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Upgrade Your Flash Version

Posted on March 7, 2014

We are upgrading our broadcaster software to use Flash version 11.4 or higher.

Background: The StreetJelly broadcaster software uses Flash Media Live Encoder (FMLE) for streaming. This all happens automatically for musicians on StreetJelly behind the scenes. Most websites use this technology for streaming, as well. Many times, people cringe when they hear “Flash” website. They think of those tacky animations from 10 years ago. We do not use any part of that, but only the FMLE portion to connect to ones camera and microphone.

The FMLE comes as part of the Flash software installed on most desktops: Windows, Apple Macbook, etc. It is typically not available for mobile devices: Android phones and tablets no longer support Flash, and iPhone/iPads never supported it.

Currently: The StreetJelly broadcasting page for musicians uses features in the FMLE that require a minimum of Flash v10.3 or higher. We have been at this version for some time to accommodate a few stragglers who may have trouble with older audio equipment. This version produces a stream format, however, that can only be viewed by other Flash devices. Hence, StreetJelly can only be viewed easily on desktops with Flash. It’s much more complicated to view performances with other devices without 3rd party software, side-jacking, etc.

The Upgrade: We are upgrading the musician’s broadcasting page with features found in FMLE v11.4 (or higher) that will use newer and improved streaming formats. Specifically, we’re moving to an mp4 h.264 codec. This will allow StreetJelly to transmit in mp4 (h.264 + aac) to mobile devices. Yes, this is part of a larger project to build mobile apps of StreetJelly!

So what should I do? Probably nothing. Most everyone has Flash installed on their computers to automatically update (its default setting). The current Flash version is v12.0.0 (March 2014). Click this link to see what version of Flash you have installed. Only a few folks may have turned off the auto-update to keep them at a specific older version. This is most likely due to newer Flash versions not being compatible with older microphone equipment and sound drivers. To that point, those folks need to take a systematic approach to upgrading. They should install the highest version they can that still works with their equipment. Below are some links to get started.

Links

To install the latest version of Flash:
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

To install older versions of Flash:
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/ Choose “click here for older versions…” below on that page.

StreetJelly Test Flash 11 page (musician account only):
http://www.StreetJelly.com/test_flash11

StreetJelly Musicians Play from their Heart

Posted on February 17, 2014

“Another delight happened in StreetJelly Land. SJ Musician DannyC donates his tips to the Wounded Warrior Project. As a veteran, this kind gesture really hits home. It is also a great testament to the musicians and viewers on StreetJelly that support one another, support live music, and nourish a community of wonderful people.”
~Frank Podlaha

The proceeds for my 1st month on StreetJelly resulted in 92.80 of tips of which we rounded the charity check up to $100.00 even and mailed it to The Wounded Warrior Project last week. Thanks to SJ and of course all of you who found it in your heart to tip at my sets. We sincerely appreciate you guys!

Danny Campo Donation to Wounded Warrior Project,
Facebook, February 15th, 2014

What is a Family Friendly Site?

Posted on February 17, 2014

“What is a family friendly site, Frank?”

A few people have asked me this question, and I suspect many more are thinking the same thing. Here at StreetJelly, we often tell newcomers that we are a “Family Friendly Website.” Inevitably, that has caused some confusion as the definition of family-friendly is as diverse as the community on StreetJelly.

First, let me say that family-friendly on StreetJelly is not a set of specific rules about what words or phases someone can or can not say on air or in the chat. It is, however, all about common decency and respect for others.

Once upon a time, we were taught as children about a crazy thing called manners. Some say manners are lost today, and especially lost in the online world of social media. I say they aren’t. It’s not hard to remember when online, or in regular public, that we think about our behavior and how we are perceived by others. When online, it is very easy to offend others and make ourselves look like idiots. This is made true by the lack of full context in our communications (body language, abbreviated text, misspellings, etc.). Family-friendly means to think about what you say …or type …before you spew it out to the world. One can be incredibly rude even if they don’t use any swear words. (Yes, I’ve heard a few very offensive and despicable people use the excuse, “but I don’t swear.” As if that makes horrible behavior ok. Oy!)

So the obvious answer is profanity, lewdness, pornography, and gratuitous disrespect are not allowed on StreetJelly.

