My Annual New Years Eve Post

As 2014 comes to a close I wanted to wish every a happy and safe New Year. Hopefully it will be a better one for all of us!

I've decided that Indie Spotlight will remain on Sunday nights for now, with an additional show on another night as well, both of these will be broadcasted on our justcast.org page.

Concerning some of the other internet projects that I've been planning for the coming year, many if not all of these are still in the planning stage. The content of the new shows will determine the broadcasting home of these so watch this space for updates on them soon.

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Show updates,

As noted above, we will continue the Sunday night format starting at 9:15. The first broadcast of the new year will be this coming Sunday (yeah I know, short break).

Final Show of 2014 Tonight!

Hey as the host I can change my mind....lol

I know I originally said that I wasn't taking a holiday break, but to be honest the show traffic isn't there, we are in our usual holiday slump so I might as well take a break.

What's coming in the new year? I haven't decided yet. On one hand I can stick with Sunday nights and as one of the chatters that popped into chat last week "stick with it and build my brand" on the flip side, the discussion on Facebook clearly points in the other direction.

We'll return to the airwaves in January 2015, that's a promise. Watch this space as well as our group on Facebook as to the new date and time.

Thank you all for your continued support, have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

-Jack

Post Turkey Day Update

Quick show update, we are going strong on our new home at justcast.org. Still working on the 24/7 streaming although I haven't had time to work on it over the last couple of days.

I'm not taking my usual "winter break" that I have in the past, mostly because we just started casting on the new site so I think it would be a better idea to stay with it for now. Show traffic has been hit and miss, I'm starting to wonder about keeping the show on Sunday nights or moving it but I haven't made any concrete decisions about that yet.

A Quick Reminder

We are having our "official" launch on justcast.org tonight starting at 9:15 p.m. (eastern)!

Please note the new time, as well as our new home if you didn't know already.....

http://justcast.org/users/indie-spotlight-live

Look forward to seeing everyone there!

24/7 Server Update

One of my friends told me that Linux will be the O/S that I will learn..........to hate.

Not there yet, tonight is the first night this week that I've actually had to spend on this project and here are a couple of insights that I'd like to share;

1) Since it is open source, different people do have very different ideas, if you are someone just learning this O/S for the first time, read the forums before asking questions.
2) The drivers you need could very well be different from the drivers you have, depending on the application that you are using it for.
3) Living in a Linux world, is very different from a Windows one, that is for damn sure.

Needless to say I'm still working on this. I'm not giving up until I get it going.

This Weeks Recap

Site was up, worked like a charm. I had to rebuild my profile over on justcast because when their server crashed it took anything created after 10/25 with it, which would obviously include my newly created profile.

Since I didn't make a big deal about the show this week (mostly because I wanted to make sure justcast was up and stable first) we didn't have much traffic to the show, although a couple of people surfing justcast came in and hung out which was nice.

We did have a wierd hiccup during the show, I think it was mostly my error, when I went fullscreen on my laptop to check video quality the show crashed for a second. First time I've ever seen the Flash Media Encoder kick in to fix a problem, but it worked although there was a huge lag afterwards.

Overall I think that things went well and maybe this week I'll do the actual "official" launch of the show on there.

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Show notes;

See above for the update.

As far as the 24/7 streaming player I'm still working on that, as soon as I find a way to get a this linux machine to stream I will be bringing that online to feature past shows.

Well Hell.....

Here is our official recap of Sunday night's JustCast premier.

Justcast was down because of a hard drive failure on one of their servers.

Official show launch rescheduled for this coming Sunday night :)

What Will I Do With The Webs.com Site That I Built Now That I'm Not Broadcasting Live There Anymore?

Regular readers to this blog will know that I have been working on a way to keep the archives of the show streaming when we aren't broadcasting live, yes I'm still working on that and I think that our now former site for the show would be a great place to do that.

What I'm thinking about is redoing the page so that the only thing on it is the player, there is no need to have the chat since we won't be there broadcasting live anymore. This way, people can still listen to the show when we aren't on.

Of course, I will have a link to click for the live show so anyone wandering in will be able to find us at the new site.

This way, folks can listen to the show they missed and play it in the background while they do other stuff on the computer and not worry about someone trying to talk to them in the chat.

I'd call that a win-win.

Stay tuned, I'm still working on a way to set that up.

Why I didn't Go With iVlog

I would like to thank the folks at iVlog for being accommodating to my concerns about their Terms of Service and answering my many questions about it.

Yes, I would be using iVlog right now if it wasn't for the lack of traffic to the show on it when we tried it back in the Summer. Not their fault by any means and I am thinking of using iVlog for some of the other internet projects that I'm thinking of rolling out next year that would be a better fit for the site.

The problem is that at least at that time nobody on iVlog wanted to hang out at a radio formatted show and there is nothing wrong with that. I look at it this way, right DJ, wrong bar. Sometimes I wonder if I had stuck with it if the viewer statistics would have been better but I really don't know. As I just said, I have other internet projects in the works that have nothing to do with Indie Spotlight that I think would be a much better fit for the iVlog audience so I'm not done with iVlog at all.

