Loudcaster

The Daily DJ today is talk show host The Hammer (Ross), from Nailing It! The Hammer Show.

Where to listen: http://loudcaster.com/channels/854-nailing-it-the-hammer-show

More info: http://thehammershow.co.uk/

Ross and I first met in August of last year when he was in between radio homes.  His website hinted at some pretty interesting (and edgy)talk show topics and I wanted to hear more.  We both agreed that it was worth seeing if Loudcaster was a good fit and he's hosted a weekly Friday night show every since.  Based in the UK, he's an old pro at asking questions and being comfortable behind the microphone.

Interview:

Tia: First off, why do love radio and how'd you get into it?

Ross:

I got my first break in radio in the late 1970's (God that makes me feel old!) with the BBC. A producer had seen me playing and singing with a 50's rock'n'roll band and asked if I would like to present a pilot show for BBC Radio Medway. I agreed, the pilot got accepted and I was commissioned for my first ever radio series documenting rock'n'roll!

Tia: On your live show, Nailing it!, tell us about the show format.

Ross:

The format for talk show Nailing It! is pretty flexible, in that one week it may be a news based topic such as the street riots of last year, another week we may discuss the sex industry and whether it's time that prostitution is legalised. When the show returns on Wed Jan 18th, I will be dealing with the powerful but emotive subject of suicide and its affects on family, friends and the people who decide that for them, it's the 'easy way out'. The programme features different guests each week and interaction from listeners around the world.

Tia: Is it a goal to have contentious points of view in your guests or does that just happen naturally as people call in?

Ross:

I like contentious, and I do try to put across points that will encourage listeners to voice a view and maybe challenge my point of view. I feel that to make a listener pick up a phone or write and email, they have to feel that their particular perception or point has not yet been made, or that they disagree or agree intensely with a particular statement.

Tia: Your Friday night show Nailing It, which I read is moving to Wednesday's soon, surprises me each week when I catch the topic.  Do you try to push boundaries or is that just what's interesting?

Ross:

I do like to push boundaries, but I also like to talk openly and freely about subjects that I feel a lot of people are interested in. Online radio does give more flexibility here, not being governed by the same broadcast rules as FM and AM stations. I also like to challenge myself hosting topics that I may not be that familiar with, but showing that I can talk about almost anything! I think that global audiences need good talk radio, there just isn't enough of it around, and to make a talk show compulsive listening, the subject matter must be strong and make the listener want to state their point and thus interact.

Tia: Interaction seems pretty good on your channel, and I'm guessing that kind of content comes with plenty of production time.  What does it take to put together your 1 hour weekly show?

Ross:

To be quite honest, it's usually thrown together in a very short time as it's just me working on my own with no producer or call/email crew, so what comes out the other end usually surprises me lol!

Tia: You mention it from time to time so I have to ask, what's with Law School?

Ross:

Three years ago during a period of illness, I decided to take a break and return to part-time education, following my life-long interest in law. To that end, I am studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Law.

Tia: Wow, that's ambitious.  Anything particular you'd like to do with your legal education once you have it?

Ross:

Yes - wear the 4-pointed cap down the High Street lol! So many people including an ex wife, said I would never achieve it, so that spurs me on. I have no real plans to practice law, although I would like to give legal advice to those who can't afford solicitors, and who knows, in my later years, I may practice and earn a few quid to supplment my pension!

Tia: Do you see that internet radio might be changing, allowing for people like you, who are and have been in the industry professionally, to earn a living?  Or does that seem light years away?

Ross:

Internet Radio IS changing and the business model is 'pay for airtime presenters' supported by advertising when listening figures get to a sensible figure. Back in 2004 when I set up my first online radio station Net Talk Radio, I said "Internet Radio is the future of radio broadcasting. DAB is the Betamax of radio, and satellite will just fly overhead! In the years ahead we will see masses of stations like mine covering a wide range of niche markets and offering the discerning listener a real alternative to FM and AM radio" Now we see online radio on mobile devices, in cars and on Internet radio sets available in shops - the future arrived early :)

Tia: You have your hand in a lot of different cookie jars, what are you really up to?