We are not trying to “silence people,” impose censorship, or restrict someone’s right to express themselves. Far from it. Let me repeat, that is as far from the truth as possible. I will defend anyone’s right to freedom of speech, regardless of what country they are from. I think my pedigree as a soldier and veteran speaks to my resolve. But I will also vigorously defend everyone’s right to enjoy music and art without the disruption of a few who can not conduct themselves properly in public.

Here are some simple guidelines to make this easier to understand.

Remember George Carlin’s “7 Dirty Words you can’t say on TV.” Stay away from them.
Use the movie rating of PG-13 as a guide for topics discussed in shows and chat.

And for musicians, we give you much more latitude for your music. If your art includes a few swear words, dark topics, etc., you are fine. We are not judging anyone’s art. Please take a sensible approach, however, to the diversity of the StreetJelly audience, would they likely be offended, and perhaps give them a warning of your content.

Thank you everyone for letting me rant for a few minutes.

Frank Podlaha,
Founder and CEO of StreetJelly
a.k.a King Frankie

ps – For all the narcissists out there that think I wrote this article specifically to you, that is incorrect. No wait, if you think that – then YES – this article is totally about you.

The Tape from Hell – War Music

Posted on January 31, 2014

Many of you have seen this past week, Frank Podlaha (a.k.a. Frankie) and StreetJelly won first prize in the 2014 Tennessee Veterans Business Association Business-Plan Competition. Folks have been asking about Frank’s service in the U.S. Army and his time as a helicopter crew chief in Operation Desert Storm. Here’s one of his stories…

“No shit, there I was…” All good war stories should start like that. So there I was, or more precisely, there we were: Saudi Arabia, December 1990, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, somewhere in the desert north of Hafar Al Batin, south of the Iraqi border. My buddies and I spent our days maintaining AH-1F Cobra Attack Helicopters. We were crew chiefs, or more accurately, helicopter mechanics and aviation crewmen. We were getting our aircraft ready for the impending ground invasion for Operation Desert Storm. Although at the time, it was known as Operation Desert Shield.

We worked out of the back of a 5-ton Army truck converted into a small tool shop. It was jammed packed in every corner with wrenches, sockets, gauges, you name it. It had everything we needed to work on the helicopters. But the one most important thing it didn’t have: music! That’s ok, though, as we brought along our own portable am/fm radio cassette player. I can’t remember the brand – but think of a smaller one-speaker Emerson type model. It was physically the size of a breakfast cereal box.

Frankie, Gulf War, 1991

We had plenty of C-size batteries to run the mini boom-box, plus we had AC power whenever we stopped rolling and cranked up the generator. Six or seven guys hung out daily in the back of this truck. We all had various musical tastes, but for the most part we all liked the rock classics. At the time, the best pop music could give us was “Ice-Ice Baby.” I know!

After a few weeks of being in-country, we ran through playing all our cassettes ad nauseam. No, there were no radio stations way out in the desert, not even the propaganda station Baghdad Betty. “Play this cassette.” “No, we just heard that, play this.” “No way.” “Don’t even think about putting that junk on.” That’s what our musical decisions were reduced to.

Then it happened, purely out of frustration or musical despair, Mike Carper …or was it Bryan Benz, laid down the musical law and said while holding up the Rolling Stones Hot Rocks tape, “we will only listen to this cassette in this truck until we get back home!” Ooooh-kay. Sounded like absolute silliness to play one tape for the rest of our tour, but what the hey!

And that’s what we did, play that double-sided greatest-hits album over and over again in that truck. And I mean over and over and over and over again. FIVE MONTHS STRAIGHT! At first, it was kind of fun, then a bit annoying. But after a while, it was truly an adventure in insanity to see if we could really pull it off. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months.

We repaired the tape at least five times. Yep, you remember those old cassette players – 1 out of 20 tapes got chewed up inside. Not a problem for us, we were ass-kicking Cobra “snake doctors.” Surely we can repair a cassette tape. And we did with a pair of jewelers screw drivers and a little bit of scotch tape. We spliced that recording back together each time.

