On 05/16/2020, I received yet another e-mail update from the folks at Jamkazam regarding their plan/path forward toward to improve the performance of their site. The e-mail is sent as a weekly reminder of: 1) their GoFundMe page and 2) a thank you to all who have contributed so far. The e-mail also discusses plans to move forward with "fixing" Jamkazam's latency issues, in spite of being short of their financial goals. As of 05/18/202, $72K of $100K has been donated via GoFundMe. As a reminder, new Jamkazam updates will include:
- sharing LIVE audio and video sessions via Facebook or YouTube,
- broadcasting free public performances,
- integration with Eventbright to sell tickets to performances for ca$h!
- remote control of video cameras... WOW!!! and
- hosting live JamKazam concerns (concerts@jamkazam.com for more info)
In the latest release of Jamkazam, Build 1.20, Version 1.0.3.7.14, you'll notice some progress related to additional security features, a few positive changes regarding equipment setup and the manner in which musical sessions are displayed onscreen. However, the usual delays due to latency are still present during online performances. As I noted from the previous post, it's not horrible - but I experienced pretty much the same awkward delays while playing.
So, as an update from the initial post from a few weeks ago, where JamKazam discussed their loss of key tech support resources, funding, technical issues etc.. due to an influx of new users/fans, the JamKazam team sent another e-mail update to discuss their plans to continue forward. Their unedited e-mail message is below:
Hello JamKazammers – We’d like to convey our sincere gratitude to all of you who have contributed funding to help us continue the mission of enabling musicians to play live and in sync from home over the Internet. While the funding to date is short of our goal, we are moving ahead to work on the #1 target on the list, which is the reduction of Internet latency in sessions. We expect to have some data to report back to you all within about a month on this front. Wish us luck, and if you haven’t done so yet, please consider helping through the GoFundMe here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/cy2fsq-keep-jamkazam-alive-amp-improving Next up, we are sharing some early examples of community members using the new live broadcasting features we just released into beta. Yesterday, the Metallica tribute band Unforgiven broadcasted their first concert using JamKazam (plus their own custom video stream, very cool). Check it out at the 31:00 mark here: https://www.facebook.com/unforgivenchicago/videos/488211365230761/?t=1868 Last Saturday, one of our guys in Austin jumped into a session with Short Straps – a Canadian punk band. Our computer in Austin broadcasted the session through YouTube Live, and we acted as the cameraman to remote control all the musicians' webcams during the performance, adding visual interest to a great, high-energy performance. See it with dynamic camera switching here: https://youtu.be/ocsWKYietuY Last Sunday night, the Maureen Washington Trio put on a Mother’s Day concert using JamKazam on their own. We didn't do anything with this one, just sat back and watched. See it here: https://youtu.be/GgbfBHD53ww And finally, we are thinking about hosting and promoting a virtual music festival, in which band members would play in JamKazam sessions from their homes, and JamKazam would broadcast 30-minute sets from each band serially throughout the day. Audience members would be able to tip the bands, and the bands would split 80% of the tips, with the other 20% going to support JamKazam’s continued work. We believe there would be strong interest from music fans in this event. If your band is playing together successfully in JamKazam sessions today and would like to participate in this event, please send us an email at concerts@jamkazam.com. Best Regards, Team JamKazam If you missed my initial or the follow-up blog posts about JamKazam, you can find all of them here by searching for "JamKazam". Finally, special thanks to Magic Ray and the other cats for helping to share this info. My email is below if you ever want to send me a note or have any questions.
Thanks!