Ross:

I have always been one to 'dabble' in a few different projects, but my main ambition for 2012 is to be offered a full time job in radio the USA so that I can relocate to America. Ideally I would like to get a night-time or evening talk radio show (bearing in mind I can't earn a living from online radio yet!) but I would probably accept an oldies or a rock show, in fact anything as a way in! I also present a TV talk show on a satellite channel here in the UK called Now THAT'S Weird, chatting to guests about all kinds of strange phenomena. I would love to get a series of that commissioned on a US TV channel

Tia: You've been saying for a while on your website and in your shows you're looking for a move the US, how come and might that happen this year?

Ross:

I think I kind of answered that in an earlier question, but yes, a move to the USA in 2012 is top of my list, but the green card work visa is proving to be an issue as it seems that the immigration people won't issue one until I've been offered a job, and the radio stations won't offer me a job until I have the green card, so catch 22 applies! I think maybe I can be 'sponsored' by an employer, and as broadcaster falls within Category 1 applications, there's a good chance I would be accepted!

Tia: You seem to be pretty good at finding ways to make technology work for you.  Skype, direct phone calls, Audioboos (for recorded messages from fans), Loudcaster, newsletters, twitter... Are you constantly searching for new ways to improve your methods

Ross:

I never stop looking at ways I can be at the forefront of technology and am always looking for what I think will b that 'next big thing'! Audioboo was particularly appealing because it  could, if managed and promoted correctly, become the audio version of Youtube.

Thank you Ross :)

The Daily DJ today is DJ DP (Daniel), from DJ DP Radio.

Where to listen: http://loudcaster.com/channels/986-dj-dp-radio

More info: http://www.djdpradiolive.com/

Daniel and Loudcaster have traded messages in Twitter a few times over the last month.  He's always so positive and attentive.  You really get a sense of his personality if you listen in to his news spot, which he also posts in iTunes for download and was featured there in December.

Tia: How'd you get started being a DJ?

 Daniel:

I remember vividly going into my college's radio station, which is called WRFC Felician College Radio, and playing around with the VirtualDJ software we were using.  At that point, I really began to fall in love with internet radio and had decided to make it a career for myself.  Once I practiced more and more, I got very good at it and realized I had a special talent to become a DJ on radio.  It was a strong feeling, something you know you could do well.  That was the moment I put everything aside and dedicated my young life into becoming a DJ and radio show host.

Tia: What's the biggest difference between terrestrial and internet radio for you?

Daniel:

To me, internet radio is an expanding market.  I really believe it will become an important factor in years to come for all of radio.  I enjoy it so much because there are so many new talents out there like myself.  You have a sense of more freedom into what you, as an individual, want to present to your audience.  If a person operates his or her own internet radio station, they are the boss and can operate any kind of genre of music or show rather than be told what to do, which can hurt new talents.  The biggest difference is that of new talents.  People striving to be heard and with internet radio, they can do just that.

We are in a world today where mobile devices are dominant.  So many apps are created and downloaded each day.  Internet radio stations can really shine from that.  We, DJ DP Radio, are on Tune In Radio that carries our stream from Loudcaster.  It is a neat program!        

Tia: What made you want to run your own station?

Daniel:

For about a year, my friends at Felician College pushed me to create an online radio station.  They knew how much passion I put into radio and wanted me to give it a try.  When I returned to college after my summer break, I, alongside with one of my best friends, Anthony Bizien and Joanna Chacon put together the pieces to build DJ DP Radio.  Once we launched on Loudcaster and our iTunes stream, it was a dream come true.  Just seeing the "On Air" symbol was startling.  I had put months of work behind this and with the help of Anthony and Joanna, we got it to launch successfully.  It was a day we will always keep special to us.  We got to showcase our talent to the world.

Tia: How many live shows do you have now?

Daniel:

As of right now, we currently have two weekly live talk shows (The NewsRoom Live, hosted by Daniel Peragine and The Hot Corner, hosted by Anthony Bizien) and two more shows (The Matt and Miguel Show, hosted by Matt Smith and Miguel Pillicia and Rock Me Amadeus, hosted by Kevin Sinic) that are recorded and aired.  We also hold live events such as Ultra Dance, a live mix session on Friday nights and Be A Star, which is held once a month to promote independent artists.  Both specials have done extremely well.  We hope to add more live shows in the coming weeks to our lineup, as people are hearing about DJ DP Radio more in special thanks to Loudcaster!