We traveled 100s of miles through the desert, perhaps 1000s. We crossed the boarder into Iraq, entered Kuwait from its north, crossed back into Iraq. Many sleepless nights, many long days – but we always had Hot Rocks to listen to. The tape sounded horrible after time. But it didn’t matter, flip it over and let’s listen to it again!

There you have it, we never played another tape in the that truck the entire war. The cassette made it back with us to Germany in 1991. We christened it “The Tape from Hell” and eventually mounted it on a plaque. The team gave it to Mike, our Sergeant, as a gift when he left the Army.

…and yes, I know every word on that dang album. And to this day, I have not listened to Hot Rocks since. ~frankie

“Drum roll please… [brrprrprrprrprr] And now, Ladies and Jellymen, allow me to introduce… The Tape from Hell“

An Online Venue is still a Venue

Posted on January 6, 2014

A special message from Martina, StreetJelly co-founder.

An Online Venue is still a Venue

The Internet has become a big part of our lives and is often viewed as one big entity. In reality it is an enormous collection of services, businesses and venues. Frequently it is free to users, but it is not free to those who decide to make it their medium of choice to conduct business or offer a service. Instead of paying rent for a physical location, virtual venues pay for bandwidth and hosting. As soon as an individual logs on to a website this person enters a space very much like a physical location. When someone walks into a concert hall or store, it is widely accepted to conduct oneself in a respectful manner and comply with a few rules. Everyone understands a customer walking into a restaurant cannot simply go up to someone’s table and scream insults at a stranger. Online venues are not really that different from conventional locations especially if they offer live video and the opportunity to chat. Live communication among participants closely resembles an actual gathering place. StreetJelly falls into this category.

We are a small company created by music lovers and musicians who pour our hearts, time and financial resources into this undertaking with the intention of making StreetJelly a pleasant, welcoming and fun entertainment venue for musicians and viewers. It is our mission to be all about the music. The musical performance is our focus of attention and the chat was predominantly designed to offer a way of communication between the artist and audience.

We would like to thank our musicians, viewers and all the volunteers behind the scenes from the bottom of our heart and are grateful for all your support and feedback. Constructive criticism and suggestions are always considered and taken seriously. However, no matter how hard we try it is impossible to please everybody and meet the entertainment needs of every single person visiting the website. We are all individuals with varying likes and dislikes and no venue on this planet will be able to satisfy 100% of the population. Over the course of the last year our staff was repeatedly confronted with some extremely rude and disrespectful treatment behind the scenes simply because we did not accommodate the personal entertainment needs of a very small group of our users. We are doing our very best 24/7 and personally go out of our way to be polite and respectful to our musicians and viewers. StreetJelly offers musicians the opportunity to showcase their music and earn some money. We do not charge for broadcasting and pay the fees to songwriter associations to enable musicians to play covers. For those of you who believe StreetJelly is not the right place, be assured we understand. We appreciate the time you spent to give us a try and sincerely wish you the best of luck in finding a venue fit for you. It neither helps us nor does it help the few who spend a vast majority of every day on the website simply to inform us over and over how much you dislike our business model. How many people would frequent a restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner which serves a type of food they don’t enjoy just to tell the cook every time how much they disliked their meal?

I can’t mention enough how much we appreciate the vast majority of wonderful musicians and viewers. Many of us have even made cherished friends. For those of you we can’t accommodate it is time to move on and search for your perfect place to spend your time.

Thanks again to everyone who shares our vision of creating an online space of mutual respect and extending this respect to our staff and team of monitors who have a very ungrateful job. Hope to see you on StreetJelly very soon. This is not just a business to us, but also a labor of love.

Put Butts In Da Seats

Posted on December 26, 2013

Special guest blog by DannyC, South Louisiana, USA

Larger audiences . . . am I doing my share to “Put Butts In Da Seats?”

I ask this question as while StreetJelly is no doubt a wonderful site for musicians and songwriters to showcase their talent the fact remains for ultimate success, for performers anyway, we as a group must do all we can to boost the “civilian members” of our audiences. This is of prime importance if indeed you truly want to get compensated i.e. tips from your performances.

For you “true” buskers out there, I’d be willing to bet when you stake out a setup location you are looking for the highest traffic and target music demographic audience you can reach. Well on SJ while we have a built in audience, they are like family, and while I love my “real” family as much as the next guy they are the last group I would ever expect to support my living, especially as a musician. With this said, if we want to grow our tips and audience size we simply must get more music fans to visit SJ.

