to go out and listen to potential artists for their stage and then believe that they would be able to judge the quality of the performer. That only happens in comedies, I thought!


Now I know you would never do that so just see to that you get the right people on the right posts at your venue and you will do fine.


Bottom line


When you get to the end of the month you will look at your numbers and you will realize a few things:


1) Your expenses will always be way over your income and if you should happen to break even it's most likely because you were on vacation for 2 weeks and didnt plan events for that month.


2) Tips from the guests does not make you rich at all. Sure some artist at a 4k fee will bring in 54 guests but only a small percentage of them care to tip the venue and you will be lucky if tips gets close to 1k on a good day. Many events will have the following approx. outcome:

Artist: 4000 + 2500 in tips

Venue: 800 in tips


3)...Still in chock after the above..


4) Question yourself: "Do I want to have a venue at all?"




If you after reading all of the above still want to run a venue because you love live music like the rest of us I can only say: "Go for it!.....and watch the expenses!".


As a final remark I can tell you that at our own venue, The Yard Club, we want to pay all performers a fee and to keep the budget. To accomplish that we lowered the number of artists that we feature on our stage and set a feecap that we won't go over.

So far we have met a lot of understanding and support from the artists performing at our venue because they also can see that it's better to accept a basic amount plus tips compared to ending up with all venues paying tips only.

I don't say it's the only way but that is the way we do it at The Yard Club.


I hereby declare the bazar open! ;o)


-TA-