And so this is Christmas...

Last year I shared my Top 10 list, along with some reflections, as this is often the time of year for these kinds of things.

This year, I wanted to take a few moments to share some things as well. Sadly (or perhaps not), I don't have a top 10 list of singers. Nor (blessedly) do I have a Top 10 wish list.

This year, I'd like to explore one of last year's wishes in depth.

2. I wish more people will tip venues more L$.

SL has been, and always will be, about temporary things. We like to think relationships, places, particularly venues, and other things have a kind of shortened lifetime in SL. I can tell you, that I've owned land in SL for longer than I've owned a home in RL. And I have very few friends (I can count them on my ears without repeating ears) I talk to regularly in RL (apart from family and work colleagues). I certainly have more than that in SL, and some of these have been for quite a while. That's not to say our perceptions are totally wrong. Things can disappear (and appear) faster in SL than IRL.

In addition to those who simply don't log in anymore, we've had a few of the stars of the SL music world extinguished permanently in 2022. Each one was a loss those of us who knew them felt. And our Second Lives are less for their loss. 2022 also seemed to be a year of lost venues. Losing venues isn't anything new. (Anyone remember Club Felix from 2006?). And the half life of most clubs is less than a glass of Kristal Weizen in front of me. This year, though, I have detected something different.

This isn't about venues that arose from a night too much wine (or Kristal Weizen) and were doomed to fail from shortly after the sim order was processed. Nor is it about clubs imploding with relationships (remember, we said they were short too in SL). This is really about long established clubs, with great reputations, folding up prims and disappearing. I've had a chance to speak with several of these venue owners at length about their decision process. Invariably it comes down to money. Running a venue has always been more of a hobby than a business. By the time you total up tier, the build, staff and any payments to performers, I've yet to meet a venue owner who made a nickel. The amounts poured into venues have ranged up to US$300 a month (above any tips they get). Let that sink in for a minute. Venue owners paying US$300 a month, in real money, so we have a place to enjoy our favorite performers. And they have to pay, no matter what. If they don't they lose the land. Not after a long drawn out foreclosure, but nearly instantly.

In my 17 plus years in SL, I've always been around music. My First Land was in Leafroller. In Owlet, the next sim, there was a garage build where a group of musicians were playing when I rezzed my first prim. In Lappet, the adjoining sim the other direction, The Bluffs venue stood for several years. Both gone now. I survived The Great Contraction of 2008-9. Back then, venue owners faced many of the same issues we see today. And back then there was a lot of discussion about what venue owners could do to earn more money. I had the opportunity to be involved with at least one of these efforts. Suffice it say, it didn't solve the problem. Most of those efforts involved complex schemes of venue cooperation. And most supposed a kind of financial transparency the IRS lusts for.

This year, we're in the midst of another seismic change. It's no secret inflation has hit most corners of the world. In some places it has hit hard. People are making tough choices about shrinking discretionary incomes. For some, those choices have included closing hobby venues. Economics is no static thing. It is at least as dynamic as the sum total of all the wants and needs of everyone operating within any given economic system. In SL, there are no needs. No one "needs" a new head, or outfit, or land. No one needs to be in SL at all (well, there are a few exceptions). SL has always been about discretionary time and money (for most of us). So it's really just about wants. And this presents an interesting economic problem. I'm generally a supply side guy. One argument is that there simply isn't enough demand to support the number of venues in SL. What we're seeing is a perfectly healthy contraction of the venue market. Once the number of venues gets down to the "right" number you might not have venue owners chasing high value talent, which drives up the prices of talent. Once the venue market "supply" gets small enough, the singers will have to lower their asking prices to get into the venues who pay. At least that's the idea.

I suspect SLeconomics work differently. Because it's all want based, I suspect the normal pressures of supply and demand don't apply. I suspect, what may be happening is that venues are just disappearing and will not be replaced. And that makes me sad. As regular readers of this blog, my friends, and most of my enemies know, I spend a fair amount of time at music venues. Far more than at stores. Far, far, far more. So what's to be done about this loss of venues? One thought is nothing, the supply side theory. Once we adjust to the "correct" number, those who had the capital to survive, will be healthy. But what if its not the case? What if SL is different enough that there is no right number? What if, what's going on is that inflation is pushing venues off the cliff into oblivion? What can be done about it?

Well, here's where the good news is. We don't really need anyone with big ideas, or a grand scheme. We don't need an organization. We each just need to make a conscious decision to support venues, or not. We each need to be aware that venue owners shell out real dollars, month in and month out, to create, often beautiful spaces, for us to meet, and enjoy live music. And if enough of us decide to chip in a bit more, we can maybe save some of our favorite venues. Live music without venues is Twitch. And if that's what most of us want, we could save a lot on clothes and bodies. After all, its not the bodies, or clothes, or venues that make SL special. It’s the people who care about each other.

I'd like to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!.

With that, I'll sign off for 2022!