Tia: I read on your website that you're launching a sister station, what will that be?

Daniel:

 Yes, we will be launching a new sister station called DJ DP Radio: Seasons Classics.  It will launch Wednesday, February 1st, 2012.  The station was a concept Joanna Chacon and I came up with.  We want to have this new station air a wide variety of genres from Classic Rock to R&B to Pop and more that fits perfectly with each season (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall) of the year.  I felt it was a neat concept to try.  I have really learned to love many new genres because of this idea to create Seasons Classics.  

Tia: I love the Friday night show, I was a little surprised that a station like yours had a classic news program.  Its very diverse, how do you and your DJs know each other?

Daniel:

I am glad you enjoy it! It's a fun show to work it.  My goal was to be open when creating DJ DP Radio.  I have always loved talk shows and felt it would be a diverse feature to the station.  We want to reach out to as many people as possible and make it an enjoyable station to tune into.  

All of the DJs and talk show hosts know each other because we attend the same college together.  The very neat thing about us is that during the time I am attending college, we actually air all of our broadcasts from our college dorm room.  To get more specific, my roommate and I turned our room into a complete station where we have three Macs, microphones, decorations to reflect each season and a table full of refreshments.  It's extremely neat.  So everyday, DJs and show hosts come in and perform their show live.  Just being able to actually live in a studio is thrilling and exciting.  We are so close, great friends, and love being a part of this experience.

Tia: What's your best and worst moments or memories in radio?

Daniel:

The best moments I had on radio was airing live for the first time at my college radio station.  It was something new and different for me.  I was young, roughly around 19 years of age.  Now, I am 22 and every time I go live, I am fully ready.  For me three years ago, it was the coolest day ever.  It was when I began to love radio and once I went live, it was sort of a dream come true because I had worked hard at getting better and better.  Another moment before forming DJ DP Radio was being named the Station Manager at WRFC Radio, a position I still hold.  That gave me a huge confidence booster.  Since then, our college station has gone for nine members in 2010 to 26 in 2011.  

As for my worst moments, I would say before forming DJ DP Radio was the end of each semester.  I hated it because I could not go into the station and air live.  It was tough taking time off because I would need to readjust myself for another semester.  That is how passionate I grew about radio.  Not being able just to be at the studio hurt.  Once the semester got back, first thing I did was go right to the studio to air a show.  

Tia: Last month you told Loudcaster in Twitter you're heading overseas, where will you be going and what will you do on the air while you're there?

Daniel:

As of right now, I am planning an important trip to Seoul, South Korea.  My good friend, Kyungsoo Lee, was a special guests on a few talk shows for the NewsRoom and he invited me to come for a few weeks.  I decided to have DJ DP Radio air live from South Korea, as it would be as imagined, a neat experience.  I have plans on doing a very special, live daily NewsRoom talk show from Korea everyday with Mr. Lee as my guest.  Going to South Korea, being able to air live from there, and have a special guest go on daily with me is just exciting and provides for an awesome atmosphere in radio.  

Tia: What can we look forward to on DJ DP Radio this year?

Daniel:

We are ready to debut soon a wider dance catalog that covers all kinds of electronic genres, more live talk shows and events, the launch of Seasons Classics, our sister station and DJ DP Radio TV on YouTube and UStream.  We hope 2012 brings an expansion for us in many ways.  

Today is the first day of our new feature, The Daily DJ

Our spotlight today is JD, from JackMix.

Where to listen: http://loudcaster.com/channels/73-jackmix

More info: http://jackmix.fm/

When I asked Jack how he got started in radio, his answer inspired him to be the first DJ in our spotlight.  He answered "I started in radio right out of high school.  Worked at a local MOR station for 2 years, joined the Army, and started back in radio full time in 1970 working for a local top 40 Rock Giant in the Monterey Bay Area.  I s

tarted playing several musical instruments at a very young age, and when I was not on the air at a local rocker, you could find me at a local club working in a band.  Spent about 20 years working in top 40, and country radio, but after getting married, the little woman figured it was time for me to start making money and get a real job, so left the broadcasting industry and started my own 2-way radio shop.  I have always loved music and radio, and its nice to be able to run JackMix the way I want too without someone telling me what I need to play, and when to play it :)  I was lucky enough to become program director at several stations, but you are still limited.  I have been broadcasting online, since the beginning of online radio, and have used pretty much all the services available."

