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SJ Busking Blog – Basement Busking Advice

Posted on December 27, 2015

Special guest blog by StreetJelly performer: Rewind.
SJ Busking Blog – Basement Busking Advice.

Rewind

Years ago I used to busk on Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado. It was a great way to get my music in front of a wider audience as well as make some extra money. Some days I would earn just a few bucks, and others I would come home with a lot more. StreetJelly is the closest thing to an online version of busking I have found. Call it basement busking. I learned a lot of performance tips during my time busking, and many of those are relevant to online busking from the basement. We recently had the chance to take StreetJelly on the road and travel to Asheville, NC to talk with the Asheville Busker’s Collective. I thought it would be a good time to go ahead and publish a blog post on some of these basement busking tips I learned from my Pearl Street days.

• Be prepared. I would never think of playing a song in front of a group of people while busking if I didn’t know the song well. Learn the lyrics if it’s a cover song and know which key you are going to play the song in. Bring a cheat sheet as a backup. If you know you are going to play a song that you need a cheat sheet for in advance, look it up online and keep a separate window open on your computer that you can quickly switch to. Have a set list planned out in advance. It’s not a problem to stray from your set list, but it can help you if you get stuck trying to remember what the heck you were going to play.

• Minimize the time you spend in between each song. If you have a story to tell about the song, that’s fine, but it’s best to keep it brief. When you’re busking, most people are walking by, and you have a short stretch of time to catch their attention. This is true of basement busking, too. If someone pops into your show, and you are tuning for a long time or spending lots of time figuring out what song to do next, chances are good that person will leave your show and go check out something else.

• Don’t wait for requests. It’s human nature that people connect to songs they already know and like, so lots of musicians throw cover songs into their set to maintain crowd interest. You can ask your audience if they have any requests. But if they don’t answer quickly, don’t wait around until they do. Chances are good you won’t know it, and most of the time the viewers just want to hear whatever you want to play.

• Location, location, location. For anyone who has ever busked outside, you know how crucial location can be. With online busking, your location is often wherever in your house you set up; basement, living room, garage, and so on. Before you broadcast, look at how your performance will look to your viewers. Is the lighting good? You’d be amazed at what a lamp or a shop light duct taped to a mic stand can do. Is there a bunch of junk in the background that distracts from your performance? Maybe change locations or put up a backdrop. I made a cheap frame out of PVC pipe and hung a blanket over it when I had to broadcast from a room that had a lot of other stuff going on.

If you have any other basement busking tips, share them in the comments section below.

How to get a 1000 Viewers

Posted on December 17, 2014

Special group-guest blog by StreetJelly musicians: Clifton Printy, Peter Bensen, Josh Cline, Image and Family. They have a combined 28,900+ viewerships to their StreetJelly shows …and still growing.

How to get a Thousand Viewers?

Here’s a clue for you. If you want to set records for the most viewers in an online show, own the world record for the most tips, become an internet streaming pop icon, and maybe even have some fun while making a little scratch; here is all you need to do…

Don’t Suck!

So where do we start? At a show with no viewers, of course. We have all been there. No fun at all. So what should you do? Get viewers! Not too difficult really. What is your mom doing? How about your best friend? Where are you fans from the real world? Did you invite them? Are you using the twitter link? Did you post your show on Facebook? It doesn’t take much time to post a message telling your friends that you are performing. Also, it may seem like such a small thing, but it’s amazing how much people respond to the personal touch. Send them a message to ask them out to your show.

You can get a little creative, too. How about posting, “live music no cover with free imaginary drinks,” on your favorite social venue. It works! Try it!

If you have the computer savvy, try using Photoshop, or other such programs, to create posters for your shows. You can post them on Facebook or any other social media type sites to help get your name out there. Print a couple off for your job, friends, and acquaintances. (editors note, i.e. Frankie – try BandPosters.com)

Next, Don’t Suck! No one wants to hear the beginning of Stairway to Heaven sixteen times only to listen to 4 bars of Smoke on the Water. One song well performed is worth more than 100 hours of garbage.

Are you interacting with your guests? Ask them if there is anything about your show they “don’t love” (answers could hurt, but you’ll get an answer). Want to engage someone? Ask them about themselves. Be gracious and friendly. Support other artists. Support other artist supporters. Try dedicating a song to your viewers, it’s a great way to show them that you appreciate their support.

