Jammer Direct has been in the press a lot as of late. Considering that the site has only been open since 10/1/2007, this is quite an accomplishment. Here is a sample of some of the press Jammer Direct has been getting. This page will be updated from time to time but it is important to know that the best publicity has come from you, the Jammers!
Jammin’ at Piere’s
By Steve Penhollow | The Journal Gazette
Published: March 30, 2008 6:00 a.m.
You just knew that the JamNation Singles Search was going to go well.
Any compound word with two capital letters in it rarely fails in the music business.
The JamNation Singles Search is a venture of JammerDirect.com, a MySpace-reminiscent Web site devoted to local artists and musicians.
For three weeks, bands have been auditioning every Thursday at Piere’s.
On April 17 and May 1, 8 and 22, more bands will audition (and cheering sections are encouraged to attend).
They’re all vying for a spot on the inaugural JammerDirect compilation CD.
Various local venues and radio stations have put out compilation CDs over the years. One of the things that makes this project unique is the projected retail price: $1.99.
“We are offering the disc at a low cost to make it something people want to get involved in,” says Kent Christon, one of the two brains behind JammerDirect and founder of Smash Alley Records.
In a business climate where most music listeners seem to want most musicians to figure out a way to perform and record for free, $1.99 is a mighty fine price.
Christon says some of the bands included on the CD will be invited to join his label.
Mojo Dub, longtime stalwarts of the local live music scene, has already been signed under the name Joe Dub.
The first compilation CD is scheduled to be out in July at all the usual area outlets, Christon says.
More such CDs will follow annually.
Whatzup did an article on for the week of 1/10/2008 on Jammer Direct's Jamnation series of events at Piere's. Click here to read the article.
Jammer Direct was featured on Indiana's News Center on 10/30/2007. Linda Jackson discusses the features of the site. Click here to view the video of the newscast.
Steve Penhollow featured Jammer Direct on the front page of the Encore section of the Journal Gazette's Sunday paper on 10/28/2007. Click here to view the article from journalgazette.net.
Site lets artists share visions
By Steve Penhollow | The Journal Gazette
I have become something of a technological moron.
Columnists use phrases like “something of a technological moron” because they lack the courage to say “exactly like a technological moron.”
So here’s my dilemma.
Something technologically wondrous has made its wondrousness known on the Fort Wayne arts scene.
It’s called Jammer Direct, and I have to figure out a way to describe it in layman’s terms.
The layman in this case is a guy who was so impressed with the telegraph that he decided to give up his carrier pigeons.
Jammer Direct is a Web site where all sorts of area artists can establish a substantial Web presence and network with one another.
Visual artists can create online galleries, filmmakers can post films, musicians can post music and videos, and chefs can post recipe demos.
It’s all the brainchild of Ryan Martin, a local programming whiz and amateur musician.
He describes it as a cross between MySpace and YouTube.
“It’s time to show the rest of the world how creative Fort Wayne is,” Martin says.
Each jammer (that’s Martin’s term for anyone who roosts on the site) gets his or her own URL, an acronym that someone who undoubtedly had my best interests at heart told me means Urological Research Lab.
Alas, what it really means is Uniform Reference Locator, aka your own Web address.
Martin says he has four independently dedicated servers, which is great because I’m a big tipper.
See how difficult this stuff is for me?
When Martin bragged about his servers, what he was really bragging about was Jammer Direct’s capacity.
Martin says that if every video posted to Jammer Direct were an hour long, he’d be able to host 150,000 videos.
“It would take more than a quarter of a million people all watching the same video at the same time for there to be any lag,” he says.
Martin will maintain the site in his free time, and he insists it will always be free to users and always be free of advertising.
He also plans to help produce yearly compilation CDs of Jammer Direct artists. The first one should be out next spring.
If there is selfishness in all this, it resides in Martin’s desire to connect with other artists.
“It’s about networking,” he says. “By giving something like this to the public, I’ll be able to meet new people and maybe they’ll be able to help me out on my projects. The site is all about creative people helping other creative people.”
You can find Jammer Direct at www.jammerdirect.com.
Whatzup and Fort Wayne Reader did back to back articles on Jammer Direct within the same week.
Click here for FWR article.
Click here for Whatzup article.