Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Broadcast For Week Ending 4/11/15.....

Have to work this coming Monday, so I'm not sure if I'll do the show later than usual, or at all.

I'll let you guys know just wanted to give you a heads up.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

2 Years Later...

Today is the second anniversary of the infamous shutdown of blogtv.com. For those of you who might not know blogtv is the website that we used for years for our live stream broadcast.

I was reading some posts on Facebook this morning and it got me thinking about how our online broadcast community kinda scattered around over the past 2 years since then.

Blogtv had it's flaws for sure, we even had a term for it when someone was having problems, we called it "getting the blog treatment" lol.

In any event I have to say that while sometimes I miss the "good ole days" it's more about missing the community. Since blogtv sold out many of us were scattered to the winds and ended up on one site or another and it was the end of an era as far as our community there, no matter how much we might or might not miss it it's a time in all our lives that will never come again.

The only real thing that I think blogtv had going for it that other streaming sites didn't at the time (and as far as I know still don't) is the co-hosting feature. Would love to see justcastlive find a way to implement that.

I saw a lot of posts especially on Facebook about people missing blogtv. Personally I don't think they miss blog at all, but I'm more than willing to bet that they miss the blogtv community. As I mentioned we all ended up on different streaming sites and not all of us on the same one. I don't think that many people transitioned to YouNow and from what I've heard from those that did regretted it, or didn't stay with it.

Those that landed on Vaughn stay there mostly out of habit and a lack of desire of telling their viewers where to find them if they moved to another site. Can't say I blame them.

iVlog, still wish we had done better on there, still think it's a great site, still want to broadcast some of the other internet projects that I have in mind on there but Indie Spotlight just didn't do well on there, I still call it right DJ, wrong bar.

I still think that if you are a music oriented show, and not just because Spotlight has done well on there, but because of the music lovers that will turn out at a show, justcastlive is the place to be and we need more music and musicians on there. People are thirsty for it, especially after 2 years of trying to find the next place to hear great music. One of the reasons I'm putting MusicFest together is because I want to help showcase justcastlive as a great place to broadcast and bring music lovers together.

As for me, well the past is to be remembered fondly, celebrated accordingly, but never dwelt upon. If even by some brilliant design blogtv came back online and said we were just kidding I would kinda nod my head and stick with justcastlive.

All the crap that has blindsided me in my personal life the last 4 years has taught me one thing;

Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not promised, all we have is today and that is why it is called the present.

I choose to live in the moment and look forward to the future. While I do wax nostalgic on the blogtv community I do not miss blogtv, to be honest about it the site was a buggy, quirky pain in the ass.
I've gone all in with justcastlive, and am happy to be a part of the community there and I look forward to seeing it grow and growing with it myself.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

March Update

Just realized that I haven't posted the "official" monthly update although I have posted updates in some of the other blogs I've posted this month.

1) I've decided that since we seem to do better on Monday nights on justcastlive that is our official broadcast night going forward. I might do other shows on other nights but Monday at 9 pm (eastern) is our "set in stone" date and time going forward.

2) MusicFest '15 is happening, planning on a weekend sometime in June, details to come.

3) 24/7 streaming? I've given up on this idea for now. I'm still archiving the shows as I do them so if I decide that maybe I would like to give it another shot later I'll have plenty of material to leave on loop so it doesn't get boring.

4) The other internet broadcast projects that I've been considering are still on the drawing board. I still want to bring at least one or two of them to life but I'm not ready to do that until I've done the prep work and are ready to go. These are on the back burner while I put MusicFest '15 together.

Thank you for reading my state of the show address for the month of March :)

MusicFest Update

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Promo Video For justcastlive.tv

Show Schedule Going Forward

For anyone that missed my previous post going forward we are sticking with Monday nights starting at 9 pm (eastern)

Should circumstances change and I'm unable to start the show at the usual time then I will either start late or take that week off.

Thanks again for all the continued support!

Monday, March 16, 2015

Blurred Lines.....

I haven't posted a blog about the industry in a while for one simple reason, there hasn't been anything new to report or talk about.

