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A Eulogy for Larry L

Posted on March 16, 2022

A few words by Frankie, StreetJelly CEO and Founder.

It’s with heavy hearts to announce the passing of Larry L, a.k.a. Larry Podline66. Larry was a long-time StreetJelly musician and friend. Larry left this world peacefully in his sleep on February 22nd, 2022.

Larry first became a member of StreetJelly on November 27th, 2013. SJ was only a year old back then. With his talent and fan base, he quickly became a mainstay on our streaming platform. Over the years, Larry has streamed a staggering 600+ live shows, 750+ hours of streaming, and was viewed 34,000 times live. This is all in addition to his prolific YouTube channel Podline66.

Many of our StreetJelly viewers have expressed shock in Larry’s passing. Myself included. I was just texting Larry a few weeks ago about the most mundane of topics, musician taxes. This sad news also comes at a time when so many other terrible events are taking place across the world. It’s all a bit overwhelming. But Larry reminds me how one person can touch so many hearts. Music is powerful. Larry showed us we all can change the world. He certainly made his “dent in the universe.”

One of our StreetJelly members, Pam, suggests this powerful original from Larry – Hold My Hand.

Update, Nov 2022:
We came across this video from a few years past. Larry, you are awesome.

Finally, we invite our StreetJelly friends to add your kind thoughts, favorite songs, fun shows, and any memories about Larry in the comment section below. Here are a few to get started:

Sunday afternoons and Larry L’s Street Jelly shows were an unbeatable combo in my life for years. He was such an amazing talent, and possessed the gift of being able to totally engage an audience, as well as play and sing just about any request that was made. It is so hard to believe that voice is silent now. I will miss Larry so much….and I know many others will, too. His extensive YouTube channel is a tribute to his phenomenal talent and deep love of music. Rest in Peace, my friend.
Sleepy Jean

I was deeply saddened today to receive confirmation of the death of Larry Ludwikowski. He was a top tier Street Jelly performer. He was also unique in that he had been streaming live musical performances long before it became common practice.
Putting “PodLine66” in a search or Googling “Larry L” will still result in many of the wonderful recordings that Larry posted online.
To be honest, I did not always see eye to eye with Larry. At one point we were calling childish names to one another. He unfriended me from Facebook before I unfriended him. I am still mad he beat me to the punch. But in all the names I still have one for him; only I will use it differently. “Good ol’ Boy.” He sure was one of the good ones. He is proof that people with different views can collaborate and make wonderful decisions. After ruffling each other’s feathers we have collaborated to help musicians both on and off Street Jelly. He was also there to help me help a mutual friend in their time of need. I hope that in his passing people will know a little of the truth of our relationship and understand that dissenting views is what makes things happen.
I am not sure, but our struggles to get along may have been influential in anonymous tipping on SJ. The Narcissist in me thinks we were part of it. Truth is he always played songs a person knew and loved. Even when I was angry with him I still wanted him to play. Neil Diamond to Miami Sound Machine, I can’t imagine what his repertoire list looked like. Every show was fun. So anonymous tips.
Larry once said performers need supporters and supporters need performers. Then made a joke about a Bra ad. “Support can be beautiful,” he wrote.
I am not sure on this but I believe that Larry still holds the top grossing performer on Street Jelly and has the most viewers at a single show.
It is a sad day for online busking and I know it is hard to understand. Hurt happens in life. Still, I take great solace in the fact that someday I will hear him again. Maybe they will let me play in heaven and we can jam together.
Thank you for teaching me to be a better performer Larry. You will be missed.
Clifton Printy

Larry was, for me, an absolute performer. With a wonderful knack for connecting with his audience. He had a tremendous repertoire, great arrangements, and musicianship.
When I first met Larry online, he was promoting his TREMENDOUS YouTube account. Literally hundreds of well-produced performances spread over several accounts. Due to his tremendous talent, I first recommended StreetJelly.com to him.
Larry took to StreetJelly like a duck to water. He was an ENORMOUS presence on StreetJelly. An absolute top performer, with incredibly popular Sunday and special shows. And he made a couple of bucks for Frankie and Martina too!
But ultimately, Larry, in my view, would want to be remembered for his dedication to social justice. A subject always present in our chats. Goodbye, Larry. And Godspeed. Rest in peace, my friend.
Peter Bensen

