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All About Jazz Platform Accomplishments

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2025

• August 15: All About Jazz celebrated its 30th anniversary. (more info)
• August 14: Created a comprehensive staff page where readers can view them by year joined, by articles published, by articles edited, by followers, or by name.
• August 7: Migrated All About Jazz ad serving from Raptive to Mediavine.
• July 30: Launched a content exchange program starting with JazzTokyo.
• July 25: Improved our live stream broadcasting platform ahead of our 30th anniversary concert at SMOKE.
• July 21: Added the "Binge" (content) section to the home page.
• July 11: Completed a CSS / JS optimization project that improved page load speed.
• June 4: Created a New Album Showcase landing page.
• June 13: Added a shortcut link to "Your Photos" from the "Hi, [Your Name]" dropdown.
• May 14: Completed the reusable newsletter text (storage & retrieval) project. Assembling the weekly All About Jazz newsletter just got easier!
• May 13: Completed phase 1 of the Jazz Near You optimization project;
• April 28: Completed the link tracking project so we can now track internal as well as external clicks;
• April 15: Completed the AAJ bug submission / tracking system;
• April 10: Introduced two new sections to the All About Jazz newsletter: News Announcements and Top Songs. (view latest newsletter)
• March 27: Split our newsletter in two. All About Jazz news will continue to land in your inbox on Thursdays, while our Jazz Near You calendar of events will now arrive on Fridays.
• March 21: Released batch event upload v2.0 with copy row functionality (try it).
• March 10: Branded the All About Jazz chatbot as "AAJ | AI Chatbot."
• March 5: Released batch event upload v2.0 to beta (learn more).
• March 2: Published the All About Jazz guide to getting your album reviewed (learn more).
• February 13: Launched the All About Jazz and Jazz Near You apps! (learn more).
• January 29: Purchased the Font Awesome Pro Plan ($99/year) as we surpassed our free limit which prevented their icons from loading on our pages.
• January 22: Upgraded Font Awesome and replaced legacy icons with current ones.
• January 12: Improved the Advanced Search interface.
• January 10: Created a musician page service audio summary. Listen.