Our Interview:

Tia: As a musician, what kind of music did you play?

Jack:

As a musician I played pretty much everything.  Rock, Country, Blues, and even some Jazz. I was a member of the local Musicians Union, so when I got an offer of work, I took it.  Since I pretty much love all music, it all worked :)

Tia: JackMix is a favorites of all decades station -- is there a decade of music you don't like?

Jack:

I love most everything starting from the late 50's through some of todays best artists like Joss Stone.  I am not a fan of Rap.  I grew up with the music my parents listened to, which was mostly country.  At that time many stations played all the formats on one station, so I was introduced to many formats.

Tia:What is a challenge you face as an internet DJs and station owner?

Jack:

The biggest challenge I face, is getting more listeners to drop by and take a listen.  I have found that if I can get them to "find me" and take a listen, many of them will come back.  There are so many good stations, as a listener... it would be hard to choose I think. Most listeners are button pushers as well, and if a song comes on they do not like, they just hit the button and change stations.  I try and program JackMix so that if you do not like the song that is playing, hang around a bit, and most likely you will like the next one :)

Tia: What was your favorite moment in radio?

Jack:

My favorite moment in radio would be the day I had worked very hard for.  I had been working at various stations around Santa Cruz, and the Monterey Bay area, and most of them were MOR or Country.  I really wanted to work in top 40 rock, but most top 40 stations would not hire a "rookie".  During the time I was working at various stations, I was recording air checks, and sending them to every rock station in the area, and one day I received a phone call to come on down to Canery Row in Monterey, CA to interview for a job a KMBY (a very popular rock station).  They hired me for the midnight to 6 am slot, and the rest is history.

Tia: And the worst?

Jack:

One of the worst days in radio may have been the day I was doing a live spot for Smuckers Fine Jelly.  The tag line at the end of the spot was "Fine Smuckers Jelly", but OH NO... I said "Smine F...... Jelly". Not once, but three times.  I forgot that you were not supossed to correct a line if you blew it, because most everyone thinks they heard it wrong.  Not me... Three times.  I could hear everyone in the station roaring in the background through the soundproof windows.  Its pretty funny looking back, but at the time... not so much.  I could go on and on, but that was one of the worst times on radio.  Oh wait... there is more.  At KMBY we used to leave the door open down on the street that came up some stairs so people could watch the DJ live on the air.  

Let me paint the picture.  It was around 3AM.  I was tired.... There was a big window that from the hall way upstairs visitors could watch the DJ from the backside as he worked.  The view was the board, turntables, cart machines, etc.. Visitors could watch you from behind, but YOU could not see them because they were behind you.  The only way to see them was to look forward at a window that enclosed the AM transmitter, and if the light was just right, you could see people in the hall.  

Ok.. back to the story.... I was tired, and for some reason my pants were stuck to my butt.  I decided to raise up and pull them loose, only to look at the reflection in the transmitter window and low and behold... 3 of the best looking girls you would ever want to see were enjoying the view.  Of course the song was ending and a spot was scheduled, so I could not leave quickly.  I had to sit down, regain my composure, and look cool... Yea Right!  I can still hear them laughing....

Tia: You have about 4000 tracks in Loudcaster's track manager, does your station mostly run on the DJ Bot, or is that for backup?

Jack:

Up until recently I was mostly live.  I have several automation software packages "StationPlayList" my favorite by the way... and since I work from the studio, I am almost always around.  It was very easy to roll the chair to the console and do my thing, but for some reason lately, the (internet) connection has been a bit intermittent, and when I wind up dropping out, the Bot kicks in, which is good... The bad new is... when you drop out too many times it sounds pretty bad, so I gave up being live unless I am sitting at the console.  You could see listeners in the stats, disappearing like flies in a wind storm, after a few drop outs.

