Blues Traveler: The Story of Von Johin, The Avatar Who Landed A Real World Record Deal

On the Eastern shore of Second Life's French Quarter (SLURL) is a club where Tennessee bluesman Von Johin holds sway.  He performs there, and the place is now his; he bought it, he tells me, when the region's original owner had to leave SL.

"I did not want to move," he explains, grinning. He pays for the club with the live music he performs in-world.  "I do very well, I have very generous fans." Many tip well; many more tip often.  Between two groups centered around his performances, French Quarter and Johin's Blue Note Group, Johin estimates several hundred fans, who love, as this video attests, his raspy, old school blues laced with witty twists.  (He does a great bluesy cover of Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog", for example, which was itself a riff on blues master Howlin' Wolf.  Returning Zeppelin, in other words, to its roots.) 

Avatar twins Changurr Cao and En Aeon catch a Johin gig

Among those many fans, as it turned out, were talent scouts with Reality Entertainment, a real world multimedia company with a boutique record label that counts albums from popular alt rock group Marcy Playground (they of "Sex and Candy") and 80s metal gods Krokus in its library.  The scouts were in Second Life looking for top talent among SL's large live music scene, Wired reported yesterday, and settled on Johin for his heartfelt performances.  The company claims it's the first recording contract offered to an avatar, and that's probably true.  (The acclaimed avatar-only duo of Chouchou were recently offered a small label deal; however, singer juliet Heberle told me, the label discovered their music on the web, not in SL.)

After reading the Wired article, I managed to catch Johin a few minutes before his Wednesday night show, chatting about the advantages of performing music as an avatar, about the business side of things-- as it happens, more lucrative than I assumed-- and, of course, how he landed the deal.  When actual talent scouts come calling you in Second Life, as it turns out, you're not always inclined to believe them at first.  When one of them sent an Instant Message, Johin's reaction wasn't exactly enthused.

"I said, 'Uh, yeah, sure',  and didn't really rush to get back to him.  But he came around a couple of more times saying he wanted to talk to me.  When he showed me the website I knew who they were."  (They also got in touch with his RL/SL wife Harlee Johin.)

His Second Life career began when a tall elf named Cypress Rosewood bumped into him in a Nashville grocery store.  A musician himself, Rosewood told Johin about SL's music scene.  (Though he wasn't an elf at the time.)  By then, Von Johin had already had a fairly decent run performing blues in real life. 

"Look behind you," he tells me, nodding at a wall of his club featuring black and white photos of various blues legends.  "You see that only color photo?  That's my real life avatar.  That's one of many shows I did with Merl Saunders at the Haight Street Fair in front of tens of thousands of people.  So I've been there, done that." 

Harlee and Johin lived in San Francisco for awhile, before making the Nashville move.  "I may play there in February at the Fillmore, Merl Saunder's 75th birthday show," he allows.  (The Fillmore is the city's most prestigious venue; Saunders is a seasoned performer who collaborated with the Grateful Dead.)  Johin prefers to keep his real and SL names separate, but if the Fillmore show happens, that won't matter: "I will be billed this time as Von Johin.  I think more people in SL and the Bay area will know that name."

For the most part, however, he no longer has any interest playing live in person.  "This is more fun," he says, referring to his virtual stage. "No gas costs, no travel, worldwide audience, exciting new people, no smoke, no drunks on the road, no hassles." 

Other landowners constantly request he perform road shows at their own clubs; normally he charges them L$6000 per gig (around USD$22), plus tips.  He once performed with Tokyo-based bluesman Komuso Tokugawa for a show that charged an entrance fee-- something rarely done in Second Life.

"It sold out in two days," Johin reports. "Tickets were L$1000 each.  We sold 66, which was six more than we wanted to sell to deal with lag." (That’s about USD$250 on the open market.)  "Not bad for sitting at home and having an amazing time." 

All told, he estimates the income from his Second Life music at just shy of five figures.

"A good SL living," he says, grinning. "I have expensive tastes in guitars. Second Life will never pay enough for that."

As anyone who follows the music industry knows, recording contracts come and go, and usually leave the musician worse off in the bargain.  But performers with an established and dedicated audience are more likely to thrive no matter what.

Label deal aside, then, his career in Second Life is already "a nice side income to cover my costs here and leave money left over to buy my little girl voice lessons."  His teen daughter has high functioning autism, but a performer's gene. 

"She sang with me at a Blues for Autism benefit here in Second Life," Van Johin tells me. "She loves to sing."

Comments

[Connie Sec]

Great stuff. I've never heard him, but will make a point to have a listen soon. And its wonderful that SL can support such a thriving music scene. This shows there there is "Strength in Diversity"

[Troy McLuhan]

Von Johin and Cypress Rosewood also founded a company named Metaverse Media Group. They were the folks who helped Gibson Guitar Corporation get set up in SL (on a sim named Gibson Island).

Also, check out this interview with Von Johin, recorded in SL on September 24, 2007: http://tinyurl.com/5v97yy

[Nexii Malthus]

Simply Awesome.

[Lowell Cremorne]

First - good luck to Von with his campaign for conitnued success.

Second - I've been amazed that both Wired and NWN swallow hook line and sinker the 'world record deal' line.

I've written about that here: http://www.metaversejournal.com/2008/08/13/von-johins-public-relations-bid-for-stardom/

Again - no ill will to Von, just wanting to shine some light on PR practices that seem to be accepted without question.

[Hamlet Au]

I read that Metaverse Journal post, Lowell. Your argument seems to be that this deal is not significant because anyone can now publish their music on iTunes or wherever. This may be narrowly true, but it misses the fact that a record label deal generally provides an infrastructure of promotion, distribution, marketing, cross-promotion, multi-media synergy, licensing arrangements, real world concert tour arrangements, etc. etc. etc., functions that are difficult if not impossible for an independent artist to do themselves. It's sort of like saying a contract with a book publisher is not significant, since anyone can publish a book at Kinkos.

