Updates
Poll: Which “half” of Sefira do you keep?
We’re curious which “half” of Sefira our listeners keep, with regards to listening to music, so that we can make the best decision about what to play on the Stream during Sefira.
Add your vote to the poll below!
Recent Updates and Sefira Schedule
It’s been quite a while since we last posted, and a lot has happened since our last update.
We moved to our own server, and then switched to a more powerful server to accommodate all our listeners and visitors.
We updated our Google Chrome Extension with a totally redesigned look, and it also now loads much faster.
We’ve added multiple albums to our database, and made many various changes and updates that improve the Stream functionality and performance.
Overall, we’re constantly looking to improve and add to the Stream, while keeping the great music and quality that we’ve become known for.
We always welcome feedback and input from our listeners – you can contact us by commenting on our Facebook page, replying to us on Twitter (use @JewishMusic), commenting on the blog posts, by using the contact page on our site, or by sending an email to [email protected].
As in past years, we’ll be switching the system over to Acapella for the first half of Sefira, and we’ll change back to regular music on Lag B’Omer.
We had to decide which half of Sefira to go by, and we felt that it made the most sense to play Acapella during the first half of Sefira, from after Pesach until Lag B’Omer, and then to play regular music after Lag B’Omer.
The transition to Acapella should happen sometime around the last days of Pesach – probably on Erev Yom Tov (March 31st), if we’re able to get it done then, so that the system is already playing Acapella right after Pesach.
As a reminder, we have apps available for Chrome, iOS, and webOS, and we’re hoping to put out our own Android app in the near future (though for now, we’re listed among the stations in the JStream app).
And finally, we’re hoping to have another CD giveaway sometime over the next few weeks – stay tuned for the details!
We wish all our listeners and fans a Chag Kosher V’Sameach, and thanks for listening and for your support!
Giveaway Winners (Finally!)
It’s been a while since our last update, and a while since when we said that we would announce the winners of our Pesach CD Giveaway.
Things here have been busy, as always, but we’re finally getting to the winners, only about 2 months late – sorry for the delay.
Without any further ado, here are our four winners:
Naomi (commented on the site)
Faigy (commented on the site)
Avi H (commented on the site)
Rivky (commented on the site)
We will be contacting the winners by email – thanks to everyone who entered, sorry again for the delay in picking the winners, and stay tuned for more!
Sefira Schedule
We hope everyone is having a wonderful Yom Tov, and we very much appreciate all the amazing comments that have been left on our Pesach CD Giveaway post – it’s nice to see all the positive feedback about how much people are enjoying the Stream and all the features!
We should do giveaways more often just to get the comments and feedback… 😉
Just a quick update on our plans for Sefira:
We’ll be switching the system over to Acapella for the first half of Sefira, and we’ll change back to regular music on Lag B’Omer.
We had to decide which half of Sefira to go by, and we felt that it made the most sense to play Acapella during the first half of Sefira, from after Pesach until Lag B’Omer, and then to play regular music after Lag B’Omer.
We’re not exactly sure when we’ll get to switch things over, but it should be sometime between today and Isru Chag (Sunday).
As we mentioned in our post last year, about the Three Weeks, we made the decision to only play the type of acapella that we ourselves listen to during Sefira. This is in no way a Halachic decision for everyone, and each person has to decide for themselves, or ask their Rav or Posek, what’s appropriate for them to them to listen to. However, we felt that just as we always set a certain standard for ourselves, and we try to always only play music that we feel meets a certain level of Jewishness normally during the year, we would only put up what we consider appropriate for Sefira. If your Minhag (custom) is different, that’s fine, and we definitely respect that, but we still won’t be putting up what we don’t feel is appropriate for Sefira. You’re welcome to listen to whatever you want to listen to, but we won’t necessarily be playing it.
Having said that, there are albums that we would consider appropriate for Sefira, and we would put up and play, but we either forgot to add them to the system, or don’t have them.
If there is an album that you think is missing and you’d like to hear, please let us know, and if we feel it is appropriate for Sefira, and if we have it, or can get it, we will try to add it to the system.
Even with whatever acapella we can add, there still isn’t too much out there. Because of that, you’ll find yourself hearing songs repeated a lot more often than with our regular system. However, we hope that people realize that it’s either that or nothing, and that having the stream set up for acapella means that we’ll have to make whatever we have work in the best way possible.
As always, thanks for listening, and don’t forget to comment on our Giveaway post to enter into our Pesach Giveaway!
Pesach CD Giveaway!
We’ve recently had some hardware issues with the computer running the Stream, and we’re planning on redoing a few things on our end over the next few days, and Pesach’s coming, so we’ve definitely been busy here, but with everything going on, we’ve seen a nice increase in our listener numbers over the past few weeks, and we’ve expanded our Stream server capacity to be able to handle the additional listeners.
The increase in our server capacity comes at an increased cost, and we appreciate any contributions from our listeners to help cover our costs – anything we get goes directly towards the Stream costs, and any amount helps.
You can contribute using the PayPal donate buttons that are on the various pages on our site.
Thanks to those who have contributed already – your contributions helps us continue to bring you the Best Jewish Music Online!
Anyways, even with everything going on, we figured that it’s time to run another CD giveaway, in honor of Pesach.
We’ll be giving away multiple Jewish music CDs, with raffles for our Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus fans, and for those who comment on this post.
