Screw You Internet I'll Make My Own Damn Page!

A follow up from my last blog post, since I couldn't find a chat site to fit my wishlist today I said the hell with it and created a new website to broadcast the show.  

indiespotlightlive.webs.com

I think it will be easier (and therefore we'll see more traffic) if people don't have to go to two different websites for the show.  To put this together actually only took the afternoon, although I'll be the first to admit that the site is still very much a work in progress.  I used the embed code from awdio so I'll still be broadcasting on that site, but now instead of having to go there to open the player folks can now simply go to the new site and click "play" on the player, type in a name for the chat, and bam, your in!

To be perfectly honest with you folks, I'm really looking forward to trying this out.  If for no other reason we won't have to rely on tinychat anymore.  Just the thought of not getting our asses kicked on that buggy pain in the ass chatroom ever again is enough to put a smile on my face!

So, I hate to ask you folks to do this all over again, you can still hear the show on awdio and not join into the chat if you wish, but now, to listen to the show and join the chat is a one stop shop at http://indiespotlightlive.webs.com/ so go ahead and reset your bookmarks!

My Wishlist

I would love to find a site that I can integrate the embedded player from awdio into an interactive chat so that people only have to click on one website. Any ideas on which chat sites might allow this? Please leave in the comments below!

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Show notes;

This past Sunday awdio.com was experiencing technical difficulties. Due to this I was unable to get on and broadcast the show. I'm almost inclined to overlook this except that Deb from Unsigned Musicians had the same issue a few weeks ago. This, and because the "radio" player isn't working the the way it's supposed to I've put the site on a 3 strike rule and this is strike one. I have a bad feeling that I might be looking for yet another site to broadcast on soon.

Indie Spotlight awdio.com Promo Video

George Jones - Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes

RIP George Jones, one of the pioneers of Country Music

Clearing Up Some Confusion

Hey gang, it's come to my attention that people are having a hard time finding the chatroom during the live broadcast.

Awdio.com doesn't have integrated chats so the work-a-round is that we've had to create a chatroom specifically for the show on another site.

The show is here at http://www.awdio.com/indiespotlightlive

And the chatroom is here at http://tinychat.com/indiespotlight

Hope this clears things up for everyone.  Don't forget we'll be on tonight (Sunday) starting at 9 pm (eastern U.S.) and I hope to see you folks there!

Recap on First awdio.com broadcast

Hey gang, happy April Fools day. 

We did our first show on awdio.com last night.  Overall I have to say it went well, no glitches as far as the show goes, although people were having a hard time finding the chatroom.  

The issue is that because awdio is strictly a broadcasting platform, they don't have an interactive chat built into the "channel" so for a work-a-round I created a chatroom for the show on a site that hosts chatrooms.  I wasn't sure how that was going to go, and I have to say given some of the feedback that I've gotten the results were mixed to say the least. 

So I guess when I post promo's for the show I have to include the chat as a separate link so folks might find it. 

Some of the other issues I have with awdio right now are, they don't give you statistics on live listeners or how many times a particular broadcast was streamed.  This to me is an issue because I want to make sure that the listener count is worth the time putting into the show, I want to make sure the music is being heard, and I'm not just a "fart in the wind". 

I'll reach out to them to see if they might consider implementing this feature, I don't think it would be hard to make these statistics available, if blogtalkradio, and blogtv were able to do it, I'm sure this site should as well, given what I've seen so far I think they have the technical know-how, they've nailed it with the ease of use and how the music sounds.  I also like how awdio.com posts on their front page the shows that are currently being streamed live.  I couldn't help but notice that Indie Spotlight was at the top of the list during the live broadcast and while there aren't really any features that allow you to reach out to your listeners on there, I have to say I felt welcome nonetheless.

Which brings us to what I think went the best, which was the show itself.  I listened to part of the archive and I have to say it sounded kick ass.  There is no appreciable degradation in the sound quality between the live show and the archive at all.  I have to find out what setting I'm missing to make it available as an embeddable player but right now you can go to my main page on awdio and listen to the show.

I'm liking the archive feature.  Especially since if I have a crap show I don't even have to put it out there for others to bear witness after the live broadcast if I don't want to.  Awdio gives an incredible amount of control over archived content.  I actually have to select whether or not I want an archived broadcast to be made available, before it becomes available.  It's awesome I'll spend some time and figure out how to make an embedded player work this week.