I stumbled upon Larry’s videos probably in the spring of 2008 on YouTube, the first one I found was “Dancing in the Moonlight.” I was hooked, there was someone singing “my music”, the best of the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s. I dropped him a note and he answered me. I drove my late husband and daughter to distraction with all the music, no surprise since I still own over 400 45’s that I collected since age 12. My late husband decided that he wanted to throw me a surprise 60th birthday and returning to the world from a bunch of surgeries party in August of 2008. He found Larry’s address, wrote him a letter, hired him and his friend Steve Sitton, it was all set up. A restaurant called the Candle Light Inn, in Catonsville MD was the site, unfortunately of late this was a Victorian style home with separate dining rooms that has been turned into a funeral home. He had open bar, buffet, roses for me and the folks who helped take care of me, cake, etc., and as a surprise for me invited Larry to play. His speech was that he could “never sing for my wife”, all the good ones are dead, Elvis, Bing Crosby, but he found someone who could. He got me good, Larry was great, brought me roses and we began a “friendship”. Larry was not easy to have as a friend, we had our ups and downs but I would never dispute his talent. His 1450 videos have gotten me through some rough times and the StreetJelly shows were a delight. I will seriously miss him and his music, RIP dear Larry.
Susan M Randt

StreetJelly Updates 2020

Posted on March 16, 2020

StreetJelly co-founder, Martina, tackles a number of the questions and comments observed recently in chat and in our Contact-Us messages.

StreetJelly Updates 2020

Over the last months the StreetJelly community has grown and we would like to welcome all new members as well as express our appreciation for those of you who have been with us for many years. No matter whether you are a musician, viewer or both, your presence and support mean the world to us.

The last year brought many changes to the Streaming World. Browsers have stopped supporting Flash. Other technologies like RTC, OBS and external streaming devices changed some of the ways we used to stream or watch a stream. In the old times when Flash was the main way of streaming, the responsibility of a technically well functioning stream was lying on the end of the musician’s computer. As long as a musician had a solid broadcast almost any viewer who downloaded Flash was able to watch the show regardless of the viewer’s computer capabilities. With the newer technologies this scenario changed. The technical requirements on the viewer’s computer are higher now as well. The biggest issue is bandwidth. RTC streams at higher bandwidth than Flash. OBS streams at even much higher bandwidth than RTC. Just to put this into perspective I would like to give you some examples. Most RTC shows are broadcasted between 500 and 700 kbps. The OBS broadcasts depend on the setting the musician chooses. Even at our recommended setting the average broadcast is between 1100 and 1300 kbps. This explains why some viewers can watch RTC shows but have trouble viewing OBS shows. We have a few performers who exceed the recommended broadcast settings. That can lead to the performer losing connection during the show and/or a higher number of viewers not having enough bandwidth to watch the show. Another important thing to know for performers streaming in RTC is the necessity of a steady internet connection. I would like to address this because many times I see comments from musicians saying that they have sufficient bandwidth. RTC, in contrary to Flash (which used a steady stream), is a method which streams in packets. For exactly that reason not only the bandwidth but also the steadiness of the internet connection are very important.

The following troubleshooting tips are for viewers who have trouble watching a broadcast: If you have no video please check that you either selected auto play in your browser toolbar (instructions above the player) or press the play button inside the broadcast window. If you have no sound please check the sound meter inside the broadcast window and the sound setting on your computer. If your broadcast is cutting out please make sure all other windows on your device are closed, especially those which have a lot of video or graphics running like Facebook. This is also a tip for performers who lose connection during their broadcast. All the video or graphics opened will use up your bandwidth. Even other devices on the same internet connection can affect your own device in use. If a family member in your household watches a TV stream or social media videos, your own machine can be affected. If your internet capabilities are great but you still have trouble watching or broadcasting it can be the actual hardware of your computer, for example the CPU might simply not be powerful enough. In a scenario like that all you can really do is apply the same principles as with bandwidth issues and close all other windows.