By what I've seen so far, justcast is a better fit for Indie Spotlight.

Our New Broadcasting Home

First of all, I want to thank everyone that has been loyal to the show, and our ups and downs since the blogtv shutdown early last year. I know that many of you have had trouble opening the show on the webs.com site because of the ads, the way I had to cobble it together using code from other sites for the player and the chat and sometimes just logging into the site to watch the show has been more of a hassle than anyone should have had to deal with. You guys and gals are great, Indie Spotlight wouldn't even still be broadcast live on the internet if it wasn't for you. No seriously, I would have hung up my headphones and said the hell with it long before now if it wasn't for the fact that if I wasn't there doing the show someone would have missed it.

I'd also like to thank LiveStreamCast.org for hosting the show since I found you back in June of 2013 after the blogtv shutdown and the awdio.com disaster. Last Sunday was the first time that your player didn't work, out of all the other nights that it did, I have no complaints other than sometimes the ads that you display are, well for lack of a better word for it, are kinda out there at times but most of my viewers use ad-blocker so they were spared the worse of it so no worries.

Now, for the big announcement. As I said before I'm only moving the show one more time. If this doesn't work out, I hate to say it but as far as Indie Spotlight, I'm done. Should it be "that time" I'll be the first to admit that I will have a hard time hanging up my headset as far as this show is concerned but if this doesn't work out, then yes, I will put it out of it's misery and focus on some of the other internet projects I am starting to plan for next year.

Some of the issues that have come up in the post blogtv era that I feel have hurt the show are the following;

The weird ads that have popped up on our webs.com site, mostly because I'm using borrowed code from other sites that I have no control over.

Some people have had issues loading the player.

Others can't load the chat

Others still just can't load the site.

Because the show wasn't being hosted on a site that hosted other shows there wasn't any traffic to the show besides our die-hard supporters and so the chat wasn't near as busy as it was when we were on blogtv.

No live music, since I have no other choice but to use the encoder I can't co-host anyone other than use Skype.

Since there hasn't been as much traffic to the show, I haven't invested as much time preparing it as I used to, in fact, not even close. I've been recycling the same playlists for weeks now.

I could go on.......

Here is where moving the show to our new home will solve most of that. On the site that I will be using we can have live music and it looks like it will be easy to make that happen.

On the new site, the place hosting it has a ton of "radio" oriented shows although I think I might be the first show on it broadcasting indie music.

Did a test show there last Sunday, and made a new friend, first night ever on the site.

So.........................

(drumroll please)

I will ask everyone to reset their bookmarks one more time, starting this Sunday at 9 pm (eastern U.S.) please join us at our new home at http://justcast.org/users/indie-spotlight-live

Again, thank you all for your continued support and I hope to see you at our new home!

My Player Wouldn't Work, So I Tried justcast.org Tonight....

.... justcast turned out to be pretty awesome.

Ok, here is what happened tonight, the site that hosts my media player for the show was down, I've been wanting to play around on justcast but haven't had the time so since the player that I've been using (which has been trouble free up until now) was down I decided why the hell not?

I'm happy to report that the site worked really well overall, they are still having some growing pains from what I've been told but I didn't have any issues tonight.

Look for the "official" announcement this week but I think we might dump the site that we created on webs.com and use this instead.

Stay tuned....

Adventures in Ubuntu (Linux)

Trying to get a streaming player when we're not broadcasting live has been a handful to say the least. I'll be honest while I'm learning a lot about Linux I think that if I had it to do over again, I would have just cleaned out all the garbage that was on that computers previous XP install, and found a way to make that work instead. At the end of the day since I am not planning on using it for any other reason other than to stream the show I don't think it would have mattered anyway.

That being said, I've already wiped it and have done the Ubuntu install, so at this point I really don't have much of a choice other than to run with it. The challenge (besides learning a new operating system) has been finding a player that can link up with the player that I use for the show. I really wish I had done my research, I would have known that the Adobe Flash Media Encoder wasn't supported in Linux.

I guess it doesn't matter now, like I said I'm already in the fight since I've already wiped the Win Xp off of it. There are programs that work similar to the FLME, it's just been a matter of finding which one, and how to install it ect. since I'm doing this on a totally new (at least to me) operating system and learning how it works. Ubuntu is great, but it is still way different than Windows.

Still working on this though, the biggest reason why is that currently the traffic on the show is reminding me of when we were on blogtalkradio. Not a lot of traffic during the live show, but we had a ton of hits on the archive, so I'm still thinking that if there are previous shows streaming on the site when we aren't broadcasting live, people will check that out just as they did on BTR which still gives the musicians the "spotlight".

And that, is what Indie Spotlight is all about anyway. It is taking more time that I expected to make this work, but I will make this work.


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Show updates;

Sunday nights are still played live on our webs.com site and will be for the foreseeable future. While I did check out another broadcasting site (justcast) I haven't even created a profile there yet much less played with it. Just haven't had time.

