I hope all of you have a happy and safe holiday season.

I'm in the middle of my annual two-week vacation in Victoria, BC, but I'm still doing work on the site.

One thing I recently changed was the bit-rate requirements for uploaded songs. The upload form will now accept any MP3 bit-rate from 128 to 320 KBPS.

Rock on!
Axe

In the recent news about changes at SongPlanet, I announced that I was suspending all artist subscriptions. You now have even more features on SongPlanet.net than you were paying for on SongPlanet.com, but since we're in a transition mode with the two SP sites, and because we wanted to give something back to the artists, I decided to cancel all subscriptions. We hope that once things settle down a bit and you see what we're doing, you'll want to help support us again in the future by subscribing to the new plans once they are in place.

Check out your new page on SongPlanet.net, if you haven't already done so, you will need to reset your password by following the "lost password" link. Once you are there, you can import your songs by following these steps:

Go to your artist control panel (This should happen as soon as you log in.)
Choose Songs from the menu bar at the top of the page.
Choose Modify Song. You should now see the list of your 192 kbps songs with the word "hidden" beside them. Pick one.
Modify the details of your song as necessary.
Uncheck the "Hide Song" box"
Select your song from the drop down list in Import HiFi Song File
Change any options you like (for instance, you can allow downloads as well as streams, add a picture, etc.)
Click Modify Song and wait for the Success window.

Repeat for each song.

If you have a lot of lyrics that you want updated from the SP.com site, please let me know and I'll update those.

There are loads of new features, such as a photo gallery, store, videos and fan pages on the new site. We hope you enjoy it!

SongPlanet.com will be focusing even more on the radio stream, while SongPlanet.net will give the artists more control over their pages.

We will have Pro Artist plans again very soon. Part of the problem with the old Pro Plans was that it was a manual process. The new subscription plans will be completely automated.

Thanks!
Axe

I've finished two major obstacles in this transition in the last week.

1. The DJ Download page - where DJs can download the songs they want to play - is finished.

2. The "now playing" and "radio tour" pages needed to be updated to allow songs that aren't on SP.com to be played on WSPR without breaking anything.

I also finished moving the 192kbps MP3 files from SP.com to SP.net.

Some bugs have been reported:
1. The "new" themes that are similar to the older themes and were supposed to have been updated to work with the version of Jamroom we're using were not - they don't work correctly for several things; song links show downloads, etc, even when that is not enabled; text is cutoff on several different form fields.

2. Languages (specifically, Italian, Spanish and German) do not have navigation drop down menus in the artist admin area.

I appreciate all the artists that have taken the time to report these things to me!

Thanks!
Axe

Previously, songs had to be made available for digital download sales. That is now optional and we've simplified your cut. Now 90% for any and all songs sold, retroactive for all artist accounts with outstanding sales.

Previously, a song had to be on SongPlanet.com to be played on the radio. Now a song can be on SongPlanet.net, too.

Previously, all songs uploaded had to be 192 kbps. Now, there is a range from 128 to 192 kbps - some artist accounts allow even more, even up to FLAC or WAV files. (note for artists allowed optional audio file type uploads: the DJs can only play MP3 files on SongPlanet Radio)

Previously, all songs were uploaded to SongPlanet.com. Now, all songs will be uploaded to SongPlanet.net.

Also, songs will be chosen from those uploaded to SongPlanet.net for:

• Placement on SongPlanet Radio's Featured playlist
  
• Featured placement and promotion on SongPlanet.com
  
• Your Web content, CDs, merchandise, etc. synchronized to our radio stream giving listeners a one-click link to your stuff when your music is played - not just a hit-and-miss link to Amazon.com! The content of these "radio tour" pages is customizable - presenting the visual content you want to fans! And our sync engine doesn't just waste time reloading a page every 60 seconds, it's synced to the song regardless of the point in the song you begin listening.
  
• A direct link to the page above from the "now playing" banners on almost every SongPlanet.com page.
  

As you login and begin to look around SP.net, check the following to see if your files (MP3 & photos) have been copied into your "IMPORT" directory.

When you use the "Songs -> Modify Song" or the "Photos -> Add Photo" tools in your artist profile control panel you'll see these files if they have been copied. If they have been copied, feel free to import them and unhide the songs.

The first files being copied are the 192 KBPS MP3 files.

I will do requests - send a message here and I'll add you to the top of the list and copy your files from SP.com to SP.net.

For current Pro Artist Plan members, I'll work with you one-on-one and find a solution that keeps you happy - please don't hesitate to send me a message!

Also, please rest assured that the only effect these changes will have on SongPlanet Radio will be positive for everyone - DJs, artists and listeners!

Thanks!
Axe

NOTE! If you delete one of your hidden songs, your artist page play stats for that song will also be deleted!

Happy 5 year anniversary to those artists that have been here from the beginning of SongPlanet Radio. Anniversaries are a great time to look back and reflect on what we've done, and look forward to what we can do better. Change is underfoot!

We are creating a place where truly great Indie music can live forever on WSPR SongPlanet Radio at SongPlanet.com and a sister site where all artists, record companies, artist resources and fans can come together and have access to all the newest, coolest online tools available today, here at SongPlanet.net.