There has been something that I've been seeing on Facebook as well as hearing about in the news. Basically music being stolen,

Blurred Lines, this from Slate;

In a move unsurprising, perhaps, to anyone following the painful details of this unfortunate copyright trial, a jury today found Pharrell and Robin Thicke’s 2013 hit “Blurred Lines” far too similar to the Marvin Gaye 1977 classic “Got to Give It Up.”

As the AP reports, the musicians have been ordered to pay Gaye’s estate $7.3 million, which puts a pretty large dent in the earnings they’ve collected from the tune—testified to be at around $5 million for each. 

Very interesting, also not the first time it's happened recently, from CNN;

 Tom Petty stands his ground: Young British pop sensation Sam Smith's 2014 tune "Stay With Me" has a riff in the chorus similar to that of the 1989 Tom Petty hit "I Won't Back Down." Reports say the two settled out of court, and the official credits now list Petty as a co-writer of the Smith song. Petty says there are no hard feelings.

Pete Berwick has even had a song stolen that became a hit, I have no reason to not believe him;

 "THERE SHE GOES AGAIN" by Pete Berwick--1981: On the heels of the Grammy's BEST SONG OF THE YEAR, "Stay With Me," a song ripped off from Tom Petty, I was taken down memory lane, and the time I was leaving my record label's office in Nashville around 1992 and almost drove into a ditch when I heard "There She Goes " by a band called THE BOO RADLEYS on my car radio. There was no doubt in my mind it was my song, one I had written in 1981 and had recorded and performed with my punk band THE GENERICS, and I aborted litigation based on lack of funds and the fact that in my naive and non-business ways of my younger days I had failed to properly copyright the song. Several college radio stations had been playing it on regular rotation, and I had sent many copies to various record labels and publishing companies throughout California and England. "There She Goes" was recorded by two other bands besides The Boo Radleys, and some guy in a band called THE LA'S named Lee Mavers claimed to have written it. The song was a smash hit, and continues to be played today

So this is how low the mainstream music industry has sunk, they can't even come up with original music anymore so now they have to steal, oh I'm sorry I mean "borrow" from other songs? I'm sure this is not a new thing but at the same time one of the many facets of the industry that the general public doesn't even know is going on.

All I can say is that thank God the indies are out there and can still write original music. When will the mainstream figure out that this is what people want?

Guess that's a blurred line..............

Friday, March 13, 2015

MusicFest 2015

In one of my previous blog's I mentioned that since we are coming up on the 5th year since the passing of JD Steagal (Buster Chopz and JD and the Cherokee Boys) that I was planning on doing an tribute show to him.

JD used to refer independent musicians to me all the time, it was rare that when I logged into Myspace (remember them? you know, the site that we all hung out at before Facebook became big?) that there wasn't an email from him suggesting musicians to check out.

So while I was driving around earlier this evening listening to some of the music he did with Buster Chopz it occurred to me that since I was toying with the idea of doing a musicfest event this year, why not do it in June around the anniversary of JD's passing, and dedicate it to him?

I couldn't think of a better way to pay tribute, and as long as the music is good I'm sure he'll be looking down on us giving his seal of approval.

So, I will make the official announcement next week after I finalize the date but you can say you saw it here first.  We will have a MusicFest this year and it will be dedicated to our dear departed friend, JD Steagal.


Broken Before I Even Started

A followup to yesterday's post.....

It'll boot to WinME but with no sound capability. Keep in mind this was in the era before Windows went online and found it's own updates you need to have the disk. Which I may or may not have, if it still exists it's buried in the boxes of stuff from the move a year and a half ago.

This project (24-7 Streaming) officially went on the back burner as of today anyway. For some reason the player that I was previously using (and was going to use for the round the clock streaming) has been taken offline, claiming that I was in violation of their Terms of Use/Copyright infringement. I have no idea what that is even about, we never violated their TOU nor did we ever violate any copyrights.

Am I going to fight this out? Nope, I'm just thankful that we found a new home before they shut me down!