It helps to acknowledge your viewers. They are “gold” to you. Try to mention EVERY visitors name. People LOVE hearing their name treated respectfully. Keep an eye on the comments, clappies, and tips. You’ll get a good idea of what works and what doesn’t. Play what the audience says is good (another hard pill to swallow). Let them tell you if it’s good.

Be aware that every show is different. It’s all good. You can do a killer show with only 5 viewers or a horrible show with 20, and those five viewers will come back. I’ve even found that mistakes I’ve made in a performance are not always caught by the audience. They can still be entertained by a less than perfect show.

The idea is to keep your nose to the wheel. When in doubt, PLAY!!! As it has been said, “If you build it, they will come”. StreetJelly beats performing on your sofa alone for your metronome. People will come and go, but your (total) viewers will accumulate!

Don’t just be a performer in an ivory tower. Watch other shows! Become an active part of the StreetJelly community. There are a lot of people participating in the StreetJelly “thing.” Making new friends, and showing an interest in other artists will foster a curiosity about you, in viewers of other shows. Also, glean from other shows. Nobody knows everything. There is more to know about performing. You can learn a lot from what other people do. Stand on the shoulders of the giants that have gone before you. And, if you can’t stand a show then I like to say, “take the chicken and spit out the bones.” Take the stuff that works and try it. It can be a big help.

“Not sucking” contains a few ingredients. It’s more than playing your instrument, and singing in key. Your overall image as a performer is huge. An engaging, friendly player/singer will do better in the long run at this racket than a pure virtuoso that has the personality of a cardboard box. That doesn’t mean that you need to be something you’re not. It means that consideration for your audience, and their desires will be rewarded in the long run.

The most important part of a successful show is to have fun. If you are enjoying yourself it will show and it will rub off on your audience.

Lastly friends, you are a visionary, so pony up. You have seen that the internet age is going to change the world. You have stated that eventually everyone will want to interact directly with their favorite artist. You know that this is the herald of a new age for performance of music. Time to pay for your entertainment. What? Oh yes we have to make this work from both ends. Why should someone believe that this is a legitimate venue and support you when you wouldn’t support it yourself? Where is the crowd? What are you?

The Jelly Dictionary

Posted on March 1, 2013

Special guest blog by Aaron Samuels a.k.a. “Maestro”

Jellytalk, or “Jellese”

For those of you not entirely hip to the StreetJelly lingo, or even if you just need a refresher, below is the rapidly developing StreetJelly lexicon. This will be updated as the new terms come in.

Jellyfish – a frequent swimmer of the StreetJelly ocean. If you peruse the broadcasts often enough, you’ll find out quickly who we are.
Jellyfly – any one watching the broadcast but not participating in the real-time chat conversation. It’s all good. We got love for our Jellyflies, and sometimes the fish are in fly-mode. We just like to tease them because it’s much more fun to be a fish than a fly.
Jellybird – a performer on StreetJelly, our bread and (peanut) butter.
Jellyhead – see “Jellybird”.
Jellytainer – see “Jellybird”.
Jellyking – Frank Podlaha, naturally. All hail. The world will sing when he is king…and he is king. So we sing.
Jellyfire – a descriptive term for when a Jellybird is performing with passion.
Jellyswarm – any significant viewership for any given broadcast.
Jellyrat – see “drive-by”.
Drive-by – the act of briefly jumping on to another performer’s performance just to let their viewers know via chat that you are performing. Not cool. Performance over-lapping is going to happen and that’s totally fine, just let viewers make up their own mind about who they want to watch.
Greenwall – When enough individual token donations are delivered to a performer, the chat wall turns a delightful green (with gold accents). It takes a minimum of nine tokens to greenwall a jellybird.
Whitewall – When enough blank chat entries fill the room, we call that a whitewall. Use this technique sparingly if at all.
Spreading the Jelly – getting the word out about the awesomeness that is StreetJelly.
Bluewall – a Greenwall of Rocker Pins. You want this to happen to you.
Jellymood – I’m in the mood for love…simply because you’re jelly…
Purple Rain – A song by the Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. Jellyfish request this song on a regular basis, so you might wanna work it into your repertoire, if you’re a Jellybird.
AFJ – Away From Jelly. Not exactly fly status, just temporary absence.