Since I was talking about troubles watching a broadcast I would like to quickly address the topic of buffering. Buffering is a natural occurrence during the streaming process and not a defect. It should only be viewed as a problem when the buffering leads to frequent interruptions in the broadcast. StreetJelly is proud to offer a streaming quality which far exceeds the broadcast quality of other sites. This leads to slightly higher technical requirements for our users. It is our goal to offer excellent broadcast quality but also accommodate users with lower bandwidth and slower computers. Unfortunately there will be a very small number of people who will not be able to view or broadcast due to a lack of their personal technical capabilities.

Many of you have the 24hr-Replay function available to you. This will allow you to keep a DVR style performance of your show on the StreetJelly homepage for 24 hours. This function resets every 72 hours and needs to be turned on individually for each show. In case you need to restart your show for technical or any other reasons you can reuse the replay function within 3 hours of the original start time. In that case it also needs to be turned on again for the restarted broadcast.

For those of you watching StreetJelly on the phone, we want to let you know that we made no changes on our end. If your screen looks different than it used to or the chat is in a different spot, it is a change made by your phone company.

Some of you might have seen performers using the Jukebox function. This enables a musician to charge for a show. As a viewer you can stop in and catch a free sneak peek. After a short while you will be asked to pay a few tokens to watch the rest of the show. This feature was originally created for venues but we extended this option to some musicians.

It has been a joy over the recent months to watch the StreetJelly community grow. To provide this free streaming service is a labor of love and we are putting our time and hearts into this endeavor every single day. In a time of great division in the world, music is an international language and art form which unites so many of us. We are excited to offer shows of every style and length. Some musicians like to play for 30 minutes and others for hours. Certain shows feature a musician with an instrument and an often intimate connection to the audience. Others performances contain the use of backdrop technology and backtracks or offer shows directly from venues. We welcome and encourage various types of broadcasts and admire many StreetJelly artists for their skills regardless what their performance style is. No matter what your personal preference there will be a show for you. Diversity makes this world and StreetJelly a better place. We provide a free service which enables all of you to drop in on a show and check whether that is something you might like to watch and listen to for a while. If it’s not your cup of tea you can just leave and move on to the next performer.

Stay safe and healthy
Martina

Roy Clark – A Tribute

Posted on November 20, 2018

Special guest post submitted by StreetJelly musician, Clifton Printy!

The Greatest Guitar Player in the World!

Roy Clark, ‘Hee Haw’ Host And Country Music Ambassador, Dies At 85

I honestly can’t tell you when it began. I was literally that young. My entire life has been built around Country Music Legend Roy Clark. My moral attitude, my sense of humor, my taste in music all came from the master himself.

Many Years ago I met a man in the Adirondacks, “want to be a great performer?” Sonny O’dell said to me over a beer, “Be Sincere!” Then he handed me his guitar and said I can’t play this thing anymore. That’s what I saw in Roy Clark. He was honestly giving from within himself and it showed. I will never be Roy Clark but I will always want to be. Every expression and gesture going toward his goal.

Malaguena encapsulated my mind that led 40 years later to study of classical and flamenco guitar. Yesterday When I was Young plays in a loop in the back of mind and speaks of nostalgia from decades past. Alabama Jubilee led to my love of artists like Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed.

Roy introduced me to Rag, Blues, Swing and most of all Country Music; from the Carters to Cash, Haggard to Hank Williams Sr.

It all started in front of that 13 inch black and white TV. ”Yesterday When I was Young…” playing still in my mind. Good by Roy Clark.

