|
The DJ Dave Live show, is just that… An actual show. It's premised and built on a solid 25-year background in social entertainment development, management, and consulting. Yes DJ Dave started at age 11. Please do not mistake me, or approach me as yet another SL DJ born from the basement. I think it's wonderful that anyone and everyone wants to be a DJ here, and from a roll playing perspective that is fine.
The reality still remains… That despite 60% of the grid roll playing as entertainers, 98% of second life entertainment venues remain empty 99% of the time, while less than 2% capture 99% of the social entertainment audience. Also note that demand for 'premium' entertainment offerings on the broader level grid has mushroomed to a point of demand insanely exceeding supply. The bottom line is this…. You could add another several hundred entertainment related sims to the Metaverse, but without a solid entertainment offering, all you have is a shell -not a ticket to high volume, 70K traffic, and overwhelming popularity.
Bottomline... You can pretend to be an entertainment operator, a DJ, or a manager, but you can't 'pretend to entertain an audience'. Not in SL…. Not in RL...
DJ Dave does 'not' engage in im's with the audience.
He's not sitting behind an MP3 player pushing buttons. He's running an exceptionally busy show… Observing the mood of the room… Organizing contest submissions… And 100% focused on accommodating the needs of the 'broader level audience'. Engaging in idle chitchat in 20 im's is simply a luxury he cannot afford, much less maintain the quality of the show. You need to pick your battles…. You can't be everything to everybody.
DJ Dave does NOT take requests… There are however, 3,000 other SL DJ's will.
Rational…
There are a number of reasons why requests are a horrible idea, and also the fastest way to demolish a party, contrary to what roll playing entertainment operators blindly presume.
- Basing your entire music format on requests is like… Running a restaurant without a menu. In this restaurant, we'll simply offer every item on the human food chain, as people walk in and ask for it. Can you imagine how ridiculous this would be? You'd need a food cooler the size of the Grand Canyon, while you'd end up pleasing nobody.
- Requests are like micro managing a room of 70 people. Each person will get their turn. So in fact… You are NOT playing to the 'majority' audience at all, but playing to 'one person at a time'. How do you supposed this will affect the 'quality' of music content across your broader level audience? This is why it's common in SL venues to hear one good song out of every 5. Or… A song that takes the room up to high energy, followed up with something… That is so far out in left field… You wonder what Mr. SL DJ is smoking, as the room plummets from a 10, to a 3 in energy levels. Yeah.. Uh.. Geeeee man… I was just playing a request.
- Playing 70%, or all requests is not being a DJ sorry to say. Real entertainers… Entertain a room by surprising, stimulating, and capturing a crowd's attention. They give the audience "what they didn't know they wanted", while keeping them thirsty for more. The sustain crowd energy levels of 7, to an 8+, while spiking to a 10 several times a night. This is what stimulates a crowd… This is what they pay for… This is what keeps them coming back. This is what results in high traffic, and a night totaling 70K USD in total revenue in larger RL entertainment venues.
- The other problem is a micromanaging nightmare… Instead of focusing on the needs of the room, 80% of your time is spent in im utter hell, while you invest up to 5 minutes with some guests trying to find a song they want. There is no such thing as no… If you say NO, now you need to explain yourself… That could take another 5 minutes, while your show is going down the crapper. How do you read a room, or calculate your next song when you’ve committed to being a human jukebox? Pretty soon, you’re the Phil Donahue Show… Oprah Winfrey, and Dr. Phil all wrapped into one little bundle, as you become immersed in a sea of questions, gripes, grievances, and casual chitchaters. Let me make this painfully clear: I am an entertainer… I am not your Dr… Not your mommy.. Not your slave.. Not your councilor… And not your friend. My show is a place of business, and the business is entertaining the ‘majority’ audience. Plain and simple..
- Radio stations, bars, nightclubs, live bands, comedians, showgirls, cabaret acts, and the vast majority of larger RL DJ acts do NOT take requests for a very GOOD reason. The content and purpose of the show would be diluted, or completely washed out, in return for… We're going to entertain one person at a time. In a typical entertainment gig, you play an average of 60 songs. Those 60 songs can take a room over the edge, or… They can plunge a venue into a state of deep slumber. You can't be popular or hot this way.
But the question remains… Why are SL DJ's so reliant on micromanaging a room, and… Why are SL operators insisting on it?
- Firstly, many SL operators have never visited anything remotely resembling an RL entertainment venue, much less a basic working knowledge of social entertainment in general. So how do they base an operational premise? Similar to a type of herd mentality, they simply do what everyone else here to doing. After all… If everyone else is doing it… It must be the right thing to do, right? LOL We've all seen where that type of thinking can take us. Sort of like… If Tommy and his friends jump into the fire… Then I guess it's the smart thing to do.
- As for the SL DJ's, most do not, or have not developed a style indigenous to themselves. Consequently, the resulting product being offered is one of throw me a nickel… I'll play a song. That is certainly nice, however something most guests can do by loading their favorite MP3 into their Winamp player and listening to it. In all fairness to SL DJ's, they can't be expected to do much more, as developing a unique identity is something that can take many years to establish and refine. Moreover, intuitively reading the needs of an audience is something many RL DJ's cannot do, despite being at it for many years. SL DJ's are even less likely to acquire this ability, since they cannot see the physical body language of a room -they're relying on limited text communications as a means of compass. By virtue of this, request taking is about all they can do, short of the 'random selection' approach.
But how do request taking DJ's affect sim performance?
- What you'll observe in SL entertainment venues the majority of the time, is that custody of the sim is happily handed over to the DJ. The DJ brings his little following in…. Siphons as much cash (in the form of tips) as he/she can from the sim… And essentially the show is all about them -not the sim.. Not it's brand… Not its identity. The sim is actually being used as a vehicle to profit. Once the DJ is finished… They leave the sim… Their audience leaves with them… They collect several thousand in cash… And leave someone's $300.00 a month sim empty.
The largest problem is the SL DJ is not compelled to read the needs of the 'broader level' audience, but instead… Prepared to play almost 'anything' if they're paid for it in the form of a tip. Can anyone see what is wrong with this entertainment model?
I am not knocking this… Just spelling out the reality. As a sim owner, you're paying for a stage for someone else to profit, while your net result is zero return on your investment, and an empty sim. I am sure the SL DJ's are not doing this intentionally, but that does not negate the net result.
One way or the other, few entertainment related sims in SL have yielded a great deal of popularity or profitability from this approach, while demand for hot entertainment product continues to sear.
In conclusion, request taking is what is termed a "feel good idea", however has not done a great deal in terms of addressing the broader level demands of the SL entertainment market place. It does not generate revenue where the revenue is most needed, which is to cover the most basic operating costs of the SL entertainment venue.
|
