The Sims 3 Showtime: Singer
Learn about Gigs, Venues, and Making Money in this Profession
by Robert Kennedy (Hosfac)
| Acrobat | Magician | Singer | Genies | SimPort |
This guide is about the Singer profession that comes with The Sims 3 Showtime expansion. In this profession, your Sim starts out as a singing messenger, delivering "Sing-A-Grams" to various other Sims to help them celebrate an achievement of sorts (like completing a good workout or having a birthday), to raise their spirits after getting yelled at, to set the mood for romance, or to just tell them that they're special! This will be a significant portion of your pay and job experience throughout the early part of your career, until you start unlocking the venues around town. You can play for tips, of course, but Sing-A-Grams will offer more early job experience and provide a steady paycheck.
Natural Born Performer helps out in this profession by improving the success rate of your gigs. You can use a guitar in your performances (other than Sing-A-Gram jobs), but it seems mostly for visual effect as even a singer with no Guitar Skill at all will still be able to put on great shows. The Diva trait doesn't appear to have much of an impact on performances, either, although it does offer some interesting interactions with other Sims, and even yourself. A singer should always be their own biggest fan!
While Singers will make a majority of their living off daily jobs and gigs, they also get a weekly stipend based on your career level. This is paid out on Sunday, like any other profession. While the money earned from the weekly stipend doesn't increase if you raise your Singer past level 10, each time you fill the bar the amount of money you get from Gigs will increase.
Getting Started
You can usually take on this profession by looking through the newspaper or on the computer to see if the Singer profession is offered that day, but if it's not you can head to the big park and speak to the Proprietor there and he'll get your Sim started. You'll usually find him close to the stage that you'll be performing on some day, but you can always click on the lot and select 'Call Over Proprietor' if he's not. They will unlock the career for you, and you'll start getting messages for Sing-A-Grams the very next day. You'll have to select a Stage Name at this point, which can be changed at any time by clicking on your Sim. You start your singing career as a Sing-A-Gram Novice, and at level 1 you get access to two Sing-A-Gram jobs and a single song that you can perform.
Raising the Singer Career Level
The job metrics for a Singer are delivering Sing-A-Grams, performing for tips, and completing Gigs. Sing-A-Grams work much like Ghost Hunter jobs, where you get an on screen message that a job is available and an icon on the map. They start around noon and can pop up at any time, until about 10pm (although they sometimes come up even later). The early pay for these jobs isn't that great, but the experience is and if you have a good first day you can easily make it to level 2 and unlock your first gig. Don't count on this though: your average first day is about two jobs. You can easily get to level 2 in spite of this by playing for tips, and you can even supplement your income significantly if you find a good crowd. One of the best places to look is the Coffee Shop. You could also forgo your first day of Sing-A-Grams and just camp out somewhere to perform for tips, and easily get your first career level on your first day. Ignoring Sing-A-Gram requests has no impact on your job performance.
To effectively level your career as a Singer, you should grab every Sing-A-Gram job you can get once they really start coming in steadily and audition for every Gig available to you. Sing-A-Grams will keep you busy for most of the day, but on the bright side: you don't get them on a day you have Gigs (you'll occasionally get one or two after an early show). This allows you to go to your Gig location in the morning, and play for tips until you can set up your stage. You should try to set up your stage as early as possible (an hour and a half to two hours before your show starts) as this will start your show early. This doesn't give you more money, but it does give you a better chance of putting on a really good show and earning a regular weekly gig.
Sing-A-Grams jobs will be worth more money as you progress in level, so you won't outgrow them at least until you unlock Live Show venues at level 5. At this point, you should have a steady gig or two and will have plenty enough Gig options to keep you busy through most of your week. But even at this point, sing-a-grams are worth doing for some quick job experience if you have a day between Gigs. Once you get up to the Private and Large venues, you'll likely want to stop doing any regular gigs at the small time venues to open up your schedule for better paying Gigs. Another thing to watch out for is the SimFest. It's an impromptu "talent show" where you can perform a quick song and earn a bit of cash (the amount depends on the venue, as does your ability to participate). If you win, you get a nice cash prize, a trophy and a nice moodlet for several hours.