He was that type of entertainer! He was the most amazing guitar player I have ever seen. His faces while he performed insighted childish laughter from my soul. His jokes were easy on the conscience but side-splittingly funny. If you were to ask me, I would tell you that I wanted to be a performer like him. “Performer” because he was much more than a great guitar player.

A compliment to music, Roy Clark will be missed. He was the greatest guitar player in the world!

–Clifton Printy

Optimize your Broadcasting and Viewing

Posted on March 5, 2018

Special guest post submitted by StreetJelly co-founder, Martina!

HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR BROADCASTING AND VIEWING EXPERIENCE ON STREETJELLY

StreetJelly offers multiple broadcasting options to accommodate various technical capabilities and preferences. Each broadcasting option is a different technology and requires certain settings on your computer. As addressed in previous blogs, there have been changes in streaming technology during the last year or two. The once widely common and very user friendly Flash-based method is being quickly replaced by WebRTC and OBS. While Flash broadcasts in a fairly continuous stream, WebRTC broadcasts in packets (picture them like chunks) and requires more bandwidth and very steady bandwidth. The overall steadiness is key to a smooth, uninterrupted broadcast. A musician can have overall very good bandwidth (600 to 700 kbps) but still experience broadcasting issues if there are drastic, sudden drops.

Over the course of the last year the overall, use of bandwidth across the internet has increased immensely. Many people are using more bandwidth than ever due to cultural changes like watching TV and movies streamed over the internet. The usage of other surrounding households can affect your personal bandwidth, especially if you are using cable internet. Being in an urban area is not a sure ticket to a great internet connection anymore. Densely populated areas, apartment complexes, hotels and schools are often a victim of huge swings in bandwidth usage. These fast increases by your neighbors can temporarily affect your own bandwidth. You might also be dealing with intentional throttling of bandwidth by your internet provider. Musicians and viewers can achieve an enjoyable and stress free musical experience with just a few clicks of your mouse that can make all the difference.

“Photon” app on iPhone, click the Flash icon

Depending on which broadcast method a musician chooses, a performance is either mobile ready or requires Flash to view. Most shows are mobile ready which means they can be viewed on mobile devices without any additional adjustments. Flash broadcasts require you to “allow” Flash on your mobile device. You can do this by installing an app like Photon or Puffin. After the app is installed Flash still needs to be activated by clicking on the Flash symbol. Depending on your device you might have to do this each time you view a show in Flash. Viewers using desktops also need to allow Flash. Since major browser companies turned off Flash, it needs to be turned on in your browser settings. Many times when browser updates are downloaded the Flash setting will be turned off and needs to be reset after each update. This is a browser imposed inconvenience and not initiated by StreetJelly. By hovering over the artist’s picture on our home page you can tell whether a performance requires Flash. If you see a mobile symbol, the show is mobile ready. If not, the show requires Flash.

Here are some small and simple adjustments you can try for a smooth broadcasting and viewing experience, especially those of you dealing with low or inconsistent bandwidth.

Check that you have Flash installed (a browser update might have uninstalled it even if you just checked a few days ago). You can do this in your browser settings (generally under Plugins) and enable Flash if necessary.

Turn off all other devices and programs in your household which affect your bandwidth, especially everything using large amounts like watching TV or programs like Facebook.

There are 2 volume meters, one on your computer and one on the bottom of the broadcast screen. If you have no sound, please check that neither one is turned off. For musicians broadcasting, check whether you selected the correct sound source. If you broadcast through a mixer this device will become your sound source.

If a viewer experiences issues with broadcasts cutting out, it can either be a bandwidth issue from the musician or an issue with viewer’s computer; such as a slow computer with little memory. You can try to switch to a different browser and see whether that might work better for you. It is very important to turn off all other programs which have a large amount of graphics or video features. Your computer might simply not be fast enough to handle the StreetJelly stream and Facebook feed at the same time. If multiple viewers have trouble watching a certain performer, the problem lies generally on the musician’s end. In this case a bandwidth issue is the most likely cause.

We are looking forward to your next visit to StreetJelly.com and would like to thank musicians and viewers alike for being part of this wonderful community.