So, in a nutshell, while I would love to have the 'round the clock streaming of past shows for the folks that couldn't make it to the live one, at this point I don't see it happening. I'm sure there are other ways to do it and time permitting I'll explore other options but I think at this point my energy would be better spent on the broadcast itself.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Yes, I'm Breaking Computers Again...

24/7 server update;

I haven't had much luck with the Linux machine so I'm now in the process of something even more insane.

There is an old HP machine similar to the one that I've been running the Linux experiment on albeit older (remember Windows ME? Yep, that old)(stop puking and just read this lol). I took that machine apart to see if there were any usable parts that I might transplant into the Linux machine to maybe make it work faster, and though that make it so it would run the OBS software more effectively so that I can finally make the streaming server happen.

Um, there really wasn't anything there.

Except the hard drive. This is where the insane part comes in.

Yes, Windows ME was a piece of crap, but it is now my hope that it's a piece of crap that I might (keyword, might) be able to use to perhaps load Flash Media Player (which has no Linux application) and use that to stream the past shows on our old website.

I've installed the WinME hard drive into the Linux machine, while keeping the hard drive that was currently in it using the built in jumper cables. Don't worry it still boots to Linux and I am now going to see if I can even get the WinME to boot.

Crossing fingers, to be honest about it I don't think it's going to work, but it is something that I haven't tried yet and outside of just using this machine as a show monitor (which will save my laptop) it really has no practical purpose.

Nothing beats a failure but a try.

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Show updates;

In case anyone missed it, we are officially in the justcastlive era! Since my work schedule keeps flopping around I've decided that for the continuity of the show as well as my own sanity our official broadcast date will be on Monday nights going forward. The only change would be the time, 9 weeks out of 10, it will be 9 pm (eastern U.S.) with the oddball week that I might need to push it to 10 pm due to work obligations.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Official Broadcast Announcement!

Just announced it at the end of the show, but for those of you who might have missed it, I'm officially declaring Monday nights as the official broadcast night for the show.  While I'm still concerned that my work schedule will change it seems that we've done very well on Monday's since we started on justcastlive so I've decided to stick with it.

While we still might try the odd broadcast on another night (follow our FB page at www.facebook.com/indiespotlightonjustcastlive and this blog ) I think that we'll stick with Monday night.  The only sticking point will be the start time which will be 9 pm most week's with an occasional start at 10.  Thanks again for all the continued support!

Sunday, March 8, 2015

This Week's Broadcast Schedule

Tonight (Sunday) is a maybe, depends on if I feel like it.

Tomorrow (Monday 3-9) is for sure, starting at 9 pm (eastern)

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

What's In A Name?

Random thought that popped into my head during one of our shows.

I was greeted "Hi Indy".

A bit of history here, my longtime user name on the internet was riskybusiness04, I had long gotten used to being "risky" in chatrooms as well as anywhere else I was online. Somewhere around the later part of 2012 I decided that my internet user name needed to more closely match what I was actually doing online so I adopted "Indie Spotlight" as a user name on where we were broadcasting at the time, changed my name on this very blog and moved on.

The name change at the time most likely wasn't the best idea, it killed our stats on blogtv for no other reason than people had gotten used to finding me under my old name and didn't know the new one.

Then, blogtv shut down and it didn't matter anyway.

I won't get long winded here but we all know the great diaspora that ensued between blogtv's shutdown and our premier on justcastlive.

Now that we are once again part of a live broadcasting community we have new people at the show. I didn't have a whole lot of time with the new screename on blogtv to get used to it, so that while I've been "Indy" for a while it still feels kinda weird to be someone else.

I'm sure that I'll get used to it.

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Show updates;

Still going strong on justcastlive. Since my current work schedule dictates when the show is broadcast please follow our Facebook page to stay current on when the next show will air.

Facebook page is here

Justcastlive has been hugely supportive of the show, we are featured frequently there. They've been great. Coincidentally, if there are any of my fellow former blogtv broadcasters that are looking for a broadcast home I highly recommend them and I'm glad I found them.

Future updates for other planned shows will be posted soon.