I may also need to move the official start time of the show from 9 p.m. to 9:15, I've been working more Sunday nights lately and it's been a challenge to get home on time, and ready to broadcast at the 9 o'clock timeslot.

Linux Experiment Part 1

The Linux Experiment

I found a good working tower at the Salvation Army yesterday that was running Windows XP. Since Microsoft doesn't support it anymore I'm taking it and doing what I've always been curious about and installing Linux on it.

I have the video camera going and recording along the way any issues that I've found. The purpose of this machine is to stream the show when I'm not actively broadcasting but since I've always been interested in Linux I intend to play around with it as well.

Will keep you guys posted.

October Update

It's hard to believe that it was a year ago that I was surrounded by a sea of boxes, bags of cloths, newspaper wrapped knick-knacks and was blogging about a hiatus from the show.

Nothing seriously new to report, we are still broadcasting live and going strong on our webs.com site that I created last year, the only new wrinkle is that I found a new site that seems to cater to the kind of show we do (justcast.org, see previous blog post) that I might play around with and see what kind of traffic we get over there.

Might as well lol

JustCast

I found a site last week that I'm thinking of trying in addition to the Sunday night show, it's called Just Cast.

Their Terms of Service is simple and doesn't claim any license or ownership of content and it seems that there are music oriented shows there vs. iVlog.

I'll let you guys know if I decide to do it.

Troy Castellano Project 52 Week 39

From Troy;

Project 52 Week 39! This week song is called "If These Boots Could Talk". I'm not sure if it's a great thing to write about but I have these pair of boots that I've had for about 18 years. They have been with me to every major gig I've played and every cool party I've been to. Pretty much almost every good time I've had in my adult life these boots have been there. Man, the stories they could tell if they had the ability to talk. I know they'd remember more than I ever did! (but then again no one should know some of those stories LOL). They are also the most comfortable pair of boots/shoes I've ever owned. They'll probably out last me! Maybe I'll take a pic of them and post it in this thread. Any way, this is song about my boots :) . Hope you like it! Please keep sharing, liking and commenting on these P52 videos. It helps immensely! 

Quick Update

I mentioned in one of my previous blogs that I was looking for a back up computer that I could use to stream past shows on the site when I'm not actively broadcasting.

Because I wasn't planning on using such a machine for anything else I was looking to do this on the super cheap (meaning free).

I've posted more than a couple of ads on Freecycle and haven't gotten any responses so I don't think I'll have any luck there. While at the Salvation Army store this week I noticed that they had a pile of computers but there was no real way to check them out unless I plugged in a monitor, keyboard and mouse right there and I didn't notice all 3 at the same time when I was there. I'm ok with laying out a little cash to make 24/7 streaming happen but at the same time I'm not inclined to throw money away on it.

Still working on making this happen though, stay tuned!

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Show update;

Taking this week off, mostly because I have an early morning meeting, and at least an hour drive to get to it. I thought that I said goodbye to this kind of thing when I stepped down from my last promotion (see one of my June blog posts). However we will resume our normal broadcast schedule next Sunday and I hope you'll join us!

No Show This Week (9/28/14)

Due to the fact that I have an early morning meeting (and an hour drive to get to it) there will be no broadcast this week.

Indie Spotlight will return at it's normal time next Sunday.

Have a great weekend!

~ Jack

Why the Indies Just Nail It

September 2014 Update

Since our total flop on iVlog I've come to accept that doing the show on our own site is the better bet although it's going to have it's ups and downs.

What I mean by that is that some week's we're going to have a packed chat, while other week's it's just going to be me and Deb from Unsigned Musicians in the chat.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I'm ok with that. I really think that I've accomplished quite a bit with Indie Spotlight during it's run and while I will keep the show going I'm starting to look at other internet broadcasting projects that I might do.

At this time, I'm not planning on retiring as host of Indie Spotlight, this show will continue however I don't find it fulfilling as I once did which to me is a sign that my internet hosting a live broadcast needs to go in another direction.

While I have a ton of ideas in my head as to what I might do next, I haven't decided where I want to go as of yet so stay tuned.

Wandering Minds = Dangerous

Sitting here working on tomorrow's playlist and my mind started to wander. I gotta be careful with that because sometimes it doesn't come back.

I'm trying to think of ways that I could make the show better and right now I'm drawing a blank.

Some of the things that made the show back in the day just aren't available to me in our current format. For example, back when we did musician interviews on blogtalkradio people could call in with questions and talk live with their favorite musician.

Can't do that right now, lost that when we left BTR back in 2009. While we made the interview format work on blogtv with the chat, it just wasn't the same because we either needed a phone number or a skype name and while most people trusted us with either, not everyone did.

Live music, yeah, that would be a total crapshoot. See, because I have to use the Adobe Flash Encoder to broadcast the show on our current site, there is no co-host capability. iVlog doesn't offer it as of yet either. The only way we could bring live music back would be to try it via Skype. Tried it back when we were on Blogtv, it didn't go well due to bandwith issues on the musicians end.