What’s your favorite term? Have another to add? Continue the dictionary below…

Let Flies be Flies

Posted on February 21, 2013

Flies are our friends. Of course, I’m talking about Jellyflies! A Jellyfly is a term created by the StreetJelly community to indicate viewers watching a musician but not participating in the conversation. They are just “flying” around a performance.

There is a great discussion on the Do’s and Don’ts blog post how to increase your tips while performing on StreetJelly. This topic of flies is really a continuation of that post, but I think it’s worth to talk a little deeper about Jellyflies.

So here is my tip to musicians: Let the Flies be Flies. Odd advice, you’re thinking? Some musicians are great at engaging their StreetJelly fans and prying the flies out of anonymity. But others try too hard to get the flies to talk. There is definitely a fine line between being inviting and being too aggressive.

I speak from experience because I am a fly on the site sometimes. I know, “how dare you Frank?” Yes, it’s true. There are two reasons why I end up being a fly.

I only have about 5 or 10 minutes before I have to go do something (I have a crazy schedule). I choose not to become part of the conversation because otherwise I’ll enjoy myself too much and never leave.
I like to listen to the music while I work. Again, I may be very busy and really have to get some work done – even at 2am. I have to force myself not to look at the chat. After all, StreetJelly is a music site, and sometimes I just want to listen.

I know that on a few occasions, I’ve heard musicians lay on the guilt trip pretty thick to get the flies to talk. That’s probably not going to help get them to talk nor tip more tokens. They may even leave the performance. Performing art is a lot like marketing. If a potential customer (i.e. token tipper) is driven away, they may never come back.

There are probably many other reasons why someone may be a fly. As a matter of fact, StreetJelly was built around the fact to allow anyone to listen in, find great musicians, and jump in only if they like. Think of a street musician, they could never possibly stop everyone that walks by and ask to see their identification.

You never know who is watching on StreetJelly. If someone needs to be a fly for whatever reason – that’s fine. Say, “hello.” Remind them they can login to chat (maybe they don’t realize that). And thank them for stopping by. They will be happier if you did.

Thoughts from the artists? How do you engage the flies? Continue the discussion below…

The World Didn’t End, It Just Started

Posted on January 8, 2013

I know the world didn’t end last month from the Mayan doomsday calendar. You and I are still here. I’m pretty smart, huh? Or I’m just a smarty-pants stating the obvious. Don’t answer that. I do know that great things are happening for StreetJelly.

Last month on StreetJelly I witnessed a growing community of musicians meet each other, start friendships, share the holidays, and even build a team to raise money for charity. Here’s a recap of some notable days in December 2012.

End of the World Shows On 12/21, the Mayan Doomsday, a few musicians scheduled “End of the World” concerts on StreetJelly. That must have sparked everyone’s urge to perform one last time before the calamity of global destruction. Starting around 10:30am, musicians performed one after another all day in one big long concert. It lasted well into the night. Fun was had by all.

Christmas Eve 12/24 was a special night. Yes, it was holiday fun and most musicians were singing Christmas carols. But a wonderful thing happened during one performance. A group of musicians were all chatting together watching Maestro when the conversation turned to benefit concerts and performing for charities. Long story short, this group has teamed up to start performing monthly concerts on StreetJelly for charities. All tokens collected by these musicians on such days will be donated to a specific charity. The team is currently working hard behind the scenes to put this all together – stay tuned for more details and a chance to contribute.

New Year’s Eve Drinking songs, distortion, and …well …more drinking songs capped off the night. Musicians were performing all night long, and a crew of us were able to celebrate the New Year in most of the US time zones (sorry Hawaii). Our master jam band extraordinaire Clifton played for hours with his band at a local Shriner’s basement. The sound took a few to get right, but everyone still enjoyed themselves. Even when the laptop went flying, nothing was broken!

These were just a few of the great times in December on StreetJelly. But what stands out to me is that all these events were made special by the people who took part. It had nothing to do with marketing, or advertising, or social media shenanigans. It all happened spontaneously from the nice folks that found StreetJelly in 2012. That makes me very happy, as I know this can only lead to bigger and better things for the site. It’s just getting started!


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