Welcome to the All-New Groovera 3.0 Web Experience!

At long last, the "Groovera 3.0" website has been launched! After nearly nine months of unassisted production by Groovera's founder, Tim Lumen, and over three years with the old website in place, Groovera now introduces a fresh look and an original, optimized web radio experience unlike any other!

Revised February 19, 2010

This new site has been MORE THAN long-awaited. This all may seem like too much information, but since Groovera is listener-supported, YOU - the Groovera stakeholder - deserve something of a status report.

In case some of you don't already know, I consult during the day doing the same technical stuff you see here and this is what I have been doing for a living since 1995. I built the old site in four hurried weeks in October and November 2006, recycling code from the original OverXposure.FM site and updating that design. The period during which that production took place was also within my final weeks in Seattle before relocating Groovera and myself to Silicon Valley. That was no easy move and the adjustment time was even more challenging, so the Groovera website went a bit neglected for the first two years I have been here and I dreaded not having the time or the resources to rebuild the site completely. As they say "the painter's house goes unpainted" or "the cobbler's children go barefoot".

Instead of focusing on the website, I made monumental improvements to the streams, quality-of-service (QoS), and have never been busier with behind-the-scenes stuff. The response was astounding - the Groovera audience quadrupled between February 2007 and today, however the website traffic diminished to only a fraction of what OverXposure.FM enjoyed and only about 4% of our total listenership. Well, time flies and now it's hard to believe the site I have just replaced - a site I built to be temporary and was never was fully satisfied with - was in place for more than half of the entire lifespan of this radio service. I cannot tell you how eager I have been to finally get this new website out to you!

After I finished with my previous client company (Palm, participating in the launch of the new palm.com for the launch of the Pre handheld device), the first thing I wanted to do was to launch a new Groovera website, so production began in June 2009. After SEVEN different design concepts, in September 2009 I finally arrived at the beginnings of the design you see today. In October, I began all the backend production - all the stuff you don't see - and this is why many of you had to update your bookmarks or upgrade your media players. Since November 2009, I have been working on the front-end production continuously, daily, all day long, and working until it hurts and doing it again. It was the second-most-challenging website production I've ever undertaken and at long last, here it is!

Okay, enough of my telling of the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the production of the new "Groovera 3.0" website - what you REALLY want to know is how this new site makes your life more enjoyable!

General Improvements:

• Complete Website Refresh - No legacy code from either of the old sites, folks. This site was rewritten entirely from scratch, by the hands of yours truly with the only exception being the core jQuery libraries. Please let us know if anything is awry OR, if you're loving it, send us your feedback!
• Sound Quality - We have optimized our sound processing system and our cross-fades. The latter improvements will be ongoing as we tailor settings for individual tracks that do not play "as nice" with the other bunch.
• Codecs vs. Stream Selections - Now you don't have to guess whether the AAC+ stream or the MP3 stream is best for your media player - our system does it for you!
• What's Playing Now - Way back when on the OverXposure.FM site, you could go straight to the website and the home page would display what's playing right now. When we added Popsicle and Low Mercury and became Groovera, the "Listen Now" menu was designed to launch a "Now Playing" homepage based upon your stream selection. Although it was easy to get to and only two clicks away, this still confused people, especially those launching streams from iTunes or stream bookmarks, and you could not link directly to any particular Now Playing page anyway.
  
  We now introduce "Playlist Dashboard" pages for each stream, complete with the 20 most recently played songs (soon to be expanded to 50), current song details which is automatically updated before your eyes, and purchase links! Coming soon, we will add iTunes links and other store options.
• Playlists - We have aggressively audited our playlists and now present you with a more perfected vision for each channel. The audits will still continue for quite some time - they always have. However, don't worry if something you loved is not playing on JCL, AP, or LM anymore - they will very likely reappear in one of the newer channels we are launching later this year or in 2011. We tune in to the exact same streams that you do every day, just like you do, and we making adjustments as necessary when we hear them, if possible. If you feel we need a nudge to improve something, please let us know.
• Last 20 Songs History - For the time we have been online, we have been apprehensive about sharing our playlists for many reasons not obvious to the Groovera audience. Now you can go to the "Playlist Dashboard" page for each Groovera stream and find full details for each of the last 20 tracks played just the same as the current song playing. If you need to get more song history, you can also find simple song information on Twitter at http://twitter.com/groovera.
• Mobile Device Support - Want to hear Groovera on the go? Just punch in "groovera.com" in your mobile web browser and select the stream of your choice. If you're an iPhone user, you do not need ANY third-party applications as long as you have updated to version 3 or newer. We will be introducing many more improvements to the mobile web experience in coming weeks and encourage any feedback you have to help us to make it better for you.
• Improved Contact Page - We previously had a "one size fits all" contact page that did not fit every need. We still want to hear from you, whatever your need, but was limited in its ability to give us a clear picture of how to help, if that was the case We're still adding features to the Contact page within the next two weeks.

