jam

From IndieWeb


jam is an active type of post used to share a song that you are recently enjoying. Inspired by the site This Is My Jam.

Why

You should post a jam if you want to share a song that is particularly meaningful to you now.

How to

How to markup

There is no standard or convention for how to markup a jam post. See below IndieWeb Examples for various approaches, make up your own similarly, and add yourself to the list.

There's a brainstorming proposal to use:

Content of post starts with:

  • β™«
  • white space
  • link/embed of music video/audio

How to determine

There is no standard or convention for how to determine if a post is a jam post. However, based on the brainstorming proposal:

If content starts with "β™«" and next thing (after ignoring whitespace) is a link to (or embedding e.g. iframe of) a music video/audio, then it's a jam post.

IndieWeb Examples

In order of first use of post type.

Colin Tedford

Colin Tedford publishes jams (without calling them that) on colintedford.com since 2014-06-20 (started using "β™« " 2014-10-10 and later backfilled):

Content in general follows the pattern of:

  • start with "β™« " then a SoundCloud or YouTube link (could be any video or audio link)

Gregor Morrill

gRegor Morrill published a jam on gregorlove.com:

Tantek

Tantek Γ‡elik publishes jams on tantek.com since 2015-047:


Recent examples: (post This Is My Jam)


Markup:

  • note that
  • starts with "β™« "
  • then a YouTube or Vimeo link (could be any video link perhaps) and embed to a music video.
  • u-syndication link to POSSE copy on Twitter (used to have link to copy on This Is My Jam also).

David Shanske

Ryan Rix

Ryan Rix (rrix) publishes Jams through Arcology since 2016-04-16 by tagging Last.fm scrape data that he wants to publish with 'JAM', and publishing the site.

- Artist and title included in text. - Does not use "β™«". - Links to Youtube search for the artist and title since that probably works best worldwide.

Jeremy Keith

Jeremy Keith posts jams using ACME notes since at least 2016-06-25, e.g.

Chris Aldrich

Chris Aldrich posts jams using the Post Kinds plugin for WordPress beginning on 11/28/16. I'm using the β™« prefix along with the artist and song title followed by an embed that will preferably play the song inline. My typical workflow is to use a PESOS set up which scrapes my Last.fm account (via RSS) for "loved" songs and posts to WordPress via an IFTTT applet. Despite the points of failure, this is quick and easy and can also easily be replaced/supplemented with a bookmarket for Post Kinds which uses the following pattern: mypersonalsite.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?kind=jam&kindurl=@url where '@url' is replaced by a link to the song for quicker posting.

Neil Mather

Neil Mather posts jams using the Post Kinds plugin for WordPress.

Paul Robert Lloyd

Paul Robert Lloyd has been posting jams to his website since 2024-01-04 (back-filled with songs that were previously posted to This Is My Jam).

Previous Examples

Kyle Mahan

Kyle Mahan published a jam 2015-09-15, retroactively added "β™« " 2015-09-23 https://kylewm.com/2015/09/nostalgia-attack-very-specifically-remember-hearing (needs Internet Archive link)

David Peach

  • Published first jam on 2015-11-04. http://davidpea.ch/jams/1722 (needs Internet Archive link)
  • Imported past jams from this is my jam into own website

Emma Kuo

  • Published jams since 2015-06-07 http://notenoughneon.com/2015/6/7/1 (needs Internet Archive link).
  • Artist and title included in text.
  • Does not use "β™«".
  • Retroactively added the "jam" tag to posts.

Silo Examples

This Is My Jam

This Is My Jam of course, which inspired the post type.

Note that when it syndicates a This Is My Jam "jam" to Twitter (only if you ask / set it up to, opt-in), by default (can opt out) it includes a β™« musical note emoji just before the permashortlink to the Jam. E.g.

Last.fm

Since ????-??-?? (first noticed in December 2018), Last.fm has allowed users to indicate the sentiment of a jam, though they call it one's "current obsession". Any scrobbled song can be set as a current obsession (separate from likes in their system) which will be shown on the user's profile page similar to a pinned post. Current obsessions can be deleted or changed at any time, but are set to automatically expire within a week.

Brainstorming

For now, just publish your jam as a note that starts with a link to the (music) video or audio that you are jamming.

Podcast Jams

Possible improvement: markup the media file itself in your post as a download to make it part of your podcast - which could also allow for a distributed version of the "Listen to your friends" feature on This Is My Jam.

Jam type indicator

Simple/dumb proposal for indicating that a post is a "jam" post:

  • start text content of post with β™« (musical note emoji) - inspired by This Is My Jam syndication behavior.
    • it could also be used for a listen post - though those would likely have the more passive "listened to..." prefix text.

Trying this:

Markup and content

Consider marking up your jams as:

  • a simple note h-entry

Then follow this content pattern, start content with:

  • β™«
  • white space
  • link/embed of music video/audio

Trying this:

FAQ

Why β™«

Q: Why is the "β™«" symbol used instead of: πŸŽ΅πŸŽΆβ™©β™¬β™ͺβ™« π„žπ„’π„‘ ?

A: Because This Is My Jam already set a design precedent with their cross-postings to Twitter which use "β™«"[1]

Posts about

See Also