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Notes on other fellow former blogtv hosts;

I haven't talked to him recently so I'm not sure what Didgerod is doing.  He did his premier show on vaughnlive but I'm not sure if he's sticking to that platform or not.  I'm thinking because of the infamous "line 5" in their Terms of Service he might not. 

As far as I know the other Native American flute players are still on vaughnlive for now.

Unsigned Musicians could be transitioning over to awdio.com.  I helped Deb with a test show, I believe she's moving her regular show over there but I'm not 100% sure, I'll keep you folks posted. 

I'm not aware of any of the regulars that I knew on blogtv transitioned to YouNow.  Which is not a bad thing, from what I've heard, YouNow totally sucks.  There is a rumor that someone is creating a website that was like blogtv, without the bugs and issues that many of us had on blogtv.   Right now I"m still getting more information, I'll let you folks know what the deal is, but from what I've heard it sounds promising.  

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Show notes;

I'm sticking to awdio.com for now, I've scheduled shows on there out to the beginning of next month, after which I'll decide whether or not it's working for me and make a decision to stick to it or move on.  The show sounds really, and I mean really good on there.  I'm inclined at this time to stick with it, and make the chatroom issue work somehow.

How I do that?  Hell who knows I'll keep you all posted.

Stay tuned.

 

Final Blogtv Show Recap

Did our final show on blogtv this past Sunday.  I have to say it was bittersweet, more bitter than sweet to be honest.  I'm going to miss our quirky little platform over there. 

It was nice to see some old friends pop into the chat.  I played some (really) old videos from past shows and it was a fun trip down memory lane, blogtv really has been a wild ride.  I've spent many hours on that site, between doing my show, hanging out at other shows, and not to mention the music events we held over there. 

With all that being said, I have to say I'm looking forward to the new show.  I've already updated all the links here on the blog to the new site, which will be at http://www.awdio.com/indiespotlightlive.  I'll be premiering the new show over there this Sunday night starting at 9 pm (eastern U.S.) and I hope you folks will follow us over there.

Since the new site is strictly audio I guess I'll have to figure out exactly what I'm doing with the YouTube channel.  Obviously with all the videos on it I can't get rid of it so I'll have to figure out something else to do there since obviously I won't be posting video clips from the show anymore.  And since there isn't an interactive chat on the page (although I have created one on another site) I'm guessing I'll have to spend more time on show promotion, which would include this blog.  I've been meaning to get back into this anyway.

Thanks for all the continued support, as we enter this next chapter of the show, the story is far from over.

Show Update 3-22-13

Ok everyone, here is the latest show update.

I will be doing my blogtv finale this Sunday (March 24).  We will be reliving our favorite moments from the last 4 (almost 5 now, wow) years of broadcasting on blogtv.

Afterwards, please reset your bookmarks to http://www.awdio.com/indiespotlightlive where I will premier the new show the following Sunday, March 31st, at 9 p.m. (eastern)

Moving to awdio is truly going back to our roots.  As you can tell by the name it is an audio only site, we are going back to a radio format, at least for now.  The reason I chose this particular site is that their terms of service are very friendly for what we do on Indie Spotlight, as well as the terms also protect the artists.  The only downside to the site is obviously I can't play video, and they don't have a interactive chat. 

I've figured out a work-a-round as far as having a chat goes, I simply created a specific chat for the show on another site, and linked it to the page on awdio.  We'll see how it works.

As of right now, here is what some of my fellow blogtv hosts are doing.

Deb from the Unsigned Musicians show hasn't found an appropriate site to do her show as of yet.  Keep in mind she plays a substantial amount of videos, much more than I do, she needs a video streaming site.  It's been a challenge to find one with a friendly terms of service, or at least terms that don't try to sub-license the music.   As promised I will keep everyone posted on where she ends up. 

Didgerod (Rod Krug), Jim Cook, and Rae Dent,  are moving to vaughnlive.com.  

Please join us this Sunday for our blogtv finale, it'll be a fun walk down memory lane, and I hope that you folks will join us on our new show on awdio.com!