I just can't, that's bullshit. While I feel what we do, which is broadcast independent musicians that might not get airplay, is important, it's not so impressive that people will follow me to the ends of the internet or even go to a bunch of trouble to find my broadcast.
So, what do I do? I am looking at alternatives, both temporary and permanent. Right now I'm still all in with justcastlive, but not knowing how long they are going to be offline I wouldn't be a responsible host if I didn't look at the big picture and I need to be on a strong reliable site which until last week justcastlive has been. I really don't want to move the show again, I like and trust these guys and I have no doubt that they are working hard behind the scenes to bring the site back.
Not to mention how supportive they have been of show, we are the featured broadcast on there almost every week.
Now, with all of that being said (kinda rambling here I know) these are some of the alternatives that I am looking at;
YouTube;
I found last night that because the "Indie Spotlight" page on youtube is in good account standing that I can enable streaming. I did a one hour test show, loading a previous broadcast into XSplit and let it roll. Some of the things I liked were...
a) You get live feedback from youtube on your stream, and they suggest what settings need to be changed, whether it's adjusting them up, or down.
b) You can archive the show so people can replay them on demand later if they want.To me this solves the problem of people who want to hear past shows looking for a podcast, well, here is my youtube channel, watch them here.
c) YouTube is a known brand
d) Yes, they do have a chat that can be turned off, and you can embed the live show on another site, such as my previous site on webs.com.
The things that turn me off were;
a) I can't embed statcounter so I don't know where my live hits are coming from.
b) When I finished the test show the account was hit with 6 copyright claims, which is to be expected because this is youtube. We all know this is automated, and none of the claims affected the standing of the account because it was from all indie labels who just wanted to make sure that nobody except them and the musicians were getting paid for their work, and this enabled advertisements for where you can find and download links for the musicians. I'd rather have this amount of control myself since I often post links in chat as to where you can get the music, but at the same time I have to say that I do like that the system on youtube works and to be honest as long as it's ad's for the right musician and they get album sales and promotion, well that's why we do the show anyway. This one is a mixed bag.
c) I might find myself with a renegade musician, and get hit with a copyright claim that isn't monetized for youtube that might decide to be an asshole that will not only kill my youtube account, but my show as well. Again, as a responsible broadcaster I have to consider this scenario. Right now my current format is all Creative Commons but when you go on youtube you really put yourself out there with your broadcast and my fear is that I might learn the hard way about how Creative Commons licensing works with someone who didn't understand what Creative Commons really means and find myself being the guinea pig in court sorting this out. No thanks, I don't make any money on broadcasting, I'm not in this to make money, it's to put the musicians out there and let them be known. I work a regular job, and am doing really well to pay my own bills. I don't need a lawyer bill on top of all that. When you go on youtube, you are broadcasting in a very public and traceable way and I really don't like that. I'm super careful with the videos that I put on there which is why I haven't done much with our youtube account lately.
Ok, next.....
Looking at awdio.com. Long time listeners and readers of this blog might remember that we've been there before. The biggest issue that I had with Awdio was the reliability. We did shows on there for 2 months and there was more than one occasion that I wasn't able to do the show because the site was down. Looking at it now, they have made a bunch of changes. While not my favorite option, it does remain an option because shows do archive there so people who miss the live show can listen to it later and their terms of service prohibit downloads. This is important to me for the simple fact that they expressly prohibit downloading shows. I like this because I'm in the business of promoting musicians, and not offering a platform where you can steal their music.
Here's the deal. I'm hoping that when I wake up tomorrow justcastlive is back online and I won't have to worry about all of this. Let's keep our fingers crossed that they get their current issues fixed but it has been almost 2 weeks...
So, the bottom line is I'd really rather not have to have yet another restart to the show, I have to be honest about it, if justcastlive doesn't come back online soon, I think that this time, I really won't be asking you folks to reset your bookmarks for another location yet again.
As much as I hate to say it, we've been broadcasting for 6 1/2 years, a damn good run by any standard. I just might take it for what it is, and say the hell with it and hang up my headset for good at least as far as live broadcasts go.
At this point I'm considering other options which are strictly podcast which would enable me to do the show, and let people listen to the podcasts and not worry about the live chat, as well as other surprises that happen at a live streaming broadcast. Just do the show and upload it somewhere, or do it live on awdio and just link the page on there where people can listen live, or stream the archive.
I'm not asking you guys to reset your bookmarks one more time unless it is something that is tangible and good for the show and the musicians. Moving away from the live broadcast format might be a better answer as far as both and just recording a podcast instead.
Stay tuned.
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