Tipping Artists and Venues

Having been a Second Life® live music fan for practically three years and running a live event venue for the past year and a half, I have never understood the logic behind how and who people tip. On the surface, it seems logical to most. You see a performer you like and to show your appreciation, you tip them. The same with the venue.

However, what I’ve notice in my time is that performers seem to get the majority of the tips. Maybe it’s because we think that’s all they earn or maybe we just want to direct our money that way. While venues do get tips at the events they hold, during a live performance, they don’t seem to do as well as the artist.

Maybe it’s the constant IMs requesting the tips, however most artists do the same thing albeit not a frequently as venues.

Perhaps it comes from the open mic concept where artists perform and do not get paid. They only get the tips that are contributed. Granted some performers still operate this way but I feel it’s the exception to the rule. The fact is that most Second Life® live musicians do get paid by the venue to perform. It ranges generally from approximately 3000L to 6000L with the normal rate appearing to be 5000L. In fact, I know of one perform who charges 10,000L. Not bad in Second Life® for an hour’s performance.

In that hour performance, dependant upon the crowd size, tips are generally in the favour of the artist over the venue. I get the feeling that people who tip will generally tip the artist and as a second gesture and provided they have the funds, tip the venue. I have no hard data for the dollar value between the two, but in my club the artist seems to get about twice the tips the venue does. On some nights, the artist gets all the tips.

Now I’m not suggesting not tipping artists. There does seem to be a little inequity. Venues have numerous costs will little source of income. Obviously they have the cost of the artist, but also staff costs, advertising costs, and the cost of any equipment they need for their venue. If they are running multiple events per night or multiple nights per week, the overall cost can be exorbitant.

Now I know that venues seem to have shopping areas nearby in the hopes that patrons will visit the shops and drive up traffic. Rent from these shops goes to cover some of the costs of running the venue. And while this seems like a good option, I would think that very few venues derive much of an income through shop rental. Not many concert goers venture over to the shops as in Second Life® it seems to be that people go directly to a place for the purpose they are there. When they want to go to a concert, they teleport there, when they want to shop, they teleport to a store. It’s different from real life where you’ll check out a store because you are already in the vicinity and may not get back there. Here you can teleport back anytime you want.

The same goes for advertising revenue from ad boards and the like. Again and for the same reasons, I don’t think they generate much revenue toward the cost of operating a venue.

In the past, there have been suggestions of a cover charge to enter a venue, but that has never really developed more that passing comments. Even though we do pay covers in real life, the idea of it in Second Life® does not seem attractive. Unless it was a policy to charge for every event, venues would not attract customers, so the idea has kind of died.

BubbaC John made an interesting comment at his show this past weekend. During his performance, he put the usual comment forward about tipping the venue, but added not to tip him as he does get compensated for his performance and that he just wants you to be his friend. Noble idea.

I know that what performers get paid is not a lot in terms of real life money, but I’m not going to get into a comparison of real life vs. Second Life® costs and wages. The fact is they do get paid and by Second Life® standards, not too badly. I’ve changed the way I tip when I attend an event. I tip the venue, always. Sometimes I’ll tip the artist as well, usually if I know they are not being paid much or are playing only for tips, but I ensure that the venue gets theirs first.

If we want to see live music continue, there must be some way of compensating the venues and if tips don’t’ increase for them, I not looking forward to what the alternatives might be.