This is our "Phase 1" Groovera 3.0 release. So what's next?

We have been going through our wishlist and will be introducing these features:

• Recently Added Selections - Been listening to Groovera for awhile and heard something new? That notion should strike you quite often anyway! This feature will allow you a comprehensive view of what's new in our rotation at a glance.
• Searchable Song Details - Want to buy that song you heard the other day? You may already know some part of the song details and would like to purchase it through Groovera (we get a commission from these sales and it helps pay the bills like donations do, you know) but cannot wait until it plays again since we spread out our playlists very widely. This feature is for you!
• iTunes Linkage and other stores - We have had an associate's account on Amazon for quite some time and although they are a great resource for just about anything at all these days, maybe you want to buy it from iTunes or maybe a smaller entity who needs your business far more. Well, now you will have that option straight from the Playlist Dashboard pages and upcoming Song Detail search!
• Song Voting - this one is tricky but we have always wanted to do it and have always known it is needed. You can still tell us if you love or hate something by contacting us.

So you have been hearing about new Groovera channels. What's up?

We have several channels in the incubator - all "chill-out" as this is what Groovera specializes in - and here's what's next for 2010:

• Jazz ala Mode - In incubation since April 2004, Jazz ala Mode is the more distinctly jazz side of modern lounge and chill-out music. This is not to be yet another smooth jazz station that wants to call itself "chill" like you often hear on the American radio airwaves but instead is more of an aficionado's mix of real chill-out in the context of future jazz, nu-jazz, neo-soul, jazz house, groove jazz, acid jazz, jazz-flavored modern lounge music, and - yes - some more minimal, chill-flavored smooth jazz whenever appropriate.
• Soul Nouveau - In incubation since June 2005, Soul Nouveau is dedicated to exactly what its name implies - neo soul and with some nu-jazz, deep house, instrumental hip-hop and modern jazz in the mix. This will, like Audio Popsicle, be the first of its kind ever on the Internet.
• Exotic Lounge - In incubation since April 2005, here is the place to hear more globally infused lounge music. As if Groovera's channels did not already sound worldly enough in many respects, Exotic Lounge will take you around the world in a day every day!
• Up With A Twist - In incubation since April 2004, Up With A Twist is the 'other' lounge, baby! Chill-out has been a conjoined twin with house music from the beginning but yet has a distinct life and personality of its own. Somehow, we tend to find them equal and at times equate them as being the same entity. Well, Up With A Twist is a showcase for the deep house and jazz house sounds that often mix in with chill-out grooves and, well, are meant more for vertical than horizontal dance and enjoyment!
• Surrea Lounge - Only recently added to the incubator and prioritized over other Groovera channels yet to be released (and not mentioned above), Surrea Lounge is another "first of its kind" chill-out radio format. Nobody can deny the influence upon what we today call chill-out music the contributions of trip-hop, ethereal pop, dark wave, and other synth-oriented types of pop music. Some of the best music in these genres comes out today and here is its showcase for them in the (post-)modern context. A bit more cerebral, often ahead of its time, and sometimes in a more shadowed space than other Groovera channels, Surrea Lounge is a purely artistic realm where some of us go deeper than the others dare to go. Oh yeah - and it's also a great place to hear some radio classics often overlooked the first time around in this edge of the musical galaxy.

In closing, Groovera is not built by an agency, big company, or a team of any sort, but by my lone, unassisted efforts. I may be the founder and manager, but I am also an unpaid volunteer. Fiscally, we are listener-supported and depend upon your donations to keep this running. Your money goes straight into the bank account we pay the bills from and I take NO money for myself (heh, I've put in untold amounts of my own hard-earned money in addition to the work to make this what it is!). Feel free to let me know how the site is performing for you and show your appreciation by sharing the love!

Enjoy!
Tim Lumen
Founder, Station Manager
Groovera Chilled Web Radio