There is to be a new Jazz Club in SL Chelsea, (a region of SL London) and this is a good idea as the Jazz Club scene in the virtual world is one of the biggest crowd pullers.   People bleat on about SL being sex driven, implying that most people join simply to indulge their sexual fantasies, but these Jazz clubs prove that there is a lot of  romance in people’s souls, not just the cyber sex side of things.

I took a look around last night, donning an evening dress, I set out to see how many people were actually in the other Jazz clubs across the grid.

Dress code is formal in the majority of the clubs, men must put their tux’s on and ladies must be dressed in a gown.  I think sometimes this is part of the lure, there are many designers who create beautiful evening gowns and people just love to get dressed up.  One club though, called Sweethearts Jazz Club, seemed to relax the rules somewhat, as I did spot some day clothes there.  Sweethearts is in the Second Life Showcase list so it’s easy to find.  I was amazed at the amount of people there, over 70, which is nearly enough to crash the sim.  I travelled on to Frank’s Place and another called Phat Cat's and these too had a similar amount of avatars attending.

They all play a mixture of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra type music, which adds a lovely atmosphere to the places.

The clubs themselves are elegantly decorated and many couples go there for a romantic evening.  The dance animations range from a tango to close smoochy dances.  You see many singles there too, the ladies and gentlemen standing around the edge of the dance floor waiting to see if they fancy anyone there, just like real life, the Jazz Clubs are probably one of the easiest places to find a partner.

How do these clubs earn any money?  Well certainly not from the avatars who use them for free, although there are tip jars laying around if people want to donate a little money. Owning your own virtual land can be an expensive business and the majority of people in Second Life have to run their simulated areas (sims) at a loss, by handing over the initial amount to buy the sim, then paying the monthly tier (a sort of rent for the maintenance of the sim paid to Linden Labs) they then have to work out a way to recoup their expenditure by renting out shops or residential properties on their land.  A private sim costs approximately $1000 to purchase, with the tier being around $295 a month.  I noticed with these big clubs, that the surrounding areas are full of clothes shops.  People wish to open their shops close to a point that gets a lot of avatar traffic and likewise the sim owners get the rent from the shops to keep the sim going.

SL London’s Chelsea Jazz Club opens its doors on the 30th August so we will see if this is yet another popular venue.  If they get the ambience right and create that sort of place that people who want real romance in SL can come to, then they have cracked it.  I think this is a lovely side of SL, and apparently so do a lot of people, as whatever day of the week you pick, you will be sure to find many people at the clubs looking for love.

Chelsea Jazz Club  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Chelsea/82/169/22

Frank’s Place http://slurl.com/secondlife/Franks%20Place%202/240/126/24

Phat Cat’s Jazz Club http://slurl.com/secondlife/PhatLand/170/104/22

Sweethearts Jazz club http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sweethearts/82/166/25