An Important Update
As you're reading this, you're probably still processing the recent announcement that SL has banned all streams containing live music from all parcels. Frankly, I was a shocked as you probably were. Live music has been the touchstone of my SL since almost my first month here. (Does any remember Slim Warrior?)
And as if that wasn't bad enough, the fact they are returning venues to owners was just a step too far! I was able to grab this picture from Café Musique just after the pick up hit them. I haven't been able to get to the alternate location to check it out, but fear for the worst.
The intrepid DTS undercover team was able to corner a few of the Linedons to get to the bottom of this outrageous turn of events. We've tried to share some of what we learned (at great peril) with our reader(s) here.
DTS asked a representative why live music was being targeted when voice and media were still allowed. Barry Lyndon replied "Two out of three ain't bad. We've only just begun" to clean up the SL venue scene.
In addition to the other reasons, we heard that some shows, particularly JimmyT or a Max Kleene dual stream, can actually cause the Grid to tilt with the number of AVs who show up. Gyro Lindenn, the head of technical implementation, shared his thoughts on what causes this "Grid tilt" only at music shows. "It's all about the bass."
We concluded our interview by asking if the SL music community could expect more devastating news in the future. Ceclia Linndon told us, and we quote "Baby, you ain't seen nothing yet." Some of the things hinted at are banning of "SecondLife" and "SL" in the use of promoting RL jams as well as automatic de-rezzing of microphones, guitars, drums and pianos.
Text of the Linnden's announcement
"San Francisgo, CA - Today Linden Lab's is taking an important step in improving our platform to allow residents to create the most vibrant, enjoyable, and stable Grid in the Metaverse. Effective at 5 PM SLT, April 1st, 2023, Linden Lab's will block all live music steams into Second Life. We believe this action will improve the Second Life experience for residents who don't habituate the dens of iniquity where live musicians and their "fans" congregate, often in large numbers, causing disruptions in our service.
Over the years we've observed significant performance hits in conjunction with live music events, causing hits on our asset servers, as well as our "de-Partnering" service. While we believe the de-Partnering is affected by our regular problems with "friends online", we regularly see spikes we've isolated to partners landing at shows and seeing their better halves online, and at the kind of debauchery, found at some shows.
We know that all change can bring angst for our residents. We hope this will be accepted by the community. We hope this will be as popular as rolling out Premium Plus before Bellisseria was ready, or implementing dwell."
One former Libden Labs employee shared the hit on the "de-Partnering" service was particularly bad. When asked what the labs thought caused, she replied "One is the loneliest number."
Off the record, a high placed source in the Liinden's marketing department shared one of the underlying issues was the high volume of repetitious gestures at shows were overloading the servers. Coupled with the excessive teleports in and out and asset server loads as people showed up in the wrong attire ("what is smart casual anyway?") based on inaccurate announcements. We asked if the lab had a strategy in all this, and the reply was "Take the money and run"
You can read the complete Linden Labz announcement here.
One of the DTS citizen reporters was able to capture the moment immediately after the Lunden "LiveMusicFlyingSquad" left Cafe Musique. Laya's tag says it all.