In other words I think I've done all I can really do in this medium.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not hanging up my headset, no matter how many or how few people come to the broadcast I enjoy doing it. No matter what else I decide to take up, Indie Spotlight will stay on it's current format, date and time.

I'm just starting to think about some other projects that I might like to do.

For examples, while not doing a political show, I wouldn't mind doing something in a talk format. Back during my NewsTalk days I had an idea for a show that I was going to call "What If Moments in History" where I would take a historic event, and wonder what would be different if it had not have happened. Of course you would need interaction with other people to really make that play out. I still think it's a neat idea although it would take a TON of work to put together but I still think it would be fun so that is an idea. The downside is that this would have to broadcast on a site that you could interact with people verbally, similar to blogtalkradio.

I've actually done a few American Football related shows way back in the day on BTR, I called it Tuesday Night Quarterback. To be quite honest about it I was just playing around with it and it ended up being a total flop but with the right promotion I think it could work. Just have to find a place to broadcast it. iVlog is an option on this one. Would have to find another name for the show, ideas?

I could do a cooking show but with my luck I would end up being a prime example as to why people shouldn't cook live on the internet.

..................and

                               my mind
                           
                                               has wandered
         
                                                                            away

As a Side Note..

I mentioned it during the show but for those of you who weren't there, I am looking at getting another computer for no other reason than to leave the show on loop in the player when I'm not actively broadcasting.

Stay tuned, more details to come.

August Update

Good evening everyone, just a quick update. While I still may do the odd-ball broadcast on iVlog I've decided that the best thing for the show is to remain on indiespotlightlive.webs.com.

Over the last couple of weeks I also decided that since I wasn't rebroadcasting at least these particular broadcasts on iVlog I went back to my original format, some music that for various reasons I wasn't giving airplay are being played once again and I gotta tell ya, it was like saying hello to old friends.

The reason I'm staying on our own site is simple, there was no traffic to the show on iVlog, however over the last couple of weeks I have been seeing some familiar faces that I hadn't seen since our return to our own site. Looking at the stats it's clear where we need to be.

Random Thoughts

Haven't done this in a long while, for some reason I'm feeling nostalgic, mostly about life in general. Earlier this week I was reading Mike Rowe's post on Facebook about Robin Williams' untimely passing and I guess it just got me thinking.

First, the post;

Mike Rowe

Yesterday

Off The Wall

Shannon Howard-Trevizo

"I'm struggling. Please say something about Robin Williams. I know you could put into words what people want to hear.. local boy to local us."

Hi Shannon

I wish I could tell you we were pals. That we hung out from time to time, or played poker every other Thursday. Unfortunately, I didn’t know the man. Like most people in The Bay Area, my contact with Robin was limited to a few random and minor encounters. However, those encounters made an impression.

The first was in 2006 - June or maybe July. I walked into The Roastery down on Chestnut, ordered a coffee, and sat down to read the paper. I soon discovered I was in one of those chairs with one leg shorter than the rest, and resolved to remedy the problem by jamming a folded-up coaster under the offending limb. I bent down, got the thing positioned properly, and managed to smack my head on the edge of the table on the way back up. Hard. The impact was noisy, and sent coffee slushing all over The Chronicle, which in turn lead to an “Ahh...shit!,” a little louder than I intended. A second later, a voice said, “No, I believe that’s coffee. Shit’s the stuff I see you crawling through every time I turn on the TV.”

I didn’t recognize the voice, but when I looked up, there was no mistaking the face. It belonged to Garp, Mork, Mrs. Doubtfire, and so many others. He was just standing there, smiling, waiting for me to say something pithy. I imagined him thinking, “Your move, chief.” But I had nothing. All I could think was “Holy crap - Robin Williams knows who I am!” Eventually, it got awkward, so he said, “Love the show, man,” and walked out.

There was another time a few years later at something called The “X” Prize. This was a very swanky affair at The Lucas Digital Arts Studio in May of 2010. How I got invited is a bit of a mystery, but I was, and I went. I saw Robin on the Red Carpet, chatting with some reporters. I caught his eye and nodded. He nodded back and told me I cleaned up pretty good. I told him he looked very pretty. He chuckled and moved on.

That's it, I'm afraid.

It’s a curious thing isn't it, to miss someone you didn't really know? Maybe it has something to do with their entrance? In show biz, and life, a big entrance can leave a big impression, and Robin made a very big one. He crashed into our lives 36 years ago, and took up a kind of residence. Now that he's left, maybe we miss more than the person? Maybe we miss the version of ourselves that was on hand during that first meeting. Does that make sense?

When I first saw Mork and Mindy, I was sixteen years old, and badly smitten with a girl named Heather. We watched the first episode together in her parents basement, and laughed like lunatics. Then we made out. When I heard about Robin yesterday, my first feeling was shock. Then, a kind of sadness, too shallow to call grief, but to too real to ignore. It wasn't till later that I found myself wondering about Heather for the first time in years, and recalling my sixteen-year old self with a weird mix of nostalgia and melancholy.