SongPlanet.net - All Connected

SongPlanet.net will be the new starting point for artists and anyone else that has something to offer Indie musicians. Starting now, all new music and artists, as well as all existing artist page administration will take place here on SongPlanet.net. The new Jamroom software is the perfect solution to building our online community of artists and friends - it is fast, extremely flexible and very powerful. Our new artist pages have more features and more space.

If you currently have a page on SongPlanet.com, you can access your artist page here by using the "forgot password" link located on this page (click here) to have your password reset and sent to you. Don't worry about your song files and other data - everything's safe, but we needed to close down certain sections of the site so we could configure the new site and synchronize the databases.

SongPlanet.com/WSPR SongPlanet Radio - Where Indie Artists Get Heard!

SongPlanet.com will become the home of WSPR SongPlanet Radio and SongPlanet Records (yes, we're still going to do CDs - but, it's taking longer than we'd hoped.) To that end, this site will operate more like a terrestrial radio station and record company. No longer will artists be penalized because they have too many great songs for the space allowed. DJs will be able to continue to play songs submitted for airplay even if they are no longer posted on the site. In the past, artists with lots of songs, but little or no money (or those that just wanted a free site) would be forced to delete songs from their artist pages in order to add anything new. We know this frustrated both artists and DJs. The artists still control their songs, though, and may request that airplay be discontinued if they wish. And, as a further gift to our Indie artists, I am cancelling all current Pro Artist Plan subscriptions while also giving you the equivalent (and, really, way better) features of your current SongPlanet Artist page on SongPlanet.net.

SongPlanet.com has been using a highly customized version of Jamroom to handle synchronizing custom Web content (CDs, digital downloads, calendars, buy links, etc.) to the WSPR SongPlanet Radio stream for over 5 years. As a way of celebrating our anniversary, we're adding a new stream quality of 128 KBPS 44khz and making WSPR SongPlanet Radio sound even better for our listeners.

WSPR SongPlanet Radio will feature the best Indie music, as selected by our DJs, that has been uploaded on SongPlanet.net. DJ Nomad and SongPlanet.com will feature the best of the best of that music as determined by our DJs, past and present.

A very special thank you to the artists that have uploaded their songs to SongPlanet.com over the past five years. The ones that have been here the longest know that this isn't a big corporation - SongPlanet is really the determined effort of people that love music, and there has been so much powerful music uploaded here that I know that every single one of us at SP, past and present, have been touched in some way by the music here.

Thanks!
Axe and the SongPlanet Support Team

And, on a personal note:

Eleven years ago this month, mp3.com came to be. Musicians, singers and songwriters the world over thought this was going to be a way that they could finally be discovered. I thought this, too. But it didn't take me long to realize that I wasn't nearly as talented as many of the Independent artists that filled mp3.com to overflowing... and then some. Still, though, I loved music.

Eight years ago I registered the domain SongPlanet.com. My intention was to create a Web site where musicians from all over the world could collaborate regardless of their geographic location. A place to build songs. This site enabled me to meet some pretty cool people. One of them was the owner of Flying Spot Entertainment - a video production company located in Seattle, WA. He had the same idea so we entered into a partnership (RiffTrader.com-now defunct) and SongPlanet.com was mothballed for a couple of years.

Five years ago this November, SongPlanet Radio was launched with the idea of having DJs pick the best of the music uploaded to SongPlanet.com and play it on their live shows on SongPlanet Radio. What I wanted to do was create an archive of the best Indie songs ever recorded and make them available for all time for everyone. Although online music distribution was becoming very popular, no one had successfully managed to create a viable radio stream featuring only Indie artists and their original music.

During the last five years I've managed to get close to that dream, but I've also managed to anger a lot of Indie artists and a few DJs along the way. In my quest to have just the best, I lost track of what it's like to be an artist trying to get there. I have been branded Stalinist, had a site called DongPlanet.com built in my honor, been called money-grubbing (trust me, the money has only gone out!), controlling and just plain no fun for not allowing some things - even though it's been because I've been passionate about playing what I think are the best songs and making sure they are presented in the most professional manner possible. This was all so that people could easily find and support great Indie artists. I don't apologize for my zeal in trying to find the best, but, as I look back, it appears that I didn't do a very good job of providing people with more ways of getting there.

Over the last couple of months, unbeknownst to all, I contemplated shutting the whole thing down... but I can't because I do love discovering new music...

So SongPlanet.net is born

What I hope happens on SongPlanet.net is that ALL Indie supporters can come and have a great time! No 5hit! (did he just say ****?) That's what I said! If you really support Indies and you aren't a SPAMMER or a SCAMMER or a FLAMER---even if you're a former SP DJ/Staff (as long as you're not here merely to flame me!) we'll support your presence at SongPlanet.net - All Connected.

One thing I really hate is little tiny white fonts on a black background!

If you have questions about any of this, you can send us a message here.

To access your artist page, use the "unable to login" link located here to have your password reset and sent to you.

Axe