5 Useful tips you need to know before buying wireless headphones

Posted on January 9, 2018

“Member Blog Series” guest post submitted by StreetJelly member: Vincent Hill

5 Useful tips you need to know before buying wireless headphones

In this guide, we will take a look at some of the useful tips you really need to know before buying wireless headphones. Wireless headphones offer multiple benefits to users; besides providing the listener with quality Bluetooth features, they also offer great audio capability.

Wireless headphones are simply those headphones that connect to a device like stereo speakers, a Smartphone, gaming console, television, computer and other electronic devices using a cable or wire.

Sound quality is good with latest Bluetooth versions
Over the years, some users have confirmed that Bluetooth headphones offer poor sound quality.
However, with growing demand, much emphasis was placed on making sure those latest versions of Bluetooth were produced with more quality digital sound.

Before you buy, check out for the sound quality of the Bluetooth versions, and see if it is something you can be comfortable with. Go ahead and make the purchase if you truly love the Bluetooth.

Battery Life is important
Every wireless headphone should have great power supply, which will come in the form of either standard disposable batteries or built-in rechargeable battery.

When searching for a Bluetooth headphone to buy, always go for the one that has a battery life of around 8-12 hours. There are some that may even give longer hours of service; some can last up to 40 hours of listening.

Normally, a battery will take less than 4 hours to charge, but can last for a longer period of time. So, battery life of the wireless headphone is very essential.

NFC (Near Field Communications)
It is extremely easy to set up Bluetooth headphones. It is easier for you to pair them with your audio device- laptop, tablet or Smartphone. This can be done through built-in Bluetooth software in the device.

During the set up process, you will have to enter a pass code. NFC is a powerful technology that enables many wireless systems to communicate better with each other. So, buy the wireless headphones that can be used with NFC-enabled device.

Remote in the earpieces
A lot of wired headphones come with a wired remote on the cable, which can be used to take and/or reject phone calls, and stop, start, skip music tracks. Often, they come with built-in microphones.

But, wireless headphones don’t have these features, instead they come with microphones on the earpieces and basic control features. Make sure you test the accessibility of these controls when buying wireless headphones. Research says that wireless headphones with remote in the earpieces perform better. So, feel free to buy them.

Usability is important
This is an essential requirement, when you are looking for a headphone to buy, make sure you determine the amount of money you can spend on it. If your budget is $100, then browse the internet for headphones that can be purchased at that price or under $100. Just like most products, you will get value for what you pay for.

Good wireless headphones under $100 will certainly perform better, and will come with good sound quality, but more expensive ones will surely come with advanced functions such as high resolution audio, extra bass and noise isolation.
Finally, for many reasons wireless headphones are easy to use, safe and highly convenient. Before buying a wireless headphone, make sure you consider the brand, style and price, so that you will make the right selection.

Research has proven that wireless headphones are more functional than wired headphones. If you are someone that likes watching television or listening to music, then wireless headphones is ideal for you.

Was this article truly helpful? Kindly share your ideas in the comment box below.
More headphone reviews here!

Fix Audio Sync in OBS

Posted on September 14, 2017

Ever notice a live stream that has audio a little off from the video? We’ll help you fix that when broadcasting with OBS Studio.

You often hear audio issues called “lag.” However, that term gets confusing since many people use it as a catch-all phrase. Let’s define when people say lag, but really mean…

Latency Latency is the term we use to describe the time it takes from the broadcaster to send his or her stream up to the internet, travel across the planet, and get pulled down to the viewer’s computer. Many factors determine how long this can take, anywhere from a few seconds to 20 or more seconds. This time is based on the internet speed of the broadcaster AND the viewer. Different viewers will experience the live broadcast at different times than other viewers. As a broadcaster, you all have experienced this when you ask your audience a question and have to wait until they respond. Improving latency is a factor of improving your internet connection (upgrading to a better ISP or broadband connection); and reducing the amount of data your stream (turn down your broadcast quality). We’ll go into more detail about improving latency in another blog.