Some people enter our lives and become benchmarks in ways we don't realize. Then they exit, and we struggle. Sometimes, those people are high-school buddies, and sometimes, they're strangers who somehow felt like friends. Either way, it sucks when they go.

Mike

After reading this I got to thinking about how life changes in general, and with the passage of time how things change, people come and go, jobs change, ect. No matter how much we sometimes wish it didn't time does indeed march on and we're along for the ride whether we like it or not.

Earlier this evening I was looking at my old blog posts (mostly from 2009) and my words at least to me have a different feel to them. I don't know how best to describe it other than to say that it looks like it was written by a happier and more energetic version of myself. You could almost feel my passion in my words whether I was blogging about a new musician, the transition from blogtalkradio (omg remember those days?) to blogtv and so on I was really happy about what I had to say.

As I'm sure everyone knows I've had some serious life events and setbacks over the last couple of years that to put it mildly really threw me for a loop. In thinking about Mike Rowe's words at the end of the post, and I think that he really hit home, when things change and we find ourselves in such a different set of circumstances and sometimes not even realizing how we got there but wishing we were back to where we were.

The saying you can't go home again is to me an absolute truth. When you listen to Pete Berwick's "This Used to Be a Town" one of the lyric's is "time marches on without yesterday" and that is very true. As I sit here tonight just kinda taking a trip down memory lane I find myself thinking about, well for lack of a better way to describe it, but I guess you can say era's of my life while there are more than a few things I would rather not have back, there are some times and moments that I wouldn't mind living again, as well as the few I wish that I could have back and do over. Overall though I guess that if I could go back to at least 2009 when the show began and was in it's heyday and give one piece of advice to myself it would be enjoy the moment because it will never come again.

Actually I guess if I had the ability I would give a whole pile of advice to my 5 years younger self;

Enjoy blogtvt it won't last forever
Spend more time with your mom, you're gonna miss her
Work can always be worse
Don't forget to make the occasional phone call to certain people, they do love you and want to hear that you are doing ok
Keep the show going, you're gonna go insane without it, the music and the friends in the chat
Change your transmission fluid
Don't take the promotion (either of them) it's going to be a worse headache than it's worth
Check the oil
Don't throw away the cast-iron skillet it can be saved
Log into skype more often
Go outside
Go for a drive to nowhere for no reason just because you can
One day you will have a very intelligent and industrious cat, make sure the screen on the sliding door and the windows are secure, otherwise she will get out. Don't worry if she does, she will have you well trained and will come back when you take the bag of treats outside and shake it
Don't unfriend people on Facebook too hastily
Take a snow day when it snows
Check the mail
Clean the fridge
Don't act like everything is fine when it is not
Be a better listener
Sometimes it's ok to be an asshole
Sometimes it's not
Life is gonna knock you on your ass more than once, don't stay down get back up
Keep the Netflix subscription
If all else fails google it
Turn off the a/c and open a window
Keep the smoking outside, you'll smoke less
Actually try to quit smoking, I think it would have been easier then than now
Check the spare tire
Enjoy the fun times, they won't come again
Don't let people drift away

It's really easy to think about regrets or things we wish we either had back or could change isn't it? Kinda has me wondering about the things that I wouldn't change but maybe I'll save that for a future post.

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Show updates;

We've resumed broadcasting on indiespotlightlive.webs.com on Sunday nights at 9 pm (eastern U.S.) and I've been saving the show and rebroadcasting it on our iVlog page. There is no set date or time for the rebroadcast at this time.

Not Many People Read Blogs

Looking at the stats on blogger, not as many people read my blog as they used to back in the day.

I'm trying an experiment, if you read this leave a comment!

Returning to indiespotlightlive.webs.com on Sunday Nights

Hi everyone.

I've decided to move back to the page I created on webs.com for the Sunday night show.

Since the Flash Media Encoder records the show, and I can play the file on iVlog using Splitcam I can rebroadcast it on iVlog at another time.

Not giving up on iVlog by any means, I just need to pick a different night to broadcast there and this will give me the flexibility to do just that, at the same time while I'm looking at the prospect of doing 2 shows a week, at least one of them will be a simple matter of hitting "play".

So, yes, going back home tomorrow at indiespotlightlive.webs.com/

As long as I remember how to configure the encoder and the player :)

Hope to see everyone there.

Glad I went with my gut and kept the page up.

July Update

Hey everyone.  Been a while since I've put my thoughts down in a blog, hope I'm not out of practice lol.

We launched on iVlog several weeks ago. I'm finding that the Sunday night time slot might be work so well over there, while there aren't many people using iVlog yet I'm running up against some heavy hitter shows, such as game night as well as other popular iVlog'ers. Nothing wrong with that of course, I came late to the party anyway but for the show to be successful on iVlog I think I need to pick a different night to broadcast on there.

At the same time, long time regulars are either (a) having trouble getting to the show on iVlog or (b) have other reasons to not visit the show over there. I've asked on FB and have gotten an variety of different reasons as to why I don't see many familiar faces when I broadcast there.

So, this is what I'm thinking..........

