• For every item listed for sale in XStreetSL, vendors will be charged L$10 a month.
• For every free item listed in XStreetSL, vendors will be charged L$99 a month.

These are in addition to the commission of up to 10% for items sold via XStreetSL that the Lindens already collect.
I won’t go into the alleged justification for this policy, as it’s laughable and specious. The comment thread for the post contains several alternative motivations for the policy; a power-play by large-scale vendors trying to drive out competition, a money-grab by LL desperate to squeeze money from the platform, and so on. All of these are plausible, each is more plausible than any of the official reasons for the change.
Whatever the motivation, the exodus from XStreetSL has begun.
As a vendor with products on XStreetSL, the new policy effectively wipes out my entire business. My top-selling item goes is listed for L$10. I sell, on average, one of these per month. under the new policy, I will pay L$13 a month to maintain that listing. Unless the policy changes, I see no alternative except to pull my listings from XStreetSL.com.
I’ll be looking hard at Apez.bin for the next few days, but at the moment it looks like an in-world storefront is the best alternative.

I’m also a land-holder in SL. I’ve got some rental space (mostly unoccupied) and operate a small low-traffic sandbox on a mainland sim that’s relatively low lag (I own most of it.)

There are several spaces on my land that either are currently set up or could be used as live performance space. I’d be more than happy to let performers use them.  I know that there are performers who feel that they should be payed by the venue. I don’t have a problem with that per se, but I’m not interested in being a “venue.” I’m not interested in making money, and I’m not in a position to offer the kind of support/infrastructure that running a venue requires. I’m not looking to drive traffic. I just like live music, and want to encourage it in SL. 

So if you’re out there, looking for a space to hold a gig, drop me a notecard in-world or, comment here, and let’s see if we can come up with a place for you to play.

• Why isn’t SL’s instant message platform Jabber? Why doesn’t it interoperate with other IM platforms that are pervasive today?
• Why isn’t SL’s voice chat platform Skype, or at least some open standard-compliant voice platform?
• Why aren’t SL Avatar and group profiles integrated with Facebook and/or MySpace?

If you are interested in the artists and recordings heard, many of them are available for download to subscribers of Emusic at http://www.emusic.com.