Tia: What's the Memory Lane Show?

Jack:

The Memory lane show is a live show that I air on the weekend.  Big Bob plays music from the 50s & 60s and talks about the history of rock and roll.  He is a great guy, and as long as I can stay on the air live, he streams his show remotely, and my automation software grabs the stream.  Sounds just like he is in my studio.

Tia: What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out?

Jack:

One of the biggest things I can offer a new broadcaster as far as advise would be to find a place to broadcast from, and do the best you can to stick it out.  I have used every service you can think of over the years, and since I am always looking for a better "mouse trap" with more features, I changed providers too much!  Sometimes it was because the service was bad, but most of the time it was because I figured there were more listeners somewhere else.  

Every time you switch providers, it costs you listeners.  I was lucky enough to hook up with Brandon during the early days, and since I was almost always around, we did quite a bit of "testing".  I grew very found of Brandon, and what he stood for, and even though there have been growing problems (there always will be, when you are improving features) I have never found a guy that is more dedicated to internet broadcasting, and making things work the way they should.  

Trust me when I say.... you will NOT find a better service then Brandon and the Crew provide, right here at Loudcaster.  I have used the rest, and came back to the BEST! No... I am not on the payroll :) Stay where you start, and work on your music... your style.... features... listener interaction, etc...  Good luck to all... and to all a good night :)

We hope everyone had a fabulous set of holidays and are looking forward to the new year!

In the spirit of newness we want to encourage everyone be FRESH!

Channel owners and DJs don't wait for spring for a good cleaning of your line ups, playlists, and content.  We know its time consuming, and most certainly a labor of love, but spritz up your channels with plans for new Station IDS and tracks.  

Loudcaster is hoping to help with artist submissions this year too.  Things like making an artist submission page whose content is available to all channels to add those tracks to your DJ Bots and Live shows, or reminding you of release dates for new albums in your genre.

Which brings me to the next point - Update your Genres.  If you aren't certain if your channel belongs in a genre you have listed, ASK.  Ask Loudcaster, ask in the forums, ask us in twitter.  When its easier for a listener of a certain genre to find you, they are more likely to listen in.  It also turns listeners away when it seems like channels are wildly out of place.

Hey Loudcasters, 

Along with our soon-to-be-released Fall Updates, also coming is a Now Playing Widget with a makeover.  This also means that your existing widgets will fail to function and need to be replaced.  Don't panic though, its 3 simple steps to new widget magic.

The widget is comprised of your channels logo, a background color, now playing information for up to 5 tracks overlayed with a semi-transparent Play button image to call your listeners to click play and open your Loudcaster player.

Setting up your new widget starts with clicking on the Widgets button in your new dashboard.  Its coming soon, we promise!

You'll be presented with a widget configurator.  The 3 steps are simple:

Choose a color

Set the number of tracks you want displayed

Paste the code onto your website

Thats it!

Step One: Pick a color

 Click on the colored preview block (containing a 6 character string definition of a color).  This opens a color picker.  Click anywhere you like for the desired color and see your widget preview update with your chosen color.  Easy peasy.

Step Two: Select track number

Pick the number of tracks to display from the drop down list.  As soon as you've selected a number the widget preview will again update to show the number of tracks you want to see.

Step Three: Copy and Paste the code 

Under the preview you'll see a block of code for your site.  Simply highlight the text in the box and copy (Right Click and select copy, or Ctrl-C from the keyboard or Apple-C on a mac).  Paste the code into an email for whomever edits your website.  If you're doing it yourself, just delete the old widget code and replace it with the new.

And you're done.

Hey Loudcasters and Radio Broadcasters!

Got an email today from allaccess.com (Thanks guys!) inviting radio broadcasters to a free webinar.  I know what you're going to say... Webinars are usually boring!  Don't rush to judgement this could be insanely awesome.  

Here's the skinny.  The Reynolds Group (You know Steve Reynolds' work even if you haven't heard his name, he's the talent coach behind MoJo in the Morning (Detroit), Karlson & McKenzie (Boston); Rollin w/ Nick Cannon (NY), etc)

He's put together a free webinar (seats are limited) for creating a better morning show.  It's short, promises to informative and held next week.  Details are as follows:

Show: Creating Strategic Visions for Morning Shows

When: Wednesday October 12th - 1pm ET

For: All broadcasters/DJs with or considering a morning show

Signup: http://www.reynoldsgroupradio.com/webinar/

I know some of the information might be geared toward terrestrial radio, but don't let slow you down, the man knows his stuff and taking a listen couldn't hurt.