All you have to do is like, follow, and/or add the JewishMusic Stream on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Google Plus, and then like and share or retweet the raffle post/tweet, and/or leave a comment on this post, and you’re entered!
You can enter using each one of the entry methods (Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and/or this post) to get more entries into the raffle.
The JewishMusic Stream Facebook page is here, and the post you need to like and share is here.
Please note that you need to like the original post on our page, so we can track who enters.
The JewishMusic Stream Twitter account (@JewishMusic) is here, and the tweet you need to retweet is here.
The JewishMusic Stream Google Plus page is here, and the post you need to +1 and share is here.
You can also comment on this post to be entered.
The giveaway starts today and runs until the end of Rosh Chodesh Iyar 5772 (Monday, April 23, 2012), and the drawing will take place shortly afterwards.
We want to wish all our listeners and fans a Chag Kosher V’Sameach and a wonderful Yom Tov, and thanks everyone for listening!
EDIT: We realized that Rosh Chodesh Iyar is 2 days, so the giveaway will run through the end of the 2nd day of Rosh Chodesh, which is on Monday, April 23, 2012, and the drawing will take place shortly afterwards.
Maxing out on our listener slots
Just a quick update to let everyone know that over the past few days, we’ve been maxing out on our listener slots, which may make it hard for some (potential) listeners to connect.
We’re working on upgrading the amount of slots that we have, but the cost is starting to become more than we can afford to pay right now.
We’re working on getting advertisers on the site, and that’s the best way to help us cover our costs – you can contact us for more information (select the “Advertising Inquiry” option under Topic).
As always, thanks to all our dedicated listeners for listening, and thanks for helping us become as big and as popular as we’ve become!
Extension and Player Updates
There’s been a lot going on, but we just wanted to post about two recent updates to the Stream site and extension.
We were having some problems with the Flash player that we’ve been using on the site for a while, and we finally found a player that we think will work well for our needs. We’re still finalizing the settings and options, but this player should be more stable and work better than the old one.
The new player has now replaced the old player throughout the whole site.
By design, the players on the Now Playing and Requests pages are paused by default, and have to be manually started.
Additionally, once the new player is finalized, we’re hoping to offer others the ability to put a JewishMusic Stream player on their own sites – details coming soon, stay tuned for more information.
We also pushed out an update to our Chrome Extension, which added a volume slider to the Extension, and should make the player more reliable and the popup window open faster. If you already have the Extension installed then the new version should automatically be downloaded and updated by itself. If you don’t yet have the Extension, go grab it from the Extension page.
We have a bunch more features we’re planning on adding to the Extension, and we’ll try to roll them out, in order of priority, as we get to them. The Extension should automatically update itself, so you’ll always have the latest and greatest version.
As always, we welcome any input, suggestions, or questions that you may have.
You can contact us by commenting on our Facebook page, replying to us on Twitter (use @JewishMusic), commenting on the blog posts, by using the contact page on our site, or by sending an email to [email protected].
Change to the players on the Now Playing and Requests pages
We recently added players to the Now Playing and Requests pages.
Initially, we had set the players to start playing automatically, when the page opens, but we now think that it may be better to have them paused by default.
They now will only start playing when you click the play button, and we hope that works for all our listeners, but, as always, we’d love to hear what you think and what you like better.
You can contact us by commenting on our Facebook page, replying to us on Twitter (use @JewishMusic), commenting on the blog posts, by using the contact page on our site, or by sending an email to [email protected].
Chrome Extension Update
Some of you may have noticed that the latest Google Chrome update, which came out sometime over the last day or so, broke our Chrome Extension.
We were planning on updating the Extension around now anyway, (especially since there are now better methods of playing music through Chrome than using a plugin that requires a separate installation), so the update just forced us to work on something earlier than planned, and without as much time for planning and testing as we would have liked.
After some some rushed programming work yesterday, we were able to push out a new version of the Extension late last night.
This new version is totally re-written, and uses a totally new system to play the Stream music, which means that you now don’t need to install any other plugins or programs for it to work.
In some ways, it still needs more work and optimization (especially since it takes longer to open once you click on the icon, and there’s currently no autoplay option), and we’re still figuring out how exactly we want the new version to work, and how we can improve it, so we’ll be pushing out updates often, as we add new features or optimize the Extension.
If you already have the Extension installed then the new version should automatically be downloaded and updated by itself.
If you don’t yet have the Extension, now’s the time to try it – go to the Extension page to download and install it!
Please let us know if you have any input, suggestions, or questions.
You can contact us by commenting on our Facebook page, replying to us on Twitter (use @JewishMusic), commenting on the blog posts, by using the contact page on our site, or by sending an email to [email protected].
Players now on the Now Playing and Requests pages!
Based on the results of our recent poll, it seems like a majority of those who voted wanted a player on the Now Playing and Requests pages.
Based on that feedback, we have added players to our Now Playing and Requests pages.
We still have to finalize how exactly the players will work and where on the page they’ll be located, but they’re already up and running.
Please let us know if you have any feedback about the players (or anything else), as well as if you’d like the players to not start playing automatically.
You can contact us by commenting on our Facebook page, replying to us on Twitter (use @JewishMusic), commenting on the blog posts, by using the contact page on our site, or by sending an email to [email protected].
And we’re now running a special on advertising opportunities on our site – please contact us using the Contact page, or email us at [email protected] for more information.
