Value Of An Agent

Back to my griping mode and this time it's agents and managers for second life performers.

There can be a huge benefit to having an agent or manager in second life. It frees the performer to concentrate solely on their craft without having to worry about bookings, schedules, attendance, promotion and a variety of other things. A good manager can be valuable. A good manager will handle bookings and make sure the artist has venues to play in and get the exposure needed. They will ensure that performances are well attended by sending notices, invites and inviting audience members to the performer's group. A good manager also ensures that the artist's name is promoted when not playing, via websites or blogs or through updates and promotions, inworld through groups or other venues and performers.

I've seen some musicians and it seems the successful ones carry quite an entourage with them. The manager usually employs a few people to do some of the things mentioned above. They will attend the performer's event and invite people to the group, constantly give updates through chat and generally promote the performer at the event. Some managers even employ people to attend events that are not well-attended to make them appear crowded or at the very least to give the performer an audience.

I applaud most agents/managers for what they do as it can be an undaunting task. The time involved for one performer can be huge and if you're handling a number of them, it can be immense.

So what's my gripe? Well, through my club I've dealt with a number of agents and performers. While some performers handle their own affairs, most use some kind of an agent or manager. The booking part is easy, contact the agent, find out availability and rates, then book. Usually the agent or myself will send a confirmation with all the details discussed. Now just like in rl, we have to book well in advance to allow the club to ensure they have entertainment and that the performer has events to play. As we close into the date a performer is to play, i usually contact the agent to confirm the performer's attendance again. Probably the Sunday or Monday before a Wednesday performance. What has happened in nearly half of these cases, is that i fail to hear back from the agent. I know they got my notecard, but I'm not sure if the performer is scheduled even though they are booked. And I certainly don't want to start my event and have the performer not show up. I'm not sure why they don't respond, but a simple yes, so and so will be there would suffice.

I also check the performer and agent's profiles to see if they have a schedule and I visit their website or blog for the same reason. It's so nice when a performer has a schedule on the net, then I can simply check to see if my event is listed. My gripe here is performers who don't have a website or blog and I blame that solely on the manager. It would seem to me that promoting an artist via the internet would be a no brainer. A lot of information can be placed there and most importantly a schedule of their upcoming performances. Websites cost money and I can understand why agents wouldn't want to go that route, but blogs are free and can host a wealth of info. I have two that cost me nothing but time and you can find out a lot from these blogs. How nice it would be to search for a performer and instantly have access to their type of music, a lil history and yes where they are playing in the coming weeks.

Some of the very good ones I've visited that include multitudes of information and yes indeed, a schedule are Angel Stormwind, Kelvinblue Oh, Micki Underwood, Noma Falta and Scarlettla Roux. I apologize for those I missed, but these are the recent ones I checked that do have schedules. Please please, make sure your artist has a blog with a schedule and if for some reason that's not possible, put a schedule in their group info or on their profile. As well, make sure it's updated as I've seen a few blogs that have schedules a month behind. Nothing worse that that.

Anyway, let's keep second life music (a)live. Get out to the events and support the performers and venues.

Ciao for now

Jenny