As a group we can instantly start bringing in more audience members. Look, we all have email accounts, 99% of us have FB pages or websites. I urge you to take a little time, say once a month or so to do some blitz emails campaigns, FB sharing promotions and website links and yes “blatantly plug” your future performances. It’s numbers game guys, the more we “all” tell the story to our contacts and get them to tell it to their contacts the larger the “civilian” audiences will be. And every new music lover we drive to our performance will eventually check out other performers. In fact I encourage you to point out the diversity of music they can hear on SJ in your campaigns. I learned long ago you only gain by plugging other acts as you highlight yours.

Frankie and Martina have a wonderful website built with the musician and music lover in mind, and I like many of you are very thankful for the platform they have given us to showcase our music. But, IMHO, the time has come for “us” to do something to grow SJ. We as musicians just can’t sit back, plug in and expect for our popularity and tips to grow. We owe it to ourselves to do something with this platform they have afforded us to insure it does, as the saying goes the ball is in our courts.

Bottom-line . . . How often do we hear lines like, man we can’t get squat for a 3 hour gig in my town, and the next thing you learn is that very often some cat is playing a gig for “nadda” just so he/she can get “the exposure”. Well we can’t do much about that but we do have the ability and means to help build our SJ “civilian” audiences. My bet is that not only will your tips increase but the more local audience members you bring in the more audience members you will have supporting you in your live events around your town . . . therefore your number of live paid gigs should also increase.

Fellow SJ family members please take this for what it is and no more, a personal opinion offered with the hope that if some of you agree you will get on board with trying to build civilian audiences. Either way, I thank you for your time to read it.

Now let’s count off the next tune 1 ana 2 ana 3 . . .

Best Regards,

Danny C.

Jelly, the New Drug

Posted on December 6, 2013

Special guest blog by Pat Marr, North Carolina, USA

Breaking News!

Interpol is on the lookout for the global distributor of a new but highly addictive substance called STREETJELLY. The mastermind appears to be a deceptively congenial programmer named Frank Podlaha ( AKA “Frankie” or “The King” by his minions on the STREET)

He has single-handedly constructed an elaborate system which enables performers to connect with audiences ANYWHERE ON THE PLANET! At first look, this seems innocent enough… but now, health care providers around the world are reporting an epidemic of symptoms that indicate a new addictive substance has been unleashed.

Symptoms include the following:

the irresistible urge to play music on StreetJelly until 5 am even though you know you have to get up for work in the morning
the inability to get through a ten-minute period without checking StreetJelly to see if somebody new started playing since the last time you checked.
cashing in the 401k to buy tokens
sweaty palms and shaky legs unless you’re sitting at the computer watching StreetJelly
playing hooky from school, work or other important responsibilities in order to get your StreetJelly Fix
the realization that the only time you experience true euphoria is when performing on or watching StreetJelly

If you have any of these symptoms, don’t bother reporting it because there is no cure. Your best bet is to surrender and enjoy the euphoria.

PS: it’s not illegal (YET)… but federal agents say it’s more fun than a lot of things that ARE illegal. Your call.

New Feature: My Shows

Posted on November 22, 2013

New Feature: My Shows

We’ve added a new page for artists called My Shows. Here is a quick summary of what’s included:

Get detail info about each performance (times, viewers, etc.).
Get detail info about tip jar contents (who tipped what).
Enter / Update a set list any time (no longer have to only enter songs during a broadcast).
This info is not open to the general public or shared with other musicians.

The link to My Shows is only available to musicians and can be found on the main menu drop-down. Click the arrow on the top-right of any page next to the thumbnail image. Also, artists will be automatically sent to this page after each show when they click on the “Stop Broadcast” button.

This is the first in a series of StreetJelly improvements for set list management and every musician’s reporting requirements to the songwriter’s associations. Stay tuned, we are currently working on “My Repertoire” so musicians can enter a list of songs once, and easily build a show’s set list by point and clicking. Musicians will also have the option to share their repertoire on their EPK profile page and during performances.