Audio Sync Audio Sync is today’s topic. It is the synchronization of the audio with the video. When the audio and video get “out of sync,” you witness the phenomenon where you see the lips move but hear the voice slightly later, or vice versa. It is like watching a badly dubbed foreign movie. There can be a number of contributing factors why this occurs, but the chief reason is a slow computer / CPU. It takes more cycles, or computing power, to process video than it takes to process audio. The audio is often ready to stream slightly ahead of the video. When a chunk of audio data gets combined with a chunk of video data that represents two different points in time, the broadcast will be out of sync.

OBS is great broadcasting software and handles many sophisticated internal features. It typically requires more computing power than simple one-cam broadcasting from within a browser. Audio Sync issues do appear more often when broadcasting with OBS. However, there is an easy fix to this problem (without having to upgrade your computer to a monster size CPU and GPU).

In OBS, adjust the “Audio Delay” to bring the timing of the audio precisely in with the video.

On the main screen, click on the Audio Mixer. (Below are two images, one from OBS v18 and one from v20. They slightly changed the way to open the Audio Mixer between updates.)

OBS v18 – click the Mixer gear icon in middle of screen

v18 – Audio Mixer Icon, click image to enlarge

OBS v20+ – click the Mixer gear icon next to your audio device, then choose Advanced Audio Properties

v20+ – Audio Mixer Icons, click image to enlarge

Audio Mixer Menu, click image to enlarge

Find the audio device you want to adjust and enter the number of milliseconds (MS) to slow down the sound.

Audio Delay, click image to enlarge

Recommended Approach:

First, fire up your webcam and microphone. You should see the video output in the main screen of OBS.
Start Recording your stream locally. In other words, DO NOT START live streaming.
Perform a short bit by speaking slowly into the camera so you can watch your lip-sync closely later. Clapping your hands is another good technique to dial in the sync.
Watch the recorded video to get a sense how far off the sync is. Most likely, you will hear the audio first, and then see the video catch up. It’s tricky at first to tell which way the sync is messed up (sometimes the video comes first and the audio is behind). But you will get the hang of it.
Adjust the Audio Delay for your specific mic by adding a number of milliseconds. Start with 30ms.
Record another video and check the sync again.
Repeat this process until you can not notice any sync problems. Use 30ms increments when adjusting. For instance, if on the first try 30ms did not fix the sync, next time try 60ms, then 90ms, etc.
Last, you can also adjust the Video Delay in OBS v20+. Same principle applies here, too. Adjust small amounts, record, check, repeat.

When you are all done, you are ready to live stream. OBS will remember your delay settings for the next broadcast. But it is good practice to occasionally recheck as your audio/mic setup may have changed in your studio, your computer may have upgraded to newer software, and so on.

A note about “video delay” and your studio sound setup. For musicians who use a sound board, mixers, auto-tuning, delay pedals, etc; the audio delay may be attributed to the processing in the sound system itself – and not in OBS or your computer. This is generally the cause when video comes in first and the audio comes in behind. The fix here is to delay the video so it slows down to match the audio.

Jellypalooza 5 – 2017

Posted on August 9, 2017

Special post by StreetJelly CEO and Founder: Frank Podlaha

Happy Birthday, StreetJelly!

It is with great honor that StreetJelly has reached its 5th year – uhh, its 5th Jellyversary! August 15th, 2012 StreetJelly launched the musician-first, online busking, website concept. What a wonderful and crazy five years it has been!

As you know, each year we celebrate our birthday with the live streaming festival: Jellypalooza. This year, the festival falls on August 20th (we always do it on a Sunday). We encourage all our musicians to play on Sunday, have a good time, and stop in to watch the other acts. Viewers, sit back and enjoy. Everyone, wear a tie-dye or groovy palooza shirt.