2024

• December 30: Added a camera icon to the navigation bar on the phone. Click it to upload concert photos.
• December 29: Added a pronunciation guide for oft-butchered musician names.
• December 10: More internal reporting and administrative functionality to improve efficiency.
• November 21: Completed phase 1 of the push notification project.
• October 17: Moved more outgoing messages from our scripts to the database so we can contour the language and keep them current. This project is ongoing.
• October 14: All private messages over four years old were deleted from the database. Our initial clean-up effort resulted in the removal of 400,000 messages.
• October 13: Added published totals by year to our Staff Directory page and our filter staff by style preference page.
• October 12: Removed all links to Twitter (from our member, musician, venue, festival, etc. pages and forms)
• October 11: Search for articles and news announcements by city.
• October 10: Various improvements to our blog section in anticipation of expansion.
• September 25: Imported Baltimore Jazz Alliance and Camila's (just club) events via their event feeds.
• September 17: Members can now access Sent Messages from their Private Messages page.
• September 10: Changed SEARCH to default to a tag search with a link to the advanced search form. We also added a Google Search option on the advanced search form.
• September 5: Deployed DIG 9000, our AI Chatbot assistant. Ask it a question by clicking the button in the lower right corner of most pages.
• September 2: Added the ability to tag photos with a venue or a festival name prior to (photo) upload. We also present photos on our venue and festival pages, under the "Photos" tab (example).
• August 19: We added a link to a musician's past events and made it accessible from both the premium and standard musician page admin sections.
• August 15: Launched the Jazz Forward Awards Program Learn more.
• August 7: Added "AAJPro" to the header. It links to our new All About Jazz For Professionals page.
• August 5: Completed the "previous and next" project which improved navigating to the next article, song, album, video, etc.
• August 1: Went live with new style section headers and buttons.
• July 31: Replaced the old section header style (blue rectangle) with something a bit more stylish. We're also in the process of upgrading our button design.
• July 15: Published our first-ever best of midyear picks list entitled "Best of 2024: All-Star Break Edition."
• July 3: Expanded the Radio & Podcasts section on the home page. It now includes the last four shows.
• July 1: Added program type to the Radio & Podcast information page.
• June 27: Completed the Jazz Forward Award project tasks well ahead of its August 15, 2024 launch.
• June 20: Completed several internal projects to automate processes to streamline publisher tasks (Video of Day creation, newsletter creation, order processing, etc.)
• June 17: Launched community-based Video of the Day recommendation effort.
• June 12: Automated the construction of certain sections of the weekly newsletter.
• June 5: Added a weekly schedule and reformatted our Radio & Podcast information page.
• June 4: Added newsletter subscriber count to the "Site Stats" section on the Explore page.
• May 20: Fixed dropdown overlay bug on phone.
• May 10: Added internal linking feature to the article submission form.
• May 1: Completed the jazz venue / festival member mapping project.
• April 30: Created a new Radio & Podcasts information and scheduling page.
• April 28: Created a member theme song and playlist landing page.
• April 23: Like we did last week with The Grape (Ventura, CA), we're now importing events for Philadelphia Clef Club Of Jazz and Jazz At The Post (Westport, CT).
• April 23: Added NEAR YOU to the AAJ navigation bar for fast access to Jazz Near You.
• April 15: Added theme song and playlist options to a member's page (example).
• April 12: Moved the SHARETHIS widget from its anchored position on the left to an optimal inline location.
• April 10: We optimized the selection step in the voting process of our polls. Give it a try with our latest The Mount Rushmore of Hard Bop.
• April 10: Based on survey results and reader follow-ups, we decided to reposition and restyle the green previous and next buttons on our content pages. They now appear within the content section. Using an article page as an example, previous and next appear after the last sentence. They are highlighted by arrows, the words "Previous" and "Next" and include the article's title.
• April 9: Improved article search (process) when no results are found;
• April 8: The Venue section on the Jazz Near You home page now reflects the top viewed venues (was the leading vote-getters from our 2019 Readers Poll;
• April 8: Imported The Grape (jazz club) events;
• April 5: Added month and day fields to the album submission form which populates our new Coming Soon page;
• April 3: Removed streamed events from the "Local" tab in the UPCOMING section on the Jazz Near You home page (example);
• April 1: Added a tag search to Jazz Near You. Just click the "By Tag" tab then press the FIND button (example);
• March 30: Built the final version of the All About Jazz NOW PLAYING stand for vinyl and CD;
• March 29: Launched new footer (more color / more space);
• March 26: Added links to "Your Articles," "Your Reviews" and "Your Calendar" on the "Hi, [Your Name]" dropdown on the navigation bar;
• March 26: Added a "more cities" dropdown when a user clicks the current city on the Jazz Near You message bar (it opens to other cities in the same state or other cities in the same country);
• March 24: Created a report to qucikly view subscribers by city;
• March 21: Created a Most Followed Staff Writers page;
• March 21: Reformatted the Staff Directory page;
• March 20: Upgraded to Cloudflare Pro Plan;
• March 19: Greater deployment of the staff FOLLOW ME button (learn more);
• March 15: Expanded Event Spotlight duration: it's now four weeks for $40; eight weeks for $70; and twelve weeks for $90.
• March 13: Changed how we present news announcements under the "News" tab on a musician page. (example);
• March 8: Created a new member/subscriber management admin page;
• March 5: Went live with the new Jazz Near You header / navigation bar;
• March 1: Changed how we present articles under the "Articles" tab on a musician page. (example);
• March 1: Created a new Spotlight-only events calendar which is accessible from the top of every Jazz Near You homepage with a Spotlight section. (example);
• March 1: Improved the appearance of a venue listing page and an event detail page;
• February 29: We now append a musician's events calendar to the bottom of an article and news announcement page;
• February 27: Created a new album review-only page for all staff writers (example);
• February 24: Redesigned the member page, making certain information easier to access (example);
• February 21: Created a Year End page for all staff writers (example);
• February 16: Created a survey landing page;
• February 8: Went live with our first survey;
• February 6: Went live with the new All About Jazz header / navigation bar;
• February 5: Improved Jazz Near You event search to include a musician / band's full calendar;
• February 1: Deployed more ticketing links across All About Jazz & Jazz Near You;
• January 31: Added Spotify playlist to our album pages (example);
• January 28: Added an Oh! Jazz venue partner page;
• January 28: Developed a member management & monitoring system to onboard legitimate members and quickly deactivate spammer / scammer accounts;
• January 14: Moved breadcrumbs from header to the body in anticipation of new header launch.

