A Second Life music group is a collection of people with a common musical interest and the purpose of a group is typically to provide notification regarding upcoming musical events. Such groups exist primarily within Second Life but there is a growing number on Facebook and also on Google+.
There are two general classifications of such groups:
The first class is usually effective whereas the second class is not.
In groups devoted to a particular band or venue, friends and fans will receive notices about when performances are happening and this is great as it's an obviously interested audience. The big advantage of such groups is that people who are interested will hear and no-one else will be bothered by the messages. The big disadvantage of such groups is this does not provide a way to add more fans.
In groups dedicated to providing information about all bands and venues, the problems and advantages listed above are reversed. People are told by friends to join, for example, the Live Music Enthusiasts group, to hear what is happening in Second Life music so a bigger potential audience is growing all the time and the performer / venue doesn't have to do anything to encourage it. However, that audience may be alienated by the tremendous number of notifications that can come from such a group. When there are three hundred or more performing musicians in Second Life, it's easily possible for twenty or thirty to be playing on any given hour and all of them will want to notify you of that performance.
For a little bit of history, the Live Music Enthusiasts group was founded by Astrin Few, an excellent jazzman from the earliest days of Second Life. At that time there were no other groups competing with it and the group provided exactly the service listed above. Many people joined it as this was definitely the way to hear what is happening in Second Life music.
Others saw the success of Live Music Enthusiasts but also the problem of a growing number of messages coming from it. The problem is valid but the solution was not as those who decided to solve it only created more groups, all with the same purpose, albeit with some intention of filtering to focus the message traffic. However a performer or venue doesn't have any idea which people are in which group so the answer for them has been to send a message to all of them. Now the problem originally observed in the single Live Music Enthusiasts group is multiplied by the number of groups which is up to somewhere between thirty and thirty-five in Second Life plus at least half a dozen more in Facebook.
The lack of definition of purpose in the general notification music groups is what has caused their downfall as bands and venue owners are not recognising in others something they all do automatically: as soon as you join a group you turn off the notices and possibly the Instant Messages as well. People who send the notifications aren't recognising that other people do it too.
Toward the definition of purpose of music groups is recognition of the different types of music available in Second Life and the list below shows some of the broad areas:
The above list is not meant to be comprehensive but it does mean to demonstrate the segregation of groups by purpose as an audience for one group is not likely to be interested in one of others. If anyone is interested in more than one genre then the solution is simple: join both groups.
The owners of the existing groups are not likely to change anything so it is incumbent on an audience to resist the multiplication of groups by dropping out of them. Of course this happens anyway because of the overwhelming spam but it doesn't happen enough to stop them. If you review the member lists for these groups, you will find that many of the same people belong to each one. From this it is easy to deduce one thing: they don't read them.
My solution offered above may not be the best one and I recognise that. I don't mean to say that it has to be this way or to hell with all of it but rather I observe that a problem exists and it can be solved if people are willing to enter into a community spirit to solve it.
There are two general classifications of such groups:
- Groups devoted to a particular band or music venue
- Groups devoted to providing information about music as a whole
The first class is usually effective whereas the second class is not.
In groups devoted to a particular band or venue, friends and fans will receive notices about when performances are happening and this is great as it's an obviously interested audience. The big advantage of such groups is that people who are interested will hear and no-one else will be bothered by the messages. The big disadvantage of such groups is this does not provide a way to add more fans.
In groups dedicated to providing information about all bands and venues, the problems and advantages listed above are reversed. People are told by friends to join, for example, the Live Music Enthusiasts group, to hear what is happening in Second Life music so a bigger potential audience is growing all the time and the performer / venue doesn't have to do anything to encourage it. However, that audience may be alienated by the tremendous number of notifications that can come from such a group. When there are three hundred or more performing musicians in Second Life, it's easily possible for twenty or thirty to be playing on any given hour and all of them will want to notify you of that performance.
For a little bit of history, the Live Music Enthusiasts group was founded by Astrin Few, an excellent jazzman from the earliest days of Second Life. At that time there were no other groups competing with it and the group provided exactly the service listed above. Many people joined it as this was definitely the way to hear what is happening in Second Life music.
Others saw the success of Live Music Enthusiasts but also the problem of a growing number of messages coming from it. The problem is valid but the solution was not as those who decided to solve it only created more groups, all with the same purpose, albeit with some intention of filtering to focus the message traffic. However a performer or venue doesn't have any idea which people are in which group so the answer for them has been to send a message to all of them. Now the problem originally observed in the single Live Music Enthusiasts group is multiplied by the number of groups which is up to somewhere between thirty and thirty-five in Second Life plus at least half a dozen more in Facebook.
The lack of definition of purpose in the general notification music groups is what has caused their downfall as bands and venue owners are not recognising in others something they all do automatically: as soon as you join a group you turn off the notices and possibly the Instant Messages as well. People who send the notifications aren't recognising that other people do it too.
Toward the definition of purpose of music groups is recognition of the different types of music available in Second Life and the list below shows some of the broad areas:
- DJs who are spinning songs out of an iTunes playlist or similar
- DJs who use whatever mad techniques they use for a live performance
- Karaoke singers who use commercial back tracks as a band
- Acoustic or electric musicians who strum chords and play, usually oldies or standards
- Acoustic or electric musicians who play Blues
- Acoustic or electric musicians who play Jazz
- Acoustic or electric musicians who play Progressive
The above list is not meant to be comprehensive but it does mean to demonstrate the segregation of groups by purpose as an audience for one group is not likely to be interested in one of others. If anyone is interested in more than one genre then the solution is simple: join both groups.
The owners of the existing groups are not likely to change anything so it is incumbent on an audience to resist the multiplication of groups by dropping out of them. Of course this happens anyway because of the overwhelming spam but it doesn't happen enough to stop them. If you review the member lists for these groups, you will find that many of the same people belong to each one. From this it is easy to deduce one thing: they don't read them.
My solution offered above may not be the best one and I recognise that. I don't mean to say that it has to be this way or to hell with all of it but rather I observe that a problem exists and it can be solved if people are willing to enter into a community spirit to solve it.
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