Scott's Views

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Coolstreams / Music Sojourn NEW POD Format Update

As you may have noticed by now, we have completely redesigned our POD (Programs On Demand) Series' Section, making the Series pages much easier to view and navigate, and presenting the most recent ("Freshest") POD Sets right up front on the main page of each series. Our Freshest POD sets now open in a new player window with an embedded Windows Media or Apple Quick Time player, and information on each set.

We hope that these changes make using the Freshest POD features much easier.

We began these revisions in early July and had hoped to have all series' completed by Labor Day, but life interfered (plus the project proved more complicated than we thought) and we missed that target for several series.

Note that the new series pages also have new URL's. If you have bookmarks, you should be automatically redirected to the new pages, or see the bottom of this message for a listing.
Series' remaining to be completed are Lost Oldies, Alt-80, Celtic Rock, Paul Ingles Features, and also Soul of the Web which will now be teamed with Lost Oldies under Popular.
We hope to have most of these remaining series completed by the end of this month, and we will then focus on making the remaining site pages easier to navigate and use also. Until then, updates on the completed series will be fewer, and we will resume a more frequent update schedule as soon as possible.

WHY WE MADE THE CHANGES
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The primary reason for changing to an embedded player window was to eliminate the problems that many listeners had with the Freshest POD features depending on which MP3 player they used (e.g.: iTunes player users would almost never get the programming in the order that we presented it).

However, the more significant change is that, with the new format, we can now more easily and more rapidly program our POD Features in "Sets" much like our original POD "programs." We still believe that the Quality of carefully selected and ordered "Sets" of music are what sets our programming apart from the masses of random song streams that are available elsewhere. While that may not be for the masses, we hope that you, our supporters and members, agree and can appreciate the new presentation format. As always, we are interested in your feedback, so please feel free to respond with your thoughts or suggestions.

We will also continue to present our older POD Programs occasionally under the "Archive" tabs on each series', and as time goes on, the new Set format will also be featured there. Note that the MP3 buttons on the Old Programs will still open your default MP3 player at this time (or you can also still use the old Real Player buttons there).

Once we have completed the changes, we also hope to be able to incorporate YOUR Listener/Member designed sets into the programming as well!

Thanks again for your continued support and for your patience while we complete these improvements!

Scott Ericson

Here's a list of the series that are completed and the new URL for each:
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Alt Aspects:
http://musicsojourn.com/POD/Alt/AA/index.htm

Ambient Caverns:
http://musicsojourn.com/POD/Ambient/AC/index.htm

Celtic Currents:
http://musicsojourn.com/POD/Celtic/CC/index.htm

Coffee House:
http://musicsojourn.com/POD/Folk/CH/index.htm

Folk Rock Cafe:
http://musicsojourn.com/POD/Folk/FR/index.htm

Nightshades Prog:
http://musicsojourn.com/POD/Prog/NSP/index.htm

Retro Rock Adventures:
http://musicsojourn.com/POD/Prog/RRA/index.htm

Timeless Canyons:
http://musicsojourn.com/POD/Ambient/TC/index.htm

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Labels: apple quicktime player, changes, improvements, internet radio, itunes player, memberships, new player, POD, series, web site update, windows media player

# posted by Scott Ericson @ 11:52 AM 0 comments

Monday, April 30, 2007

EMAIL OR CALL YOUR CONGRESSPERSON NOW TO ASK THEM TO CO-SPONSOR H.R. 2060, THE INTERNET RADIO EQUALITY ACT!

UPDATE MARCH 28, 2006:

EMAIL OR CALL YOUR CONGRESSPERSON NOW TO ASK THEM TO CO-SPONSOR H.R. 2060, THE INTERNET RADIO EQUALITY ACT!

A bill has just been introduced in Congress that will save Internet radio from the devastating royalty fee increases that will put thousands of Internet webcasters out of business on May 15th. Please call or email your Representative in Congress as soon as possible and urge them to co-sponsor H.R. 2060, the Internet Radio Equality Act.

