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| StreetJelly BLOG: Community News, Video Streaming, Online Busking, and more… |
StreetJelly musicians Merv and Amanda from ImageAndFamily demonstrate the Samson Meteor Mic USB Studio Microphone and a Microsoft Life Cam for use on StreetJelly. It’s very simple to get a clean sound and clear video with these easy to use products. You don’t have to be a computer geek or sound engineer to get up and running quickly on StreetJelly.
Got any questions? We’d be happen to answer them. Add them below…
StreetJelly musician and computer guru Clifton Printy demonstrates the Alesis MultiMix 4 4-Channel Audio Mixer with USB. He goes through the setup and configuration to connect your guitar amp and vocal microphone to StreetJelly and create great live sound for broadcasting.
Got any questions? We’d be happen to answer them. Add them below…
I think that every artist who joins StreetJelly has one thing in common, the love of music. We all love playing and performing the tunes that move or inspire us and we all want an audience to watch and enjoy our music. Luckily we have all found a wonderfully encouraging community of artists and music lovers here.
My family and I have been fortunate enough to find a measure of success on this site and we wanted to share some of the tips and tricks that have worked for us. There are a lot of do’s to be successful here and just a few don’ts:
Do’s
Be Creative – You don’t have to be the most talented musician/singer around to make money, but you have to let the passion you feel for your music show in everything you do – every time you’re on.
Be Entertaining And Engaging – Talk to your audience, get them involved in conversation and remember that you are performing for their entertainment.
Practice, Practice, Practice – If you want to be good, you’ve got to invest your time in your craft.
Promote Yourself – Use Facebook (your personal page and StreetJelly’s page), Twitter, free printable StreetJelly flyers (available here) and word of mouth to let people know when you’re performing.
Promote Other Artists – If you would like other people to talk about your shows, make sure you talk about theirs.
Have A Good Audio/Video Setup – Fuzzy images and poor sound detracts from the performance and will make attracting and keeping an audience harder. (You can find StreetJelly how to blog posts and videos to improve your sound and video) If you’re not sure how your broadcast is coming across, don’t be afraid to ask your audience.
Be Courteous To Performers – If you don’t like what someone’s playing or saying, just leave the room. If you think someone is being inappropriate, let StreetJelly know so they can handle it (contact page).
Be Family Friendly – Remember, there are viewers and artists of all ages, so try to keep your language clean. F-bombs and other such language will definitely lose you viewers.
Be Supportive – Tip the artists that you enjoy watching, and if you are unable to tip support them with applause and positive comments.
Get To Know The Other Artists – There are some awesome people on StreetJelly. Get to know them, watch their shows and join in the conversations while they’re playing. Artists love to know who’s watching them. If viewers are enjoying the music, and the more active you are on the site, the more people will want to check out what you are doing.
Read The Blogs – The StreetJelly blog offers great information for new and experienced performers and is a great way to keep up to date on the craziness that is StreetJelly.
Don’ts
Play Just a Few Riffs – Learn whole songs, the audience will get bored of hearing only bits and pieces.
Miss Scheduled Performance – If you schedule a show, try to stick to it. If for some reason you can’t make the scheduled time, post a message on StreetJelly’s Facebook page to let people know that you aren’t going to be able to go on.
Drive-by (Steal other Performer’s Audience) – Popping into another performer’s show just to say you’re going on is rude and disrespectful. If you want to mention that you’re going on, wait until the performer is wrapping up their show.
Steal Another Performer’s Thunder – Use your discretion when scheduling your shows, you will find that you can attract more viewers by following another act or opening for another performer (just be courteous to the other artists).
Have more Do’s and Don’ts? Add them below in the comments. ~frankie
SEO Cheat Sheet: Artist Profile / EPK (Electronic Press Kit)
Artist profiles/EPK (electronic press kits) on StreetJelly are important for two main reasons. One, they allow the internet search engines to find the artist. The cheat sheet above covers that. It’s generally known as SEO: Search Engine Optimization. The other reason to make a great profile is to inform viewers about the artist, their style, show a picture, links to social media, etc.
All social media profiles, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, and the like, are all about telling the world who you are! But with StreetJelly, there is an added incentive to make a real connection with the artist. Ultimately, we hope to entertain viewers through music in exchange for gratification, fan exposure, and of course, tips. On StreetJelly, however, we did not create profile pages like all the rest. In fact, we put in fields where the artist can link back to YouTube, ReverbNation, etc. so they can expose their fans to their other online profiles. But we did specifically add questions to the StreetJelly profile to invoke a more personal response about being a musician. We as humans make connections with others through experiences. Telling a short story about oneself is more effective than listing out prior job titles from a boring resume. Successful profiles are fun, interesting, and a bit personal. Viewers will see the artist as a close friend rather than some anonymous organ grinder.
Which artist profiles on StreetJelly do you think are great? Add them below in the comment section.
Adjust your microphone and camera directly from the Flash console while broadcasting.
Image courtesy of TheRadioCafe.com
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 
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.
Performing online in front of a webcam is something probably new to most musicians. It’s certainly new for us, too. We noticed some things that will help your performance be visually more appealing.
Do you have any more ideas? We’d love to hear them.
Guest post by Austin Church, writer extraordinaire.
Can you actually make a living doing what you love?
Yes. All you need is a webcam and microphone—and some sounds!—to start making money. We’re glad that Justin Bieber was able to get his start on YouTube, but now that he’s a household name, everybody and his sister’s cat is throwing up videos, hoping for the NEXT one-in-a-million chance to get a record deal.
It’s hard to stand out on YouTube!
Street Jelly offers an alternative to that lottery ticket approach. We want you to get discovered, but we’re not going to B.S. you. If you want to be the next rags-to-riches, you’re going to need some help. We’ve designed Street Jelly with that goal in mind. You can get visibility, build a fan base, and let the quality of your art and performance determine what you make and where your music takes you.
Play to the crowd, get to know your listeners, and maybe even play “Freebird” every once in awhile just to prevent a riot. You’ll be busking your face off in no time and making Mick Jagger jokes to tease a few more tips out of your adoring fans.
Signing up is easy. We’ll walk you through it step-by-step, and for those of you who are still new to live streaming, we’ve got some simple tutorials for picking out inexpensive equipment and getting everything to run smoothly. Virtual stardom awaits, and Beyonce thinks you’re ready for this Jelly.