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

An Online Venue is still a Venue

A special message from Martina, StreetJelly co-founder.

An Online Venue is still a Venue

Store FrontsThe 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. MartinaHow 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.

Posted under: Guest Blogs, Random Thoughts

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10 comments

  • Thank you Martina for taking on a very tough topic. I couldn’t agree more. We truly appreciate all our Jelly supporters and we wish all the best for those that have moved on.

  • Very well put Martina , I think you nailed it right on with this blog ! it a simple concept and like you said it’s not gonna be for everyone ,if you want to act up because you don’t like something over and over again personaly i don’t need to see that in the chat . All of us work very hard at making this site a positive place .to be and it’s up to everyone to keep it that way.

  • Brilliant blog Martina. You are a natural writer. I agree with all of your points, especially the part about some of us having made cherished friends. Thanks for all you guys do! JellyNation4lyfe. <3

  • 1st of all my personal feeling is that you guys hit a homerun with your business model. I am also very happy that in my short time being a performing and listening member of the SJ comminity I have never run into anything but fun people who have made me feel at home.

    With this said I compliment you guys for a well thought out friendly format to perform/listen to music and exchange music ideas..

    Well written blog Martina.

    Later,

  • Hi Martina
    I agree with the others that you hit the nail on the head. Its not for everybody but just like a radio station, you can switch it off if it doesn’t suit you.

    My experience has been the same as Danny’s. Nothing but nice people and respectful performers and viewers. Keep up the good work

  • northerngirl on January 21, 2014 at 7:56 am said:

    Well thought-out and articulate post, Martina. Speaking as a relatively new viewer, I am very thankful for this wonderful venue. One of the things that always draws me back here is the genuine respect and affection the performers have for each other, and the kindness they extend to those of us here to listen.

  • Damian on April 15, 2016 at 8:52 pm said:

    I agree what you have written and disagree with some of it. . As an artist I believe in freedom of expression even though some might be offended in what I say or sing in some way. Some folks might be offended by my music and that is alright because music is abstract and reaches each person on their own level of understanding. I do not need a monitor or someone to censor what I do. Freedom is a great thing unless it is used to cause harm. Then, not so great. That is me as an artist. On the business side of things guidelines and policy are needed to operate smoothly, but they should always be flexible and fall within reason. Common sense should always prevail. I do believe that Street Jelly is the right place for all and any artist that has common sense. A great statement Martina made ” It is our mission to be all about the music” and to me life is about the music. Most excellent write Martina. RevD