When calling or emailing, please consider adding these talking points:

PLEASE CO-SPONSOR H.R. 2060, THE INTERNET RADIO EQUALITY ACT!
One of the internet radio services I use is Coolstreams. While the IRS has determined that Coolstreams operates in the public interest as a PUBLIC CHARITY, the Internet Radio royalty rates implemented by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) on March 2, 2007, might force this NON-PROFIT Internet Radio Site to close, and I do not want to see that happen.
H.R. 2060 will make the Internet Radio Royalty fair for Non-Profit organizations like Coolstreams and other Non-Profit Organizations who offer Internet Radio Streaming.

If you need help to find your member of congress, you can use this lookup page on the SaveNetRadio.org web page to find them by zip code:

Find your Representative by zip code >>>

EMAILING your representative takes just a little more work. There is no central listing of Representative's email addresses, so you must visit their web site to find this - HERE is a listing of most Representative's web sites:

Find your Representative's Web Site & Email >>>

Please remember to include the points above in your messge!

If you would like to read more detail about this issue, click here >>>

Thank you!

Labels: charity, H.R. 2060, internet radio, Internet Radio Equality Act, non-profit

# posted by Scott Ericson @ 6:09 AM 0 comments

Sunday, April 08, 2007

A convoluted new Tale of "The Good, (The Bad) and the Ugly."

Two important events that impact our future occurred in the first Quarter of 2007:

The Good: In a strange twist of logic, the IRS is actually the GOOD in our story because they have approved Coolstreams (including Music Sojourn) as a Tax Exempt public charity under IRS section 501(c)(3). That means that YOU now may be able to claim your donations AND Membership fees to Coolstreams as a tax deduction! >>>

The BAD: Well, the weather has been fairly lousy throughout much of the U.S. this winter & spring. While that has not affected us too much, there is, unfortunately, ...

The Ugly: At almost the same time as we received the GOOD news above (early March, 2007), the Copyright royalty board decided on new internet radio (webcasting) royalties. A combination of onerous new per song rates and per stream minimums have caused a new uproar in the internet radio industry, with most independent outlets claiming that the new rates will exceed their total incomes, some claiming by 25% to 50% above their total revenues. Rather than try to rewrite what many others have covered well elsewhere, I will include some additional reading links for you below.

Many of the larger players (including National Public Radio) are currently preparing appeals to try to have these rates adjusted or repealed. This will play out over the month of April and possibly into May & June, 2007. For now, WE must assume the WORST CASE (meaning that the current rates prevail without amendment).

As a small specialty webcaster, the worst case WILL impact us badly also. While we are still not certain of the total impact (as some aspects of the decision still need some interpretation), we are pretty certain that this will cause us to make changes in our programming going forward in order to survive.

Specifically, any areas of Coolstreams' programming that are not well supported by Memberships and Donations will probably need to be discontinued due to these new minimum royalties.

We hate to drop ANY programming that we have already identified and produced as an area supporting our mission, but lack of enough support to at least cover the new minimum royalty rates to stream them will leave us with no alternative.

This is the time to show your financial support for the specific programs that you enjoy and use on Coolstreams. It may be too late by May or June!

Click here to support us with your Memberships and Donations >>>

People say yes to our programming. It is time to say yes to supporting us financially!

If you are not a Member, please say yes to our reasonable Membership options now. If you are a current Member, please say yes to an extra donation. Either way, your Membership or donation (or both) can be tax deductible for you, and you can also say yes to some great music premiums from our Member Premiums section!

On our Member's sign-up form, you can select one or more programs that you wish to support and help keep alive on Coolstreams. Your selections on our form is critically important, and just about the only way that we will know which areas we can keep alive if we are forced to that decision.

Thank you for reading and for caring!

Click here to support us with your Memberships and Donations >>>

Special note for performing artists:

If you are an independent artist that is receiving airplay on one or more of our programs, please also consider either a small donation, or a donation of some extra CDs that we can offer as Member Premium incentives. Either your donation or the value of your donated CDs is also a tax deductible contribution for you!

Click here to support us with your Memberships and Donations >>>

Here are some good links to read more about these issues (all open in a new window):