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Home » 2012 » September

No, You Can’t Upload a Video

Can I upload videos and mp3s to my profile?
No, you may not!

Did we just break the cardinal rule and say “no” to our customers?  I guess so.  But I’m not really the type to do what everyone tells me to do, anyway.

We’ve been asked a few times at Street Jelly if an artist can upload their videos and mp3s to their profile.  When an artist is not performing live, understandably, they would like their repertoire of songs and videos to be easily accessible.  We can totally agree with this.

But at the same time, Street Jelly is about LIVE performances.  We don’t allow musicians to broadcast recordings, presumably over and over, to put up some kind of tip jar filling machine.  There is a craft to entertaining the public for tips.  The great performers do it for the love, and the tips come naturally.

We thought long and hard about adding the ability to upload files to a Street Jelly profile.  Our decision was to stick to our guns about LIVE music and not allow uploads.  After all, there are plenty of websites out there for uploading videos and songs.  The last thing we want to be is yet another place on the web where musicians feel obligated to put up their “store front.”

We also believe that the delivery of music will fundamentally change again in the near future.  Digital downloading, piracy, copyright infringement, etc. has made one big unsustainable mess of things.  But one fact hasn’t changed – we humans love our silly love songs.  And we will be seeking that love by any means practical.  (Note I said “practical,” not free.)  It’s our guess that people will seek live music more and more for its true entertainment value.

So Street Jelly is not a digital uploading / downloading site.  Hurray!  We do what we can, however, to help promote our artists.  We made it easy for them to place links to their YouTube channel, ReverbNation, etc. right on their Street Jelly profile.  In fact, we encourage it.  This week, we released a feature that now embeds YouTube videos directly in the artist’s profile page.  Now music lovers can watch artist videos on Street Jelly without having to pop over to another browser window.  This should make life easier for musicians.

Humbled by Recent Endorsement

Bashful PuppyA few days ago, a musician and StreetJelly fan posted this testimonial on our Facebook page.

StreetJelly you are awesome and I LOVE you! ♥♥♥
Let me just say I have been a part of a few “upcoming” music things, and you are the first to be so incredibly supportive and active! I’ve got $16 in my tip jar and I can’t wait to schedule more shows- so fans if you haven’t signed up it’s FREE and musicians you can get in on it too (also free), go listen to music from around the world online LIVE, no more youtube videos!

We’re makin’ history y’all!
– Amelia Y.

What a delight, and we are so humbled by Amelia’s kind words.  Without getting all mushy, it should be known that our goal is to be in this adventure together, with all the artist and fans.  That’s kind of the point of live music anyway – making a connection, face to face.

I’ve chatted with Amelia a few times, she is definitely a cool chick – and an awesome musician.  Don’t forget get to add her, MeiaMusic, to your StreetJelly favorites and catch her next performance.  Let’s fill up her tip jar some more!

Don’t Miss a Performance on StreetJelly

Musician Dressing Room

Image courtesy of TheRadioCafe.com

Our artists spoke, and we listened!

StreetJelly has added a scheduling feature on the website.  Artists can now set a date and time for their next live performance on StreetJelly.  While spontaneous jams are the bread and butter of live entertainment, many of our artists like to prepare ahead of time for their fans.  They need to get their equipment set up, write down a playlist, spread the word to their community, and put on a polished show.  They are effen awesome!!!  And we are happy to obligue their request.

We’ve added a calendar system to the site.  It’s pretty simple, click on the calendar icon Schedule Live Performance Calendar in the upper right hand menu, or click on the “Edit My Schedule” link on the My Account page.  That will take an artist to an easy to use page to fill out a date and time, and a headline message for their show.  The scheduled performance will now appear on the site’s homepage, as well as the artist’s profile page.  Also, we’ll send out an e-mail notification to all the fans listed under the artist’s “favorites” list.

Hope you all enjoy the update.  Keep the ideas coming.  StreetJelly is a site for the musicians and music lovers out there.  Anything we can do to make it better is our goal.