This past year has been an interesting one. Our biggest focus at SJ has been the ever changing technology of the internet. First, we’ve been upgrading our broadcasting methods to meet the phasing out of Flash and (npapi) Plugins by the major browsers. It’s a lot of work that only gets us even to where we began – not always the favorite thing to do in business. But we hope the transition to WebRTC and OBS Studio goes smoothly for all.

Second, we have added a number of broadcasting features this past year: 24-hour Replays, broadcast recording, local black-out streaming (pro-level), juke-box tipping (pro-level), and so on. We continue rolling out these features in phases.

“Peace ☮ Love ♥ Streaming”

The tag-line for Jellypalooza has always been “Peace, Love and Streaming.” Now, more than ever, this is so important. SJ is a music venue, here to provide a world-wide stage for independent musicians; a way to share and build friendships; and hopefully a method for musicians to make a few bucks for their art. We are here for the of love music, to spread that love, and hopefully make the world a tiny bit more peaceful. Please don’t forget: Peace… Love… and Streaming.

And now back to our usual fun and silly antics…

Many thanks to the Real Life Heavies for their help on this video. Check them out… http://reallifeheavies.com

Jellynamite!

5 Best Music Android Apps of 2017

Posted on August 3, 2017

“Member Blog Series” guest post submitted by StreetJelly member: Vincent Hill

5 Best Music Android Apps of 2017

Modern day iPhones and android phones come with a lot of features such as stereo speakers, audio capabilities and Dolby Atmos support. It is not surprising that people store most music on their smart phones.

If you are searching for best android apps for free music downloads, then you don’t have to worry, because there are lots of options in the play store, so all you need is just to make your own collection. To help you make the right selection, here are 5 best music android apps of 2017 you can use:

Shuttle Music Player

This is a unique music player that deserves attention at all times. This app has an appealing user interface, and it can be customized to the hilt with themes. Shuttle Music player includes support for sleep timer, built-in 6 band equalizer, embedded lyrics, gapless playback and many more. Although it has a free version, but the paid version comes with added features like ID3 tag editing, extra themes, folder browsing, Chromecast support etc.

Media Monkey

Media Monkey has so many features such as podcasts, audio books, and the capacity to sort music by composer, instead of sorting it by just artists. Media monkey has amazing stuff like an equalizer. It is extremely unique due to its capacity to sync your music library from your phone to your computer and vice versa. This app has a simple interface.

Poweramp

This is one of the best music player apps for most android users. People are fond of using it because it comes with themes you can easily download directly from Google play store. Also, it comes with sleek interface. It’s effective and highly efficient. It supports all kinds of playlists and includes many features like cross fade, gapless playback, tag editing, widgets and lots of customization settings.

Some users have confirmed that poweramp is the most popular music players on android. It comes with a complex interface; this is the reason it supports all kinds of musical formats and playlist formats you can ever imagine such as m3u, ogg, wav, wma, flac, alac etc.

To sum up this analysis, do you want to get the most amazing music player on your tablet or android phone? Then check out for Poweramp music player. The free version is available for 14 days for your usage, after which you can subscribe for the paid version.

Black Player music player

This is one of the reliable music player apps, due to its UI and balance of features. The app really looks amazing due to its minimal and dark theme, sleek transitions, and tabbed layout. With it, it will be easy for you to customize anything you want without issues.

You can as well change the font, animation, styling of the colors or how the sliding menu looks. It comes with an in-built equalizer, but you can still use an external equalizer. Also, it supports crossfading, gapless playback, sleep timer, ID3 tag editor, and capacity to edit and view embedded lyrics.

Neutron Music Player

This is another popular music app, which comes with many interesting features such as 32/64 bit audio rendering engine. Users are overtly happy with it, because it enables music to sound better. Other amazing features include, but not limited to more unique file types, audiophile specific features, in-built equalizer etc. Although, Neutron music player is expensive, but so many people are confirming that it is a highly recommended go-to-music player app you can ever have.

Was this article helpful? Share your thoughts with us below!