Returning to using the indiespotlightlive.webs.com page on Sunday nights, saving the file and rebroadcasting it on iVlog on another night, most likely to be picked at random until I see some traffic at the show where I can pick a solid night and stick with it.

At this point this is the direction I'm thinking of going in, after the blogtv shutdown I had some die hard regulars that stuck with us, sadly I haven't seen many of them on iVlog so I need to do the best thing I can for them, as well as the show.

Calling All Musicians!

Looking for Creative Commons Licensed music videos to share on my broadcast, the catch is that it has to be CC licensed, be original and you can't be listed with a performance rights society.

Interested?  Message me via riskybusiness04@gmail.com!

Computer Update

Well, kinda good news. They confirmed my issue with the new computer and it was covered under warranty. As I suspected it was an issue with the memory.

The bad? I don't expect to have the machine back in time for Sunday's show so while I can try a broadcast with my laptop past experience has told me that it's not going to go well so I don't know if I'm even gonna bother.

I'm thinking I might have to bag this week's show on iVlog.

But......

I'll be able to do the next one without worrying about a computer crash!

More Computer Problems...

Hopefully I can get this straightened out before Sunday but right now it's not looking good. My brand new (just bought last November) computer crashed. I think it's some kind of defect but whatever the case may be its not looking good for a show on Sunday.

Grrr, I bought a new computer just so I wouldn't have to go through this shit anymore.

Ready For Prime Time!

Sorry for the short notice, but I've decided that this week will be our premier on iVlog!

Join us starting at 9 pm (eastern) this Sunday night

Indie Spotlight Live on iVlog.tv

Now that my personal life is starting to settle down I'll have more time to focus on the broadcast (woohoo!)

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Show update;

See above.  Also note that I will continue to keep my webs.com page online to do the occasional show for the musicians that I won't be including in the rotation for the show on iVlog

Official "Jack" Update

I've recently stepped down from the promotion that I took last fall, mostly because I was over my head with it as well as the fact that it was taking me away from certain things in my personal life and my life online.

So let this post serve as the official "I'm back" update as well as my apology to my friends online that I'm sorry that I haven't been around, but now I'll be online much more than I have been lately.

Thanks for the continued support, blog post about the future of the show coming up shortly.

Show Update June 2014

I made it official during the show this week, sometime over the next couple of weeks we're transitioning to iVlog.tv.

 

As I mentioned in the video the format of the show will change but I'm planning on keeping the page on webs.com online and do the "private reserve" show that I mentioned in the video.

More details to come.......

Happy Memorial Day!

Don't forget during the BBQ's and enjoying the company of friends and family the real reason this holiday exists and take the time to honor our friends in uniform, they deserve it.  It's also a great time to honor the fallen as well.  One of the things that I added to my bucket list a couple of years ago is at least one time I'd like to volunteer to help plant the flags that fly at every headstone Memorial Day weekend at the Veterans Cemetery.  It really is a breath taking sight to see.  I know not all of us have time to go volunteer at the VA, or at the local VFW, ect. but even something that wouldn't take much time like this is just as worthy.  Everyone is always saying they want to do more to honor our veterans, something like this honors them as well.

Taken at Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery Memorial Day weekend 2012 

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Show notes;

I've missed the last couple of weeks, work has been flat out nuts. I am planning on doing a show this week (show date 5/25) starting at my usual 9 pm eastern time. 

Stay tuned to this blog about future show updates, changes are coming.

May 2014 Update

First of all I'd like to thank everyone for the continued support.

Here are last week's stats which will be the focus of this blog update....

Summary

	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total	Avg
Pageloads	0	0	0	0	0	0	12	12	2
Unique Visits	0	0	0	0	0	0	10	10	1
First Time Visits	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	7	1
Returning Visits	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	0

As you can see, while I'm just a guy doing his own show on his own site, these stats while not embarrassing since at least there was some traffic, they aren't great.

I have to make a decision which is either go Ivlog or shut down.

To be honest about it, I think we would do well on ivlog, the downside is that in order to do a show over there I'll have to go all CC formatted music which would leave off some of these guys that I've been playing for years.

I dunno to be honest, right now I could take the show in so many different ways.

In Case You Missed It

Show update;

I'm still using the site that I created on webs.com for the broadcast, I will likely transition over to iVlog in the next couple of weeks. It's time that we rejoined a real broadcasting community.

The format for the show will change a bit, when we move it's going to be all Creative Commons licensed music. I need to beef up the playlist a bit so I have enough to cover at least a two hour show and the easiest way to pull that off will be renewing my partnership with Magnatune. Because people abused it they stopped offering their music for free to podcasters. To be honest about it I was a little put off by this, but the musicians still get their cut when you pay and since right now I can afford it I'm thinking why not? The musicians get a royalty and airplay, it's a win-win for them and we're all about supporting them anyway. I'm ok with the musicians getting a royalty even though I'm giving them airplay, to be honest about it I really couldn't afford to pay for the lifetime membership that I would prefer to sign up for until now.

