stage | StreetJelly.com Blog

How to deliver a hit performance on an online stage. This is your StreetJelly Guide to getting started and enjoying the creation of memorable e-concerts.

Special guest blog by StreetJelly’s co-founder, Martina.
“Here are helpful tips for live streaming musical performances based on feedback and suggestions from StreetJelly musicians, viewers, and staff.”

Music is a beautiful addition to the lives of millions of people around the world. Modern technology allows us to reach audiences we were never able to reach several years ago. An online streaming music service is a venue much like any conventional venue which unites musical performers and viewers in one place. Just like traditional performances, an online show should be considered that, a real show. Let me explain in detail why viewers prefer certain performances over others.

Positive headline
It all starts with a positive headline. A positive headline will attract viewers to your show. It does not have to be super witty and the catch-all phrase of the century. Keep it simple with uplifting words, and let it explain the type of performance and music genre. Negative headlines, like “I’m bored,” are not appealing! They will instantly result in turning viewers away from your performance.

Inviting and clean performance space
Regardless where your webcam is pointing, your are setting a stage for your show. Depending on your performance style, it can be anything from a casual corner in your home to a professionally decorated stage in a concert hall. Individual musicians and fans enjoy different types of shows. No matter the style of your stage, make it appealing to the viewers. Remove trash, clutter, dirty laundry, or anything from the camera that is a distraction. Double-check your image in the broadcast window. Your performance is greatly enhanced by a pleasant, neat surrounding. Many viewers truly appreciate the effort put into a well crafted stage. It will be the center of their attention and often result in increased tips or loyal followers.

Fill out your profile
Once you caught the viewers’ attention, your audience will be interested in finding out more about you. Make it easy for them to get that information by filling out your StreetJelly profile. Don’t forget to add links to your website, Facebook fan page, YouTube videos, and so on. Viewers will look you up at their convenience. Add your full name to your Bio, as well. This will help in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and let viewers find you from Google and Bing.

No dead space during the performance
Prepare a show. Viewers appreciate the fact that some musicians can fulfill random requests. But generally, viewers enjoy a well prepared performance more. If you unexpectedly walk away from your show for extended periods of time and all your audience sees is an empty chair, it will result in losing viewers. Do not pause for more than a few minutes. If you have to take a longer break, end your show and tell the viewers you will return at a later time.

Put on a show, not a practice session
StreetJelly is a music performance site. Although we welcome performers with various skill levels, please do not use StreetJelly as a practicing platform. If your practice session is essentially identical to a performance and you consider it suitable for broadcasting, don’t label it as “only practicing.” (See “Positive headline” above.) This directs viewers to other performers who put on a well planned show.

“Flies” are Ok
StreetJelly gives viewers the option to chat during a performance, or to watch silently without logging in by name. We welcome both kinds of listeners. We call the viewers who don’t interact “Flies,” like a fly listening on the wall. Many regular viewers alternate between those two modes depending on where they are watching from, or their momentary listening preference. Some viewers prefer to remain anonymous all the time, some occasionally. We offer a guest tipping option for them, too, in case they wish to tip a musician and stay anonymous.

No official time limit on shows
Generally, a performance from 1 to 1½ hours appears to be very popular with viewers. We have several performers who put on longer shows with great success. It is up to each performer to choose how long and when they want to play. Any musician can pick a time and length of show convenient for him or her. StreetJelly has a wonderful community of supportive and respectful members. But every now and then, an individual musician will try to force his or her personal view (and time-slot) unto others about performance times, show durations, and so on. If you have any questions about this, please contact us at support@streetjelly.com.

No recordings
We do not allow playing full recorded music as karaoke or background accompaniment. This is a licensing issue and we ask you to follow this rule. In case we detect a violation of this policy, we reserve the right to shut down any performance. We do allow “backtracks.” Consider a backtrack recording as adding an extra instrument or two to your performance. Many musicians create their own original backtracks ahead of time.

Fill out your playlist
StreetJelly pays the licensing cover fees to various songwriter associations (BMI, ASCAP, etc.). Please fill out your playlist to ensure an accurate distribution of royalties. Maintaining your playlist repertoire will help you plan out your next show, too.

Don’t steal viewers from another performer’s show
Many musicians work hard to build their audience. Please do not go into an ongoing show and ask viewers to watch you instead. Committing this social faux-pas will instantly raise the eye-brows of both viewers and fellow musicians. They will boycott your show, guaranteed!

PG 13
Please keep your language suitable to a “PG 13” movie. We try to provide a pleasant environment for ALL our viewers and ensure an enjoyable experience for the majority of StreetJelly members. Read more about this topic: What is a Family Friendly Site?

Music can improve our daily lives on so many levels. It unites people, helps many of us through difficult times, or simply entertains us. We would like to thank everyone who visits this online venue and shares our passion for music and music lovers.

