Lately, a lot of users have been eyeballing the Jamroom Cluster...but a large number of Jamroom users don't know what in the world it does other then convert video, or how to really utilize it to fully improve a site. Lets try to figure it all out! I'll give you a few ideas of how it can be used to save money, expand functionality of jamroom, and improve the performance of a Jamroom site.

First lets start with what exactly a "cluster" is. A cluster in the computer world, is basically a group of computers linked together to form what would appear to be 1 big computer. There are a number of advantages of a cluster. The first and most obvious, is that you get the power of multiple computers acting as 1 big computer, which means more power and power is needed to keep a site running fast and efficiently. So, now we know what a cluster is! A goup of computers linked together to make 1 big computer.

What the Jamroom cluster software does, is link together multiple servers to make 1 big computer running Jamroom! The cluster software itself supports file conversion, and artist profiles. In Jamroom, 2 things will take up the most space on your site. The first is the database. The database runs from the master server, always, as does email. These are 2 functions that require a lot of power, the database will grow as long as your site is online- keeping chart history, counts, and other data. The other thing that will take a lot of space, is your artists media files (mp3's, videos, pictures, etc...).

When you get the Jamroom cluster software, you can move your artist profiles to a seperate server, which will save space on your master server, and also free up some resources to improve the performance of your SQL server and email. Since all streaming and downloading of files will be handled by the cluster server that the profiles reside on- you can really free up a lot of resources on the master server as well as space- this is important and

It seems that almost every other week, someone asks at least one if not all three of the following questions. Then when I look at the sites in question I almost always find at least one if not all 3 of the following problems. So I'm spreading this knowledge with you webmasters so that you may better your websites and be more actively visited by the random web surfer.

3 common questions:

1. Why does it take so long for my homepage to load?

Well, do you see all those huge images on your home page? Each one of them needs to be downloaded. I see this all the time, people will put 10MB of images on there home page, then wonder why nobody visits- and when they do they complain that the homepage takes forever to load.

Sure, all those images on the home page really do make the page "stick out" and look great, but what good is it if nobody can actually see it over the web? A succesful site starts with loading speed. You need to get visitors IN as much as possible. Once they are in, you can be a little more liberal with image size. The home page needs to be the fastest page on a site, every time, no questions. If a random surfer cannot access the home page- the rest of the site doesn't matter.

Before you go live with your site, try optimizing your site for performance. A good place to start is right here:
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

2. My users are telling me only half of my page loads, and then the users browser crashes, why?

Flash is getting used pretty heavily in jamroom these days, almost to the point where it causes serious problems for some visitors. Most times when this question is asked, flash is at the root of the problem.

Flash should be used conservatively. I've seen a LOT of sites with a flash button player next to every song on a page with as many as 20-50 songs on a single page.

Every time you

Haha, made you look!

So, it's been many moons since last I wrote a blog, I know last time I said I would do something about smarty... Well, guess what, maybe it was too ambitious ;) Since my last blog, jamroom 3 was released, the jamroom payments pack was release, and I got a headache from all the new things I'm trying to learn! Aaah!

Perhaps maybe DJ's blog isn't as much of a "techy" blog all the time, I think that's OK ;) Instead, let me ramble on about the many cool new things going on at Jamroom.net, some of which you already know and some of which you will be happy to know ;)

First let me start by echo'ing the words of Jamroom'rs near and far... "Jamroom 3 rocks", no kidding! Finally, a full on CMS that ties together artists and visitors, specially designed for streaming media from the ground up! Gotta give big props to bigguy for accomplishing this, that's crazy progress for a 1 man army.

Second, I haven't had much time to play with the payments pack to much, but from what I have seen...Jamroom'rs are happy as clams in sand. The vault system for storing secured digital media for sale is still a work in progress, but obviously working...one of the biggest requests for Jamroom that I can remember. Also being able to charge artists for space with automated paypal subscriptions is a great move in the right direction.

We all know about these things, if we've been hanging around the forum ;) Now what you may not know about~

Documentation is key! And perhaps lacking for some of us that can't live without it. Bigguy spent some time today modifying the documentation script so that some of us Beta Testers can help with the updating. Hopefully this will reward bigguy and the Jamroom community with some up to date documentation, full of valuable info from several users who have gotten to know Jamroom really well.

Several themes are turning up for Jamroom 3, over in the Jamroom forums...

Last month we talked about the different uses of Jamroom, and a bit about marketing your site. I hope you found some information in there worth taking into consideration in your own site and business. I also mentioned that this month I would be discussing copyright, which of course is something that can be both painful and simple all at the same time.

Before I go on to write this, I want to make one thing very clear- There is no substitute for hiring a lawyer to look at your needs and case specifically. Free advice is free advice, it is NEVER a substitute for a Bar Licensed lawyer looking at your particular situation specifically to give you the answers you really need. Having said that, if you decide to take what is written here as the gospel, you understand and agree that I in no way take any responsibility for any damages that may be incurred.

A common mis-conception about online media is that you can just jump on the Internet and start playing your favorite pop, rock, r&b, and whatever other song. Lately its been made more aware that this couldn't be further from the truth, with companies like the RIAA actively filing law suits against online file sharers.

Some good advice is: if you don't own it, and nobody told you that you could, you can't play it. Jamroom owners often have a "TOS" or Terms Of Service which waives any royalty payments on music uploaded to a Jamroom site. Though this restricts Jamroom owners to playing mostly "indie" (independent) music, its a good way to get started- and for most owners, exactly what they're after.

A song has 2 copyrights. The first copyright is the sound recording. The sound recording is the copyright of the actual recorded song (not the written lyrics). The seconds is the composer license (this typically covers the contents of the sound recording). These areas