Heckling

Posted on October 28, 2013

Special guest blog on Heckling in the new Social Media World, by Clifton Printy

Heckling

Heckling is generally defined as trying to…

”…to embarrass and annoy (someone speaking or performing in public) by questions, gibes, or objections; badger.”
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/heckling

However, it is also a more subtle problem. I would further define it as intentional and unintentional acts that cause breaks, gaps, disruption, and interruption of the performance.

Most of the performers here on StreetJelly are not technological wizards freshly instilled with a degree in sound engineering or computer programming. It is their intention to share a passion and love with you. Many of them are in fact singular musicians who have only begun to perform publicly online.

Please remember that as an audience member you have a job. You came for a great performance. Here’s how you get one.

Encourage, Encourage, Encourage
- “This song is OWNT!” (David Wesley)
- “Super Great”
- “That song was awesome”
- “Holy Moly” (Frankie)
- CNTRL Clappy Clappy Clappy
- “You are amazing”
Sell
- Put the performer’s link in the chat.
- Chat to and about the performer. (DCrann)
- Favorite the artist so you can see when they are on.
- Share their performance links on social media pages.

Now for the hard pill to swallow. If you are not going to pay for production, or transportation for tutelage, and/or are not Simon Cowell; then it is probably not helping if you critique the performer’s style, ability, prowess, set-list, or looks. These things stall the performance at the least and completely decimate an artist’s timing at most. Think about it! They are remembering the chord progression, the lyrics, the pitch, the tempo, and the punch line introduction to their next song. As they answer a question about how they are, read a side joke between Image and Clifty that makes no sense what-so-ever, and quiet their friend who has just barged in; you say, “raise the bass a little.” It is completely disarming! Worse still, when a musician has a connection problem or a sound problem that is not readily repairable, he or she is constantly attacked.

Look out folks, I am just getting wound up. Making a request from an artist usually involves having an understanding of the artist. However, you have to remember that you are trying to make the show better. If you ask Image and Family to play Pantera, you are unequivocally heckling with malicious intent. As funny as it would be, we should remember that our job as an audience is to enjoy the show. For the Image and Family show, a good request may be Drunken Sailor by Great Big Sea. Continuing on with this particular vent, there are people who understand this. Ever notice that when someone is barraging the request-o-meter with impossibles that a Don Gaynor or a Damian will come in and request a song they are sure the artist is good at. They are a practical participating audience.

Important and most obvious: not every performer is for you. If you don’t like a show or performer, just leave the show. Everyone has something to offer, but maybe not to you. Be polite, too. An explicit comment may work sometimes, but not other times. Remember that your chat is visible to not only those here but those who will join in a moment. If you know you are derailing the show, pull back and encourage. You are the audience, not the heckler.

Also, a certain persistent problems frequently arise from a free to use site of this nature. Please be kind and courteous. Smoking weed, swearing, illicit sexual content, vulgarity are not always appropriate in the conversation and/or the performance. Many of us are here for pure music and art. We are all of different values, culture, and political opinion. Going into a family performance such as Image and Family’s show with illicit sexual rhetoric is more than a social faux pas: it is blatantly rude. Would you act like that at the White House, church, grandma’s house? I bet not. Could you drop a licidious comment at Molotov Colostomy’s show? Sure, they are a different sort of musicians all together. But you shouldn’t go there and try to pull a sermon off, either. Very honestly, you are not anonymous and it is not your chat. It is the artists’ show, and all viewers are entitled to hear and enjoy that performer without the rudeness and distractions from a few jerks. Make sure you know the performers and their sense of propriety before you try to shout out the familiar…. or you will really be a heckler.

Likewise, performers need to remember to be cognizant of the camera personally seeing boogie sleeve wipes, a crotch torn out of a pair of jeans, a funny cigarette, a nose pick, (special woman note: don’t bend down in front of a desktop cam), and pay attention to what you have in the frame around you since you are also live to the world.

Last, most performers here are willing to play for free, and we do. But your tipping shows us that we have value. Want preferential request treatment, familiarity, and kinship, then give compliments that come from the heart. You will know if it’s good if it builds friendship, and makes it more enjoyable for the listener and the performer.

P.S. Believe me, some of this is learned from personal mistakes. Our personal accountability will keep StreetJelly.com a wonderful and rare respite on the internet.


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