I feel that it gives me another arrow to put in my quiver, since public broadcasting of CC licensed music hasn't been tried in court because the music mafia really hasn't gone after it (music mafia meaning labels, soundexchange which is another nice gift that our government gave the music industry, Harry Fox and whoever else) I feel that on top of offering airplay and exposure I also paid for the music and was encouraged to podcast it, well, even with the music industry's mountain of lawyers I might stand a chance.

As it stands right now the site that I've been using I still have to do my own research and make sure that legally they can license under CC and more times than not I've found that they really can't, most of the time it's because they are part of a Performance Right's society. Unless I know the musician I'm just not comfortable with this. Magnatune on the other hand has already done their homework and I know the CC licensed musician is the real deal, it will save me time that I can use to find and bring new music to the show.

So changes are coming, as I've said often since blogtv shut down, stay tuned.

Attention, Windows XP holdouts: The end is near

I used XP for years myself, great operating system but as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. I myself don't have any current machines running this software but I know that other folks still do.

Here is a link to an article that I think is the best one I've seen so far with tips for people still running this dinosaur, hope it helps you folks out.

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Show update;

I'm still using the site that I created on webs.com for the broadcast, I will likely transition over to iVlog in the next couple of weeks. It's time that we rejoined a real broadcasting community.

The format for the show will change a bit, when we move it's going to be all Creative Commons licensed music. I need to beef up the playlist a bit so I have enough to cover at least a two hour show and the easiest way to pull that off will be renewing my partnership with Magnatune. Because people abused it they stopped offering their music for free to podcasters. To be honest about it I was a little put off by this, but the musicians still get their cut when you pay and since right now I can afford it I'm thinking why not? The musicians get a royalty and airplay, it's a win-win for them and we're all about supporting them anyway. I'm ok with the musicians getting a royalty even though I'm giving them airplay, to be honest about it I really couldn't afford to pay for the lifetime membership that I would prefer to sign up for until now.

I feel that it gives me another arrow to put in my quiver, since public broadcasting of CC licensed music hasn't been tried in court because the music mafia really hasn't gone after it (music mafia meaning labels, soundexchange which is another nice gift that our government gave the music industry, Harry Fox and whoever else) I feel that on top of offering airplay and exposure I also paid for the music and was encouraged to podcast it, well, even with the music industry's mountain of lawyers I might stand a chance.

As it stands right now the site that I've been using I still have to do my own research and make sure that legally they can license under CC and more times than not I've found that they really can't, most of the time it's because they are part of a Performance Right's society. Unless I know the musician I'm just not comfortable with this. Magnatune on the other hand has already done their homework and I know the CC licensed musician is the real deal, it will save me time that I can use to find and bring new music to the show.

So changes are coming, as I've said often since blogtv shut down, stay tuned.

Another Facebook Status That Was Not Fun To Read (Thoughts and Positive Energy Needed)

Our friend Rod Krug (didgerod) isn't doing so well, asking for thoughts, prayers and positive energy please.....

Status Update

By Rod Krug

ok folks. I am in the hospital here in Colorado Springs. My heart rate reached 167 as I walked into the emergency room. They gave me medicine through IV and pills to slow my heart down but the heart still has artiral fubulation. (spelling) My heart is not beating a good rhythm. I will be here overnight for observation and they are going to run stress test on my heart tomorrow. They are going to put me on blood thinners to make sure there is no blood clots that may have built up during this time. So tomorrow when they shock my heart that no clots will be flowing through my veins and give me a stroke. They asked me tonight if something goes wrong if I wanted to be resuscitated and I told them if I am on life support to pull the plug..... I love each and every one of you now and forever........ Namaste.....

Just Want To Say Goodbye (P52-9) Troy Castellano

Long time listeners will remember when we had Troy on the show, the guy is a brilliant musician and he's uploading a new original on his YouTube channel every week, check him out!

Musicians Together

Our friends over on Musicians Together had a rough year with technical issues with the site last year. Earlier I watched a video that Mark (site founder) put up talking about some of the issues they've had and how they have fixed them as well as plans for the future.

So if you are a MT fan who got frustrated with the sites issues and stopped checking them out, they are back 100% and would love to have you back on there.

We had Mark on the show back in May 2011 right after the site launched, and I think he is one of the best folks I've ever met on the internet as far as looking out for the Indie guys and if you are tired of the YouTube politics (and I know many musicians are) then I would very highly recommend uploading a few tracks to Musicians Together. It's a really great community that has come together on that site and you will be welcomed, and your videos will be seen without all the ass kissing that often happens on YouTube.

http://musicianstogether.com

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Show Updates;

Yes, I know iVlog is up and running however I've decided to continue on with my format on webs.com for the time being. I talked about it during this weeks show a bit so to give the Readers Digest condensed version is while I have been in contact with the folks who put that together in regards to my concerns regarding their TOS I don't feel that I can use that as a broadcasting platform at this time. I will continue to communicate with them on how we might resolve this but to be honest the site just launched and I know they have their hands full and I really don't feel the need to be a pain in the ass at this point but I will get back in touch with them within the next couple of weeks but until then Indie Spotlight will remain on our site on webs.com for now.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still a die hard iVlog supporter and I encourage everyone to check them out the site while still a work in process has come together really well.

http://www.ivlog.tv

This Week's Stats

For a guy doing his own thing on his own site I have to say that we're doing ok.  With limited promotion on social networking our hits last week are the best yet....