Martina
StreetJelly co-founder

Streaming Great Sound, Quick and Easy, at Live Venues

This past week, we had an opportunity to broadcast two live shows from different venues. First, our own Rewind had a Friday night gig down at the SawWorks Brewing Company in Knoxville’s “Old City.” Then, on Saturday, we broadcasted the Hundred Acres band on stage at Sound Biscuit studios. Each broadcast was different, but with some very simple equipment set ups, the sound and streaming came out crisp and clear.

The Night Club / Pub Gig

Most musicians will eventually find themselves performing at night clubs, cafés, open mics, etc. Rewind, a StreetJelly and local Knoxville musician, performed a Friday night show in the confines of a typical brew-pub. The venue was an industrial warehouse converted to gentrified hipster hangout (just kidding, it’s a very nice place with super nice people). It was a last minute decision and permission from the owner to broadcast on StreetJelly. With ten minutes to go before the show started, we fired up the laptop, plugged in our regular webcam, and pulled out a new-in-box Blue Yeti USB microphone.

First, a brief description of the live music and venue. Rewind and band mate, Thad Bissett, were set up with typical gear: two guitars, mics, foot pedals, mixer board, two PA speakers (one for the room and one as a monitor). The room size fit a half-dozen large round tables, a bar that ran the length of one wall, and a counter / register area by the front door. About 25 people were present at the time. It was probably not the best space, however, for producing live music: concrete floors, brick/cinder-block walls, and an exposed metal truss ceiling. Anyway, Rewind and Thad had their gear set up sounding good for the room.

For the StreetJelly broadcast, we unwrapped the Blue Yeti and connected the USB into the laptop. (No software applications were running at the time, no browsers, and no connection to SJ.) The installation software already exists within the mic. So when connecting the USB cord, the Blue Yeti installs itself. The installation took only a few seconds, and the laptop did NOT need to be rebooted. We opened up a browser (Firefox), navigated to StreetJelly, and everything was ready to go the first try. (I’m still amazed how easy this worked.) We placed the mic about 10 ~ 12 ft from the stage, and set its selector position to bi-directional stereo. Basically, that means the two internal condenser mics pick up sound at 180° apart. On the mic, we set the gain around 1/4 from the lowest setting. On StreetJelly, we set the sound input around 1/3. That’s it! Really, that was it. Sound was very clean with no distortions, pops, or clicks.

The Stage Gig

Next up was broadcasting a 6-piece band, called Hundred Acres. This was a full professional stage set up in a large corrugated metal building, with half the side opened to the outside. The space held a 100+ guests inside and out. Sound Biscuit is a professional recording studio, so needless to say there were more mics, cables, speakers, spot lights, and cool stuff that one could count in any single glance. Oddly enough, however, the main sound board did not have an extra stereo feed out. It was already being used for something else.

Our solution was to place two (cheapo) dynamic mics close to the main PA speakers from the stage. Again, we always recommend going for the simplest set up for streaming on StreetJelly. You can see in the pics, we placed each mic around 18″ from the center of the PA. Note: make sure you place the distance of each mic from the PA the same for each channel. This will make balancing the channels later much easier.

We plugged in the two mics’ XLR connectors into our Alesis USB Multi-mixer. This device then plugs into our laptop via USB and gets recognized as any common sound input device to the computer. We have used the Alesis many times on this laptop broadcasting on SJ, so the computer already was configured for this. We did have to tweak the gain and output levels on the mixer, but nothing out of the ordinary. Phantom power was turned off.

Again, it was a very simple set up to broadcast: two dynamic mics shoved close to the main PA speakers, the USB mixer, and the same Logitech webcam we always use. The sound streamed extremely well.

Verifying the Output

When you are broadcasting a live show, it’s always tricky to know exactly how well it sounds over the internet. Listening to headphones from your computer or from the mixer’s main-out is virtually impossible to give a good indication. The sound in the room almost always overpowers the headphones. Yes, asking the audience “how does it sound?” is extremely important. But sometimes the best way to check is to check yourself. In both broadcasts, we took our mobile phones outside (way outside), plugged in good studio headphones into our phones, and watched the actual StreetJelly broadcast ourselves for a true sound check. It’s the only way to know for sure.

A Word about WiFi

In both cases, we used our Verizon Mifi / Jetpack device to connect to the internet. It’s 4g capable and almost always streams well for StreetJelly shows. But in both cases, especially in the industrial warehouse gig, the wifi signal cut out a few times. It was very brief, but enough to cause the stream to buffer. Next time, we would really like to get a dedicated wired internet connection from the venues.

To recap, keep your configuration as simple as possible. In our scenarios, the show’s sound was separate from broadcasting. Let the musicians and sound engineers do what they do best. Then, capture that sound from your own mics for your broadcast.

Happy Streaming!


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

Deliver a Hit Performance – The Guide

How to deliver a hit performance on an online stage. This is your StreetJelly Guide to getting started and enjoying the creation of memorable e-concerts.

Streaming Great Sound, Quick and Easy, at Live Venues