[Ann Otoole]

Congrats to Von. A record deal is a record deal and if that is what Von wanted then more power to him. (I hope he got a better deal than most first timers rofl)

[Lowell Cremorne]

Hamlet, I take your point but a digital deal to me IS the equivalent of everyone being able to do it. If we were talking the traditional 'worldwide record deal' (physical product in brick and mortar stores worldwide, promotions, store launches etc etc) then there's a true story there.

I know of 3 or 4 other avatars with albums in production in pro studios etc with exactly the same end result as Von's i.e. worldwide delivery. YEs, Von is first and that's noteworthy but I just question some of the hyperbole behind the announcement ;)

[Paisley Beebe]

There are Record Deals and Record Deals....Some of the biggest Record companies in the world "sign" an artist spend enormous amounts of money on recording and then bury the record in their warehouse no promotion and no tours. Distribution is relatively easy today I have my albums everywhere all done by myself. But I have no mass media Marketing no posters on bus stops, and no world or even Aussie tours. I could organize some of that myself but It sooooo much harder and the crowd would be very small by comparison to a Record Company deal if they are good. I believe that Von has signed a traditional contract ( on looking at his press release, he can elaborate on that if he wants to) and the record company therefor would be doing more that just digital distribution. Real CD's in bricks and mortar shops is also easy to do as well an independent I have that, Barns and Nobel KMart all of that through an independent distributer, easy peasy...With a "Real Deal" record deal I would hope the record company would "promote me and the Album and arrange tours at a much higher level than I currently have access to. Jon certainly deserves the promotion if you have taken the trouble to hear him, yes he has been on my show I only have the best :) Good luck to him lets not "rain on his Parade" May there be many many more legitimate offers to SL artists at least he was offered SOMETHING the story was...that there was even a record company in here scouting for gods sake! Paisley

[Paisley Beebe]

Oh just an add to my comment If I may... have confirmed after the above post, that Von has actually signed the contract as his Avatar not as his RL self. Thats Gotta Be a first!!! It will be a Von Johin Album.

[Kat Claxton]

"Von has actually signed the contract as his Avatar not as his RL self. Thats Gotta Be a first!"

Actually Paisley it's not a first. I personally know of at least one other avatar releasing their music worldwide under their Second Life persona who signed their distribution contract long before this, and rumor has it that there are more avatars who have done the same.

As far as whether signing with someone like Tunecore is equivalent to signing with a non-virtual record label, I would argue that it is comperable on the basis that you are automatically provided with the means to market and promote your music with resources comperable to what a RL label would offer. You are automatically given the opportunity to exploit high search engine rankings, and you are automatically provided with the means to market and distribute your music as widely as if you had put CDs in a record store. Also, with applications like iTunes, you are directly interfacing with any computer that has iTunes installed, which could be said to work similar to direct mailing. I think a valid argument can be made that the publicity is every bit as much there with an online label as it would be with a non-virtual label.

Beyond all of this, I do want to point out that this is a very exciting thing for Von, and great inspiration for virtual musicians all over the grid. I'm very happy to see the SL music community get some focus and attention, and I appreciate that Von made that possible. My congratulations go out to Mr. Johin, and I wish him all the best success in his new venture. :-)

[Iosef Glanz]

If not Von Johin, then who is the first? After reading this I went all through Google and SL's different news and music sites, and I can't find anyone else who has had their avatar signed to a RL record company. I can see why they'd make the claim if they found what I did the last day or so searching, which was nothing. I did get to discover some great music I had not heard before. SL has a lot of talented musicians on it from all kinds of styles. Awesome. I found a ton of albums released by avatars on their own, Found a great story on Wired about the unsigned talent on SL. Found stories about major and indie labels using SL to promote their RL signed acts. And I found where EMI hired the co-founder of SL, but that's not giving him a record deal! lol

Found lots of RL bands coming into SL to make avatars and do shows....found signed and unsigned bands doing that, but after going through about 30 pages for each kind of search, I think Von's label was right to make the claim. If some other av got signed to a RL label before he did, their label and they sure didn't have the good sense to tell the media, 'cause the only thing that turns up on Google for avatar record deal is Von Johin and this Reality Entertainment thing (ironic name for the label, huh?)

[HoneyBear Lilliehook]

Absolutely one of the best performers in SL. I'm *very* happy to hear this news!

[Dennis Kinsey]

Von Johin may be the first “blues” artist signed to a real-life record deal from Second Life, but he is not the first musician signed. We signed Bara Jonson (a Swedish singer and songwriter) in May 2008. Bara is coming to Syracuse, NY later this month to play at Jazz Central and to record his debut CD, “Far and Away.”

By the way, we love Johin’s work and catch his SL shows often. Bravo to Von Johin, Warren Croyle and Reality Entertainment. I look forward to buying Von’s real-life CD. It doesn’t matter who is “first.” What matters is that talented SL musicians, including Bara Jonson, Von Johin and others, are also finding real-life outlets for their music.

Best regards,
Dennis Kinsey, Head Honcho
Hondo Mesa Records
PO Box 35303
Syracuse, NY 13235

[SL Resident]

Von Johin is the first avatar ever given a real life record deal. People cannot seem to understand that the record deal was given to the avatar and not the real life person behind the avatar. Maybe Mr. Kinsey should get his facts straight before making comments about the "avatar" contract. Bara Jonson got a deal with his real life self, not his avatar, or at least that is what he has said in SL for months. Von will never be seen playing at jazz central unless they put up a big screen so Von can be streamed from SL.

[flats to rent in birmingham]

Looks like John put on a great gig.