I do not install games on any of my computers, mainly because I have no extra time in a day as it stands. The appeal of playing in a virtual environment like Second Life is totally foreign to me, especially when I live in stumbling distance of a great rock venue and am usually never short of things to do.

While reading a recent article on Second Life in another music publication, I was struck with utter curiosity. What is the music community actually like in Second Life? It also occurred to me that I might be able to research this more effectively by trying to get a gig for coffee house favorite, J. Irving Giles.

For a world where you can spend thousands of real, hard-earned dollars on castles, the ability to summon fire and lightning, or a lovely Keith Emerson statuette, it would seem pretty logical that we should be able to make some cash either playing out or selling gear in this virtual environment. Thanks to Paypal, "safe" internet transactions are easily achieved for anyone looking to sell music online. The question remained of how we could book a gig and potentially get paid for performing.

What we discovered was that the currency in this virtual environment comes in form of Linden dollars. Unlike the mighty Euro $1000.00 LS works out to be around $4.00 USD. In order to make $20.00 USD, you would have to make $5000 Linden Dollars. Take into account that people tend to spend Linden Dollars a bit more liberally, so your take from a Second Life show might be pretty good-- but you're definitely not going to be making the $200.00 per show you might be used to earning.

The advantage to playing in Second Life, as we quickly found, is that oftentimes there will be a good number of people in attendence at your SL show when you might not have nearly as many at a real venue. Put out a virtual tip jar, and it all adds up pretty nicely. Additionally, anyone listening to your set within the game can link directly to your web-page or iTunes link and download your music after the show.

While many of these "venues" host their own Shoutcast servers, others require you to have your own server space. You can also rent a server for your performance time from other users in the community. The Shoutcast plug-in is a free way for windows users to Stream their audio. Most mac users recommend using Rogue Amoeba's Nicecast, which also supports VST and AU plug-ins, although streaming audio usually fares better with a dry signal, given the 128 KBS compression.

To send the audio, J. Irving will be using a Shure SM-58 for vocals, and a SM-57 to mic his Vox AC-15. The audio then gets mixed down to a Mackie 8-channel mixer, and into an RME Fireface 800. Then, we will set our computer inputs to the RME mixer, bring up his mic and guitar in the RME mixer, and run the Shoutcast plug-in on a Windows XP PC. Again, this can be left set up, so he can come back and perform almost immediately in between real-world gigs. Even though the take is smaller, you can perform while completely unshaven, unwashed, and generally unpresentable. Of course, most major label bands get away with this on regular basis, anyway.

J. Irving does run the gamut of local coffee house performances, and is booked four days out of the week. In the down time, however, he might be able to quit his job at the local paper mill and start performing regularly in Second Life. If he brings in about $10-$20 per show, that would easily supplant the $9/hour at 20 hours per week salary he currently makes, assuming he performed 20 hours worth of concerts a week. This is quite possible because the virtual realm is still a very open and welcoming environment for musicians to perform. The demand for constant performances is high (at the moment), so J. theoretically could stand to make enough money to fill in the gaps between his real-world gigs. To understand payment clearly, Second Life can take payment through PayPal, so selling anything in this virtual environment is essentially a visual representation of e-commerce.

Before we could get paid, however, we needed to get J. Irving booked. Most of the venues in Second Life offer negotiable payment for performances. Some pay a flat rate, others pay in tips and still other venues offer a little bit of both. Too bad virtual alcohol is not as in demand in the virtual world, or you could take a pretty decent percentage off the bar. The nice thing about typical venue "handshake" agreements over the internet, is that they are much easier to track than your typical deal with a shady promoter in a dingy bar. The downside? You really are not going to make the type of money you make on real gigs. However, your online exposure will most likely lead to increased record sales, which in turn could make this a nice little way to supplant your income.

In the case of J. Irving, he will be performing at a virtual coffee house in the near future with his B.C. Rich Warlock, a DigiTech Vocalist Live, and the complete catalog of nineties rock songs you have probably forgotten.