Wanted: Content Creation Talent Agents In Second Life

Where are the big three metaverse artist agencies?

I occasionally recommend talented Second Life creators to real world organizations in need of SL content, and wish I could do it more.  There's nothing cooler than getting to share my admiration of Second Life's teeming artistry and ambition with folks in the outside world.  Even better when those Residents are then able to earn a halfway decent income from those assignments.

Often, however, stumbling blocks immediately emerge.

Does the artist know how to negotiate a real world contract?  Do they even want to reveal their legal name?  Are they able to communicate clearly with the client?  What if production conflicts occur?  How does the artist insure they're paid promptly and fully?  And so on.

In most creative industries, problems like these are handled by legally licensed talent agencies.  (Yes, even use of real world names versus stage pseudonyms. What, do you think Curtis James Jackson III actually signs his recording contract "50 Cent"?)

To my knowledge, no such talent agencies exist for Second Life's numerous content creators.  Of course, metaverse development companies often handle some of those tasks, but most of them must inevitability put the profit of the company above the long-term career of the artists they hire.  (Nothing wrong with that, of course.)

So I put the challenge out there:  who wants to start Second Life's first talent agency that's fully registered to do business in the real world?  We know there's many intellectual property lawyers doing various work in SL, some of whom with experience in the entertainment industry.  They'd make likely candidates. Of course, in the short term, this probably means collecting 15% commission on a smattering of modest contracts, so it'd probably be a part-time operation for the next year or two.

Then again, the William Morris Agency started in vaudeville.  Yes, the multi-national talent firm with agents in music, film, literary, sports, even videogames, and a roster of clients that include Ridley Scott and Denzel Washington... first got its start representing guys with baggy pants and magicians who saw ladies in half.  Surely repping cybernetic vampires with a facility for interactive landscape construction can't be too much of a stretch. 

Any takers?

Comments

[Doubledown Tandino]

Well, I guess I can chime in here. I was formally a real life entertainment agency. I owned a entertainment company and contracted and subcontracted for events, parties, etc.
I had to get out of it.... ....I was good at it, but simply not my thing. I prefer more to be the producer of the event, the performer, or the promoter. Being in the agency, booking, talent management field was a strain on my wellbeing and my soul.

So, personally, I have the experience to open and run a RL/SL agency, but simply just don't want to take that leap and head in that direction.

However, I'd love to connect with whomever DOES decide to jump into this concept full force.

PS... I already wrote out many RL & SL agreements and contracts, and am happy to give out the templates.

[Ann Otoole]

Given LL's hookup with RRR and the now obvious use of moles as corporate content creators for $10 an hour instead of finishing the roads and such on the mainland the direction LL is moving in is that of driving resident content creation out the door. So no I don't think there is any urgent need for the soon to be historical artifact that was artistic creativity in the metaverse. It will soon be all right angles and bland politically correct baptist church meeting style stuff.

[evonne ~inKenzo~]

This is happening a bit with Virtual Job Candy, Brian Regan has been working to connect virtual creatives with jobs but he's working more on the traditional headhunter search model rather than as an agency repping talent.

I know a ton of artists and love connecting talent and projects but have not taken a percentage to do it...at times I have taken a flat consulting rate to dole out a job in SL and find the right talent but I've found it's easier to take a flat rate up front than a percentage at the end.

[Charlotte]

Might be worth looking at Hotel Dare in world, it's a non profit and gives support to artists / designers including build space on virtual platforms. I am a volunteer on it in terms of creating infrastructure and oversight.

[Ash Marat]

Forget "talent agencies". Consider the agency a talented person has by working, as contractor or employee, for a company who itself has some expertise in the subject area, has a vested interest--beyond the cash flow--in the outcome for both the client and the talented one, and can advise strategically instead of pimping. I have yet to see such a company appear (above mentioned, et al.) that isn't acting in some conventional, predictable way and isn't more than an anachronistic ad firm in a cheap (Add To Outfit) suit looking at the world(s) through dot-com glasses.

It's hard to know how to distribute derision between these actors and the suckers they sell to, but I look forward to being inspired by the emergence of a firm that 'gets' SL, acts strategically on behalf of talent and clients, and pursues a progressive and innovative path in keeping with the spirit (not the evidence, God knows) of ideals SL represents.