Here's what you gain each level, along with the job title:
| Job Title | Pay/Week | Gig Options | "Songs," Jobs and Perks |
| Sing-A-Gram Novice | $275 | Sing-A-Grams, Perform For Tips | "One More Grey Day," Celebration Sing-A-Gram Job, Cheer-Up Sing-A-Gram Job |
| Sing-A-Gram Pro | $340 | Big Parks | "Oogie Fever," Romantic Sing-A-Gram Job |
| Talented Amateur | $400 | Coffeehouses | "New Glitz," You Are Special Sing-A-Gram Job |
| Local Favorite | $532 | none | "Maybe It's Better This Way" |
| Local Phenomenon | $640 | Live Show Venues (MN8) | "It Hurts Both ways" |
| Rising Star | $840 | None | "Don't Say 'Not Now'," Front Stage Kit*, 'Make A Pose' Audience Interaction |
| Headliner | $1140 | Private Venues | "Hot and Foxy" |
| Star | $1480 | Large Venues (Sports Stadium, Event Center) | "Wig Wig Wag," 'Blow Kisses' Audience Interaction |
| Superstar | $2000 | none | "Freeing Myself" |
| Vocal Legend | $3600 | none | "We're Moving Slow" |
* The Front Stage Kit is a lighting/sound monitor fixture that goes directly in front of your Sim. It remains in their personal inventory, but will automatically be placed every time you set up your stage.
Scheduling Gigs and Landing Steady Gigs
Level two unlocks your first venue: the Big Park. To get a Gig, you have to find the Proprietor of the venue and select the "Audition For Gig" interaction. At most venues, locating the Proprietor is easy: he'll be hanging around in the area, and will even have a map tag if you're high enough level to perform at the venue. The Proprietor of the Stadium and Theater (two of the three Big Show venues) require you to click on the blue icon on the building and select the "Summon Proprietor" interaction. He'll come out briefly and you can perform an audition for him.
Auditioning for a Gig doesn't mean you'll get it. It's possible that the venue owner will just tell you that you're just not good enough for his venue, even if he seemed to like your performance. Since your Sim performs a random Sing-A-Gram for him (the last of which you get at level 3), you don't have a great deal of control over how your audition goes. But if your audition goes well, you'll have a Gig scheduled for the next day. You can only schedule one Gig per day, even if your first show is early enough to accommodate another one afterwards. Make sure you get there well before your show so you can set up and start your performance early.
You can't really "fail" during your show like you can in the other two professions, but if you allow your Sim to just perform the song as it is, the audience won't appreciate it as much. Audience members will often throw things at your sim (produce of varying quality, newspapers, and I even had a Nice quality pizza thrown at me once), and will occasionally heckle you, giving you a negative moodlet for a few hours. The best way to avoid this is to put on a good show.
Putting on a Spectacular Show
As I mentioned earlier, starting your show early and taking the Natural Born Performer trait will almost guarantee a good show. However, an amazing show requires a little bit of effort on your part. When you select the song your Sim is going to perform, it unlocks interactions on your Sim for how to perform it. You can cue up options to "Sing Verse," "Sing Chorus" or to "End Song." At level 6 and level 8, you unlock two more interactions that you can throw in there as well. Audiences love it when you mix things up: just like in real life, the best concerts are born out of spontaneity. Don't be afraid to let a song run a bit long while you mix it up. Some of my best shows consisted of two songs, one of which was cut short by time constraints. In between songs, you get the opportunity to interact with the audience. Chatting and talking about your career are your best options, but if your Sim has the Good Sense of Humor trait, your jokes will go over well. Your stage set up is also important, although its quality is based more on its value and variety than its actual appearance.
Since all those people went through all of that trouble to make it to your show, why not give them their money's worth and treat them to a small "show after the show" by performing for tips? You should already have a significant crowd handy, so if you set up soon enough you can snag them before they head out. It will help you improve your relationship with the crowd, and they won't have to lug all of those extra simoleans home with them!
Mastery and Big Simoleons
The goal of a Singer's career, just like the other two professions, is to get steady gigs at the Stadium and the Theater for their $18,000 per show paycheck. If you're itching to move into one of those expensive mansions before you retire, you could also pick up the Brotherhood of Fine Fellows Hall and a couple of the Private venues ($11,000 each show) to supplement your already substantial paycheck. You can perform your fingers to the bone until you've accomplished whatever you had your heart set on (which really shouldn't take that long), before you settle into a nice, comfortable schedule of one or two shows a week to keep the repo man at bay.
The Sims 3 Showtime's Singer career is a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of work for the player...especially early on. Plus the songs are kind of catchy: I'll be singing "Don't Say 'Not Now'," "One More Grey Day" and "Oogie Fever" for months to come. While Singer makes just as much money as Magician and Acrobat, it seems to take a little longer to max the career out. I guess they're right when they say "It's a long way to the top if you want to Rock and Roll."
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3I want to be a singer and actor
What should I do?