Hey Loudcasters and Station owners, 

Getting listeners is taxing, and maintaining them is just as much so.  So I thought it appropriate to post a list of thoughts and tips about getting and keeping people coming back.  PLEASE feel free to add your comments and thoughts and I'll update the post with them.

Also, any listeners out there reading this, we LOVE your feedback too!

Tip #1 Keep it Fresh

Oh stagnation stagnation stagnation, my how you are the single greatest enemy of quality content!  For some genres and stations this is simple.  Adding recently released tracks to your library, having guests on talk shows that are relevant in the news, and updating your station IDs or PSAs.  For "classic" stations of any genre this can be harder as newly released content is not by nature classic.  Sure there are occasions content will spring up that was previously recorded but not released until now, but thats not frequent enough to make a big difference on your station.  

Tip #2 Engage Your Audience

If you find that you're in the position of not having or losing your audience, the music or spoken word content just might not be enough, since listeners have so many choices.  So engage with them! People respond to personal connections, so take advantage of that and make some.  Chat with them (this is easy in Loudcaster since all stations have a chat room), talk about them on your shows, and respond to their email.

Tip #3 Get Social

Social media is time consuming (believe me I get it) and sometimes hard to keep up with.  But if you can set aside a little time your day, or only respond to direct style messaging it will do wonders.  Advertising may bring in your widest or initial audience, but word of mouth will usually be your most targeted and interested listeners.   Take advantage of the fact that people are already talking and sharing with their friends by letting them know how to talk or share about you.  Post more than just your currently playing tracks and respond to posts in Facebook and Twitter.

Tip #4 Help Each Other To Interact

Hey Loudcasters, 

Ever wonder why tracks aren't rotating as you'd expect?  Often times this comes down to track selection rules.  The rules are located in the Manage Audio section of your DJ Dashboard.  Lets say your rules are:

200 - Track

180 - Album

160 - Artist

30 - Station ID / PSA

Lets take two tracks, "One Fun" and "Two Fun", by "The Band" in the album "One Fun Album".  "One Fun" will be available for play 3 hours 2 minutes after its spin.  "Two Fun" will be available for play 3 hours after "One Fun"s spin.  "The Band" will be available for play 2 hours 40 minutes after "One Fun"s spin.  And every 30 minutes a station id or psa will be available (if you have them uploaded).

This sounds straightforward, but it's also convoluted by the number of tracks you have in your DJ Bot.  Most Loudcasters broadcast LIVE only a portion of the time, meaning the DJ Bot is their mainstay.  And since listeners won't stick around on a channel playing the same tracks again and again, in the same order, the key here is a large and diverse track library.  

So try to follow these simple tips:

If you have a channel filled with unsigned artists, do not give them all the same album name.

Upload at least 500 tracks (this will give you about 25 - 30 hours of music)

In those 500, don't use more than 2 or 3 tracks from a single album.

Don't upload duplicate tracks (this happens frequently when tracks are released on multiple albums)

There is also another thing to note.  Have you ever noticed when listening to an ipod that when you hit shuffle sometimes the same tracks play back to back, or the same track will start the set in a shuffled playlist? This has to do with the algorithm that determines the shuffle order.  Computers have a funky way of not being as "random" as you would expect.  There are limits to how much of this we can correct, however, if you do notice this please email support and we will help you investigate to determine if we are having a "not so random" problem.

In our small team at Loudcaster, whether there is room in the online-radio-or-streaming-music-industry for all the players in it is a topic that rears its head once in a while.  As we discussed it the other day, Brandon made the point that the market is far from saturated, that the services are structured differently, bring in different audience, and have different goals.  Basically he was saying there is room for many companies offering a variety of music services without stealing  customers (or not too many; or more than to be expected) from each other.. at least... so far.

