The Blue Note is Closing!
Naydee McGettigan has had enough, I guess. The owner of the best dance club in Second Life, and one of the best examples of club marketing prowess, is calling it quits at the end of December. Reasons: Too expensive, too much work for too few people and too little return. She announced her decision in a note sent to her Blue Note group late Friday night.
From the note: “I have had to bust my behind end to make ends meet often in SL. By trying to split my time between things like running a shoppe…..creating items .. continually rebuilding The Blue Note areas that surround it like the annual winter Skating Rink (which is HUGE this year btw) …DJing at the Blue Note and Hostessing when others came to perform…… and mostly, DJing outside of the Blue Note itself.”
For me, the Blue Note was the gold standard for classy clubs, because of the music (jazz and standards), the atmosphere (strong on romance and proper behavior), the decor and the sheer variety of dance balls. It gave me a good excuse to stock my closet with ballgowns. And, no offense to my friends who make their living in strip clubs, but it’s nice to go somewhere sometimes where the dancers are on the floor and not on poles.
But it worries me that if the Blue Note, with its long history, multiple revenue streams, devoted clientele and personable owner, can’t cut it, what chance does the average club have? I talked yesterday with an old friend who also has an excellent club and still isn’t making a dime. Maybe Naydee didn’t make enough use of her group to promote attendance on nonevent nights? I don’t know. I do know I’ll miss the place. Taking a date there was the acid test for me. If he liked the place, I knew he had potential. For many reasons, it will always be a special place for my partner, Jarod Styrian, and me.
I wonder if it’s too late for one of the big brand-name marketers looking to gain a foothold in SL to form an alliance with the Blue Note and keep it going. Or, for someone to buy the club and move it to a less expensive venue instead of trying to maintain it on its own island sim. For the sake of pure romance in SL, I certainly hope so.
And what am I doing while I’m blogging this? Some nice Swedish guy saw me standing at the entrance while I was making the SLURL and asked me to dance.
This pic is of my partner and me on one of our many nights up at the club:
November 24th, 2007 • 
Evansmom Goodspeed • 
comment | November 24, 2007 at 13:38 | individual comment-link
This is such a sad story. I remember when the Blue Note was on a small waterfront parcel rented from Ravenglass in Alston, then when they bought their own land in Tuliptree near another community I maintained, and how they got harassed by an aggressive store nearby lagging the sim, then finally got their island place to try to use this independence to save on costs and headaches. And I really don’t think it’s about Naydee working this or that group more, or about her having to go out and hustle yet again to find yet another sponsor or DJ gig. The fact is, these enterprises in Second Life are just too great wear and tear on people, because they have to put in too much sweat equity, and people consuming their work aren’t willing to pay the costs involved.
A real-life club might have a $5 or $10 real dollar cover charge; nobody in SL is willing to pay anything like that in tips even, let alone cover charges. That means the owner of the venue has to hustle vendors, clothing sales, special events, rental fees, DJing on the side, etc. etc. — all instead of functioning as they would in SL, with both door covers and plate covers and bar revenue, of course.
It’s an example how virtuality betrays you: it is so much easier to start up a business, to get patrons, to have a fabulous brand and success faster and better than in RL — and yet not make ends meet precisely because there is no actual booze in a virtual world to charge for, and no willingness to pay covers. If each person who regularly comes to the Blue Note or reading this blog would commit to putting in some $6500 Lindens a month to patronize it and support it at the level it needs, it might float, and maybe not even then. But people aren’t, they put $100 into tip jars, not $1000. It means that unless a venue can catch the eye of some big sponsors with deep pockets of discretionary income to blow on advertising, they are stuck.
I hope Naydee won’t so much close the Blue Note as take a break for awhile, and then maybe figure out how to make a circle of patrons who would have regular advertising, not obtrusive, but worked into events or builds in some aesthetic way, and get this SL legacy funded at the proper level. I also think it should have monthly subscriptions if not cover charges.
comment | March 11, 2008 at 04:47 | individual comment-link
Just a quick note as I dont do a search often to catch up on blog spots, If you werent aware… at the end of December 2007, I was able to attain a secure investor who has been willing to help maintain the blue note’s existence for hopefully the remainder of the year. No promises on next year.. but We will keep on Swingin while we can! *And thank you to Prokofy for always being not only a loyal supporter… but a wonderful landlord for the first few months of The Blue Note’s existence back in 2005! It was a great place to start and it was his rental home (Ingrid Ingersoll’s build) that *became* what the current club build is still based on. Very little has changed from the original build
Hope to see you all in 2008!
<3
Naydee McG