Summary

	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun	Total	Avg
Pageloads	3	0	2	3	0	0	16	24	3
Unique Visits	3	0	1	2	0	0	14	20	3
First Time Visits	2	0	0	1	0	0	10	13	2
Returning Visits	1	0	1	1	0	0	4	7	1

With that being said, our stats in our heyday on blogtalkradio and blogtv were much more impressive but with the limited promotion about a show on a site that was created for free we're not doing great, but not as bad as we were doing as far as hits during the live show since I built the site.  

I'd love to see this increase, and for that to happen we need to bring back live music, somehow.  I'm thinking we might try to do it via Skype.  We tried that during the Blogtv era and it didn't go well but I'm on a better internet connection as well as a much faster computer so maybe it's worth another shot.

Anyone want to be a guinea pig for the test?   Let me know!

February Update

Hello blogger readers, time for a quick update.

Due to popular demand, as well as my desire to get back into hosting, we resumed the show on our current webs.com site a couple of weeks ago. Right now we're broadcasting on Sunday nights, 9 pm (eastern) at http://indiespotlightlive.webs.com/.

This will be our broadcasting home until iVlog opens and I'll speak more about the iVlog launch below since people have been asking me about it.

First off, I know just as much as anyone else that is a part of the iVlog Facebook group, while I have been in touch with the folks putting that together in regards to my concerns about their Terms of Service sadly I can't say that I'm in the loop as far as when the site will actually launch.

Second, I'm just as impatient as many other former blogtv users are for iVlog to launch. As I type this, we're looking at the 1 year anniversary of the blogtv shutdown, and many of us haven't found a suitable platform to do our shows since. Many have tried and from their experiences I have a short list of broadcast sites that to be honest about it, suck. Personally I think it's the lack of a true community like many of us had on blog, our expectations were pretty high when we tried other sites. From the look of it, iVlog should meet those expectations and more.

But it's been almost a year since blogtv sold out and shut down.

iVlog has been in the works since the blogtv shutdown.

I know they are working out the bugs, and the site is being built from scratch but at some point we need at least a launch date. I'm still a die hard believer in iVlog but it's been almost a year.

I consider myself a die hard believer, but at some point, even the most die hard among us need to think about plan B.

There is another broadcasting alternative out there, with a favorable TOS, that I can use. Going it alone on our own site isn't working, the show has to be a part of a broadcasting platform. We need the networking to give exposure to the musicians.

So iVlog, I think the world of you folks, I feel what you are putting together is the real deal, I know it's going to be what many of us wished that blogtv was. There is so much untapped potential out there as far as internet broadcasting for people to have their 15 minutes of fame and really nail it. I understand that for a site that actually works is going to take some time.

But, we can't wait forever. I hate to say this in a public way, but as far as Indie Spotlight, and bringing it to iVlog, I have to set an expiration date. You have a month, if the site isn't online and ready to use for broadcasting within a month of this blog post I will have no choice but to explore other broadcasting avenues.

I hate to be an asshole and say this but;

1) You got the amount you needed to launch the site from the indiegogo fundraiser.
2) Even now you have a loyal group of folks waiting for the site to officially launch
3) We can't wait forever
4) Blogtv had it's quirks, as other broadcasting sites do, we learned to live with them.
5) At some point even the most die hard supporters are going to fade away
6) The time is now, yeah the sites not perfect, but here is a newsflash either was blogtv, the difference between iVlog and blogtv is that on iVlog, you might actually fix the problems where blogtv did not.

Many of us that have been patiently waiting, or just dealing with the issues and drama on other broadcasting sites aren't going to wait forever. While a diehard supporter of iVlog, at some point even I will hit my expiration date and explore my other options.

I'd rather get on the ground floor on iVLog, but I can't wait forever.

Indie Spotlight Live Returns Tonight!

iVlog hasn't launched yet so we'll be doing the show on the webs.com site, join us tonight starting at 9 pm eastern time!

January Update

Hey everyone, hope you all survived New Years!

Just a quick update, as it stands right now I'm still waiting for iVlog to launch however I might do an impromptu broadcast on the webs.com site here and there before they do, mostly to get back into practice broadcasting as well as familiarize myself with the new computer as well as the new manycam controls (way different than what I was used to).

So watch this blog as well as the facebook group for updates and when you might find the show live.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year blogger readers, lets hope that this year is an outstanding year for all of us!

Nothing new to report on the show front at this time, although my understanding is that iVlog is finally close to launching. As soon as they do Indie Spotlight will be returning to the airwaves, although most likely on a different night. I'll keep you all posted when that happens via this blog as well as our Facebook group.

Take care and again, Happy New Year!!!