Today I read a blog pointing out basically the same thing, at Future Hit DNA.  The idea that while all these music services get a lot of hype, and there's plenty of spin and speculation discussing competition, pitting services against one another, asking individual opinions to compare the two services and list their preference... the truth is that billions of people in the world listen to the radio and personal music collections compared to the couple hundred million that listen to online or even satellite music.  The trend is moving toward online listening and in that space there is a large pool from which to pluck new listeners.

The issue that plagues is always time.  Will you get enough listeners in time to satisfy your requirement of value?  This is true whether you're a Loudcaster with a small channel of your own, looking for 10 concurrent listeners before you deem it too much work for too little reward, or the big players like Pandora or CBS.  

As promised, Dear Loudcasters...

-- drumroll please --

SCHEDULING!

Our new scheduler features:

Easily navigable

Full screen calendar

Drag and drop playlist onto weekly calendar view

Built-in error protection against double booking 

Guess what time it is kids?!  Track Uploading Time!!!   (((( and the crowd cheers... that means you, go ahead, cheer.  hmm... that wasn't much of a cheer, thats better! )))

For our upcoming release, track uploads are easier than ever.  

Tracks can be selected in your file explorer, using a drag and drop interface, onto the track type (PSA, Station ID or Content), a handy feature for selecting large sets of files within your collection, as you're used to seeing them.

OR

Click on Choose Songs and browse to upload a track.

Radio's definition is in limbo now, is hotly debated in some circles, and will likely come out the other side looking quite different than it does even after this recent movement.  That said, I love radio, regardless of its definition.

I feel, however, it's important to make a single distinction.  Radio is personal... Sorted music collections are personalized.  Both have their place and nobody (meaning me) is saying either is wrong or right, but what I love about Great Radio is this scenario:

Song plays.  I've never heard it before.. don't know if I like it, but am certainly compelled to listen again.

DJ says artist is "Blah Blah" -- I think, ok, I've never heard of Blah Blah.

DJ says "If you think something sounds familiar folks you might be recognizing that the keyboardist and bassist are from the band "Pre Blah Blah" which broke up 2 years ago.  They've put out their first album with Blah Blah and will be heading out for tour in a few months, we'll let you know when"

I think, hey, thats cool, I wondered what happened to Pre Blah Blah.  And like magic, the DJ intuits my next thought.

DJ says "And if you're wondering what happened to Boy Wonder Lead Singer from Pre Blah Blah, his solo album with the song NoLongerPreBlahBlah is coming up next"

How great is that?!?! That's not only music discovery.. but relevant details that interest me, and lead me down a path I no longer have to manually slog through.  That 26 second tidbit of information just saved me 3 minutes of google-search time which most likely I wouldn't have done anyway, being that I was busy in the first place and would have long since been distracted before I got back to my search and forgotten all about it.

Greetings Loudcasters!!!  

More goodies for our favorite DJs.  Today we have a demonstration of creating new Playlists in the DJ Dashboard.  It's so easy and smooth I'm dripping with anticipation of this all being released and putting it into your capable little paws!!

Creating a Playlist shouldn't be clunky or cumbersome, it shouldn't need a manual and it shouldn't be hidden behind awkward navigation.  And TADA!  Now it is not!

Features like:

Simple search-to-add, 

Drag and drop to reorder

Running time updates as you reorder

Add / Delete / Edit / Rename all in one well laid-out page

Radio stations, podcasters and bloggers in a way have it easier than the rest of their web-counterparts.  People don't only absorb content from these sources from their originating website.  This means that if your site is so-so, difficult to navigate, ugly as sin, or just unappealing, it might not turn away all your viewers, they simply never see it.  

But for the rest of the audience who wants to know you, wants to chat or interact with you, wants to see what they're missing by not visiting your site, or just choose to listen or read in directly.. Can you hold onto them?  For most of us, that answer is no.  They'll read what you say or listen to what you

make available on a given subject or show once.  Maybe twice.  But the public is fickle and lets be honest, no one dances with the ugly chick in high school.

So if you're happy with your visuals in addition to your content, you don't need any more audience than you currently have or if you are so terribly interesting that no one cares what you look like (lets face it, we ALL know one of those people), then this post is not for you.  Rock on, my curious fellows, the world you live in will always be a wonder to the rest of us normal folk.

