By Allanah Tomsen

We all need to have a few Linden dollars in our SL life. Without them, the creative residents of this artistic haven, would be unable to or possibly less inspired to design and produce the incredible array of fashion, furniture, vehicles, games, entire sims, that make the majority of residents, keep entering that log in password. If your new to this strange and alluring world, looking to progress your avatar and lose that freebie fashion attire (although there are many wonderful freebies out there), or whatever it is you want to buy on SL, there are loads of different money making activities to be had. Of course I would say that probably buying your lindens is the easiest option and to be fair they are very cheap, 1000 lindens costing around £2.40 ($4), but I was a newbie once and was wary of putting my card details online, or sharing my information with someone calling themselves a Linden, and was in fact a cheap skate to start with, although I blame my Scottish heritage for that:D

Camping…..ah the sweet memories. Probably the most boring and mind numbing experience I have ever had the misfortune to try. You can plonk your avatar on a bench and basically sit there…….and sit there…….and Aaaaarrrrgh!, sit there, and after an hour you may just have the enthusiasm to take your 8 lindens (earning 2 lindens for every 15 mins) and head over to the Yard Sale to grab that bargain! If having your av sitting all day bores you, then there are dance pads, although there’s something very wrong and embarrassing about being chatted up while your both doing the Chicken dance. I should really include Zyngo in this list since I am myself an addict of this “while away the time” game and have won many a linden on it. Of course you could “Just get a job” or get creative and build and sell your fine artistic ideas. There are many many ways to earn your living in SL.


Now I am a music lover and it wasn’t long before I had my first taste of what SL had to offer and attended my first live music event. I stood mesmerised by the very talented and amazing Djai Skjellerup singing songs he had himself written, he sang from his soul with a passion that touched my heart and I have somewhat become enthralled by the endless musical talent accessible in SL.

It occurred to me recently that I’ve never actually come across a busker on Second Life. I’m sure there are some, but they are obviously few and far between and this got me wondering how much a busker could actually make using their singing and musical talents, turning up here and there, putting down their tip jar if the sim allows and just singing and playing his/her heart out? Now I have a love/hate relationship with my RL guitar, I love it and it hates me, but I know enough chords to strum a tune together so decided to give it a wee shot. Firstly I needed a guitar and managed to pick up a lovely Martin D35 acoustic guitar from Nortique Musical Instruments, found a cool guitar case tip jar and was set for the life of an SL Busker. Where to busk was my next dilemma and decided that if anyone would accept me it would be the Hobos and off I teleported to The Hobo Island Sandbox. There were about three avatars in all, standing around building and creating.

I was actually petrified since I am very mediocre on guitar and my voice is less than mediocre, but I decided if I was going to write this article I should at least have the guts to be a part of it. So guitar in hand, strumming animation on, tip jar rezzed, I clicked voice and started singing and playing the Streets of London, which I thought was quite apt for the place I was currently at. Within about 3 seconds a very scary gesture of “I will KILL you” could be heard echoing around me, geez knew I was bad, but give a gal a break. I carried on regardless, sang a few other little ditties and could not believe, when the same person who I thought was out to get me actually turned out to be a lovely guy and tipped me 20 lindens (still trying to convince myself he actually liked my songs and didn’t tip just to get rid of me).


I thanked him rather enthusiastically and with a new found confidence headed off to my next pitch in Central Park. I was a little disappointed to find out that it wasn’t actually based on the real Central Park as I had been planning to do a whole repertoire of songs by Phoebe Buffay from Friends, which both suit my guitar playing and my voice. Sadly there was no-one about and was just about to take back my tip case, when I noticed someone lurking about, obviously intrigued at what I was up to. Soon found out it was the owner of the Sim, JadzOr Conover. Got ready to be sent straight home and banned with no chance of showing off my Pheobe skills, but to my delight he seemed quite keen to have a wee listen. My Smelly Cat tune went down pretty well I thought and he had invited a friend of his to eavesdrop by phone to my obviously delightful, enchanting tones. Did the Grandma song, Cow in the Meadow (my personal favourite) and the Shower Song. It wasn’t long before another of his friend’s teleported in, which hilariously was a cat avatar named Ed Bumstead. I of course did an encore and readily dedicated my Smelly Cat song to him and between them they tipped a nice 300 lindens.


So all in all, I earned an impressive 320 lindens within approximately 50 minutes of busking. Not bad me thinks considering the quality of play on offer. So, from this I have proved that it could very well be an SL Busker’s life.

So if you feel that you may have what it takes to whip out your instrument and give it some and I’m speaking about artistic talent here, give it a try, who knows, you may even get some recognition and move on to the big time and I will be standing at your gig, secretly wishing it was me. If you already feel that you are ready for the stages of SL, then check out this link http://slmc.myfastforum.org/about2137.html where Djai is eagerly awaiting to hear from you to take part in a very special Christmas event, which is a collaborative recording project, although he does stress “no comb and papers please”, so sadly that leaves me out.