Additional info: https://alltechtrix.com/best-mp3-music-downloader-apps-android/

WebRTC Streaming Survey Findings …and news

Posted on April 23, 2017

In April 2017, we sent out a survey to the streaming musicians that have used the WebRTC broadcasting method. The questions were simple, “did WebRTC work for you?” “What kind of browser / computer did you use?” And so on.

For the hundreds of surveys we sent out, response was above 60%. Thank you all so much, that is a great response rate for any survey.

The main question, “how well the WebRTC technology worked for everyone,” is what we really wanted to know. It also had the most interesting answer: from a scale of 1 to 7 (1 being it didn’t work at all, and 7 being it worked great) …the responses were evenly spread from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Statistically speaking, that’s really hard to make a conclusion from that answer. Normally, one would expect a rating-scale answer to skew to one side or the other, or in the middle. A statistician or survey-guru would probably conclude the question was flawed. But the question was pretty simple, did it work or not.

So what does it mean for us? Well, best explanation is that it confirms what we already know: the new WebRTC technology is not working perfectly and to our complete satisfaction (more about that in a minute).

Some of the other questions in the survey; browser type, operating system, webcam type, were meant to help correlate if those who had problems were using any particular type of platform. Again, the answers were spread wide. No correlation to hardware or system could be concluded.

One question did stand out with a surprise answer. The question was whether a musician relies on viewers in the chat for streaming help, or whether they use a trusted friend or techie. The sliding scale, 1 to 7, was skewed far to the “rely on any viewers in the chat” side. In fact, not a single person answered #7 (as of 4/22) that they use “a trusted friend, colleague, or tech person.”

In our opinion, this is quite a surprise. You all know the admins on StreetJelly are also active in the chat community. We have a different perspective of what’s going on because we also have access to the video servers, bandwidth logs, etc. We see many disruptive comments in the chat about video quality, bandwidth, etc. that are just not technically true. As much as we try to help, those false comments get repeated over and over again. I hate to say it this way, but it’s much like the “fake news” phenomenon of late. The surprise answer to this questions means many musicians are unknowingly getting and listening to conflicting advice. We at StreetJelly need to step up our game and get more help out to those that need it. But we also need your help. Nothing disrupts a show more than the same misinformed chat viewers constantly complaining about someone’s low bandwidth. We can all help by explaining to the viewers that we understand the internet provider and networks are slow – and there is nothing we can change right now in the middle of the performance. {rant over}

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Survey conclusion and a bit of news… We are not 100% satisfied with the reliability and success of WebRTC, yet. It’s new technology, for sure, and we fully expect many improvements from the browser makers in the months to come. But we also have the looming deadlines (not yet exactly known) when all plugins and Flash will be discontinued from all browsers …eventually. We do not want to be relying on only one broadcast method, specifically WebRTC, when that day arrives.

StreetJelly will be releasing an alternative broadcasting method in the coming weeks by allowing musicians to stream directly to the StreetJelly Cloud with the OBS Studio broadcasting software platform. This is a significant change in how StreetJelly approaches the complexity of video streaming to our musicians. We always strive to make it as easy as possible – one click and it should just work. OBS Studio is fantastic software, and it far surpasses other broadcasting software like Adobe’s FMLE. However, it is much more complicated to use than a simple webpage click-a-few-buttons approach.

OBS Studio is stand alone, open source, free software you must download and install on your computer. StreetJelly will give you all the info, URLs, and credentials it will take to connect up to our cloud. There will still be a “broadcaster page” on StreetJelly for the musician. This page will bind the stream coming from OBS to a show and chat on StreetJelly. We will try to make it as simple as possible for those who wants to tackle OBS, and provide as much help and tutorials as we can.

This is a major change in streaming for some. But for those wanting to take it on, it also brings with it many new features to your performance. A few examples include multi-cameras, video transitions and fades, alternate audio sources, audio mixing, and so on. Exciting times ahead.

We will be releasing the OBS broadcasting in phases. Stay tuned.


StreetJelly BLOG: Community News, Video Streaming, Online Busking, and more…