For the rest of you, here are some thoughts.  

Firstly, if anything flashes on your site.. rethink it.  Then rethink it again.  And again.  You have to have a REALLY good reason for something to cause seizures.  And a good reason does not constitute " I want to draw someones attention to this section".  

Why?  Because over the course of the last 12 years of internet popularity and the journeys of design, things that go flash in the night are largely interpreted by the public as SPAM or CHEAP.  These are two words you probably don't want associated with your website.

Secondly, splash pages are a hit or miss thing.  Ask yourself.. "Why am I making users wait to see my content?"  Loudcaster does it (though that will change in the future), we did it because there are 2 very particular uses for our site, you are either a DJ or a Listener.  Do you have such distinctions? Or did you just find (or have made) a really cool splash page that you want to incorporate. Trust me friends, less is more.  

Why?  Users are impatient.  They want to get to the meat now, not two clicks from now and certain not in the 30 or 40 seconds it takes to breach the gap.

Next comes All-Flash sites.  Yes yes, we are all terribly impressed with the extremely creative techy types that can make wondrous magic happy in flash.  But your whole site shouldn't be a flash movie in a little box.

Why?  Three reasons.  Both having to do with how users find what they want to see.  Google can't index flash, no in the same way it can index pure text.  So when its little bots go crawling across the internet what will get indexed is your main page.  That's it.  And your rank on that page will be low because while it has the ability to look inside your flash and see certain things, its just not as good as text.  Next you have the bookmark problem.  Users cannot bookmark directly into the page they want to see inside your site.  And lastly, they tend to be slower or bog down browsers, causing a less than ideal experience.  

Pointer chasers.  Long about 1998 the ability to have modified pointers and images that chase the pointer around a window became a standard compliant feature in the html spec.  Personally I think the specs committee was dropping acid, but somehow they became somewhat popular none the less.  Do you NEED a little ribbon that follows the users mouse trail?  No.

Why?  Ok, I don't have a backed up legitimate reason for this one... so perhaps its more of a personal preference but I'm convinced it falls under the category of a very very very narrow time-and-a-place.

Single column scroll forever.  Now I know, some of you might jump from your chair now and scream "Half of the blogs in existence scroll for an eternity and we like it fine".  That is true, but blogs also have navigation, sidebars, etc...places where more specific information can be found.  I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about the sites where your meat and content is spewed on a page, scroll down and you'll find contact info, scroll down further to find images, and further to find audio clips.  

Why? This is just... confusing.  And yes, it's ugly.  You want users to be able to find just what they want when they want it.

Contrast! Color! No wait... too much contrast!  Color is a big deal in design.  One of the biggest.  Color and contrast shouldn't distract a user.

Why?  Keep in mind that when a user views your website, there is light emitting from the display so colors that look great together on your Tshirt, can really screw with someones eyes, or their ability to process information easily.  I'm not saying don't put yellow and blue together, just implying that if your first instinct is to look away, you might rethink things.

Lastly, and this one is a point of great debate in the music world.  Do not put audio on auto-play when the page opens.

Why?  Lets ignore the sites that auto-play crappy audio that is ear-assaulting.  For the rest.. users are most likely doing more than navigating to your site.  They have other things going on.  Other sounds from their computer.  Working in a quiet office, home or library.  And also, it's killer for those visually impaired using screen readers that cannot navigate until the clip has ended, if it is a stream, their page can become unusable.

So... how to resolve this?  Give your site some serious thought.  Exactly what do you want your audience to be able to do, see, read, interact, etc.  And then go find a template that suits your needs.  If you're technical and design savvy thats great, but then again if you are, this post isn't for you anyway.  

If you're not..

If you're using wordpress, tumblr, blogger, or others like it, there are plenty of options for free templates.  If you aren't using one of those options good templates can be harder to find.

Free:

http://www.freewebtemplates.com/

http://www.styleshout.com/

Paid: 

http://themeforest.net/category/site-templates

http://www.freewebtemplates.com/

http://www.templatemonster.com/

http://iwebtemplate.com/ 

https://www.coffeecup.com/store/themes/visual-site-designer/