2023

• December 31: Completed version 1.0 of the AAJ survey platform;
• December 29: Completed newsletter version 2.0;
• December 7: We now import a premium musician page customer's events from Bandsintown;
• December 7: Members can now enter the active contest giveaway from the ENGAGE section on the homepage;
• November 16: Completed massive venue clean-up effort reducing total number of active venues in the database by 65% (details to follow);
• November 13: Completed phase 2 of the VenuePilot event import project;
• November 7: The source of the persistent 520 Cloudflare error was identified, reported to Raptive (the company that serves the ads that appear on All About Jazz) and their solution was successfully implemented;
• November 6: Created a new "Similar Musician" search utility and added the search function to the musician directory page;
• November 3: Added map of today's events to the Jazz Near You home page;
• November 2: Completed phase 1 of the VenuePilot event import project that included Denver-area jazz events (example);
• October 30: Added a Song of the Day tab to a record label's listing page (example);
• October 24: Added "View Your Articles —or— Filter Results" to the article landing page;
• October 23: Added "View Your Album Reviews —or— Filter Results" to the album review landing page;
• October 20: Created admin code and scripts for the musician thumbnail (upsize) image project;
• October 16: Imported Groupmuse house concert events;
• October 11: Imported eTix jazz events totally 20 venues;
• October 6: Improved Contest Giveaway landing page interface;
• October 2: Launched Robert Middleton's 72 Jazz Thrillers column;
• September 26: We can now append related photos to select articles (example);
• September 3: Restyled the Most Influential Musicians and Musician Tracking Pages;
• August 31: Overhauled All About Jazz EXPLORE;
• August 29: Improved All About Jazz searching;
• August 25: Database optimization / clean up;
• August 17: Improved Jazz Near You searching;
• August 17: Added Jazz Near You West Palm Beach;
• July 25: Fixed the routing issue where Jazz Near You didn't always resolve to a user's local city;
• July 17: Began the process of cleaning up our database tables and fields;
• July 7: Created an internal linking method for articles;
• June 13: Replaced the AddThis share widget (discontinued) with ShareThis share widget;
• June 1: We now post the latest newsletter to this page at the conclusion of Thursday's send;
• May 31: Created a Top 200 listing page by business directory type (example);
• May 23: Completed the publicity firm client tracking and service recipient management project (learn more);
• May 18: Soft launched the All About Jazz merchandise store (learn more);
• April 27: Officially launched Record Label of the Week promotional service (learn more);
• April 15: Auto-importing Brvsh Cul7ur3 and Mr. Henry’s events;
• April 3: Clicking the SEARCH button now takes you directly to the Advanced Search page. Tag searching is still an option and appears as a tab on the Advanced Search page;
• March 28: Improved member registration management;
• March 26: Completed measures to prevent phishing and spamming abuse;
• February 28: The 2023 jazz polls launched with the living saxophonists. We'll roll out seven more this year;
• February 17: Changed the home page LATEST section to TODAY and added Song of the Day to column 4 and Born Today to column 5;
• February 1: We joined Mastodon and we're here: https://jazztodon.com/@aaj;
• February 1: Created a Song of the Week landing page;
• January 30: Launched Play This! (column);
• January 28: Created a writing sample submission form;
• January 20: Created a new home page section called On the Record;
• January 12: Created a new Content Wanted page;
• January 11: Launched the Liner Notes Project (learn more).

2022

• December 28: Announced the 2022 Songs of the Week and created a Spotify Playlist;
• December 14: We now present a random Spotify playlist (including Jazz Menagerie) in the side rail;
• December 12: Announced the 2022 poll winners;
• December 7: Automated the creation of a staff writer's Best Albums of the Year article;
• November 28: Converted existing store to a shopping cart to support merchandise sales;
• October 7: Inaugural post of our new blog series, Street Date, where local writers report on jazz happenings in their city. We piloted the series in Cleveland with John Chacona. Read John's first post here.
• September 29: Created a Video Premiere promotional package. (learn more)
• September 28: Migrated all outgoing website messages to our database.
• September 16: Created a one-click contest entry feature. (learn more)
• August 31: A series of general improvements including intra-website communication and security.
• August 22: All About Jazz Premium Musician Page Service Upgrade 2022 (learn more).
• August 9: Press Release Posting & Distribution service (learn more).
• July 21: Improved both content type and tag search results by musician name.
• July 20: More Jazz Near You structured data improvements.
• July 19: Developed a new method to import events from jazz venue websites that use Wordpress and a WP calendar plugin.
• July 18: More album discography admin improvements.
• June 27: Through the magic of automation and our relationship with discogs.com, we can now import discographies on a musician-by-musician basis.
• June 23: Rather than an annual poll, we're keeping our Best Jazz Venues results fluid allowing new readers to vote at any time. Example.
• May 27: Improved navigation on our article, news and event pages.
• May 19: Gig Finder service for musicians and booking agents. Learn more.
• April 29: We batched up a list of improvements / achievements and listed them here.
• April 8: Published our Publicist's Guide To All About Jazz.
• January 23: Jazz birthdays. To make room for polls, we created a Born Today section on the home page. Learn more.
• January 13: Polls are back! And this year we're focusing on favorite musicians by instrument, starting with "Your Favorite Living Jazz Drummers." Vote today.
• January 6: Follow an All About Jazz writer. When you do, we'll alert you the moment one of their articles is published. You can follow a writer by clicking their name in their byline then selecting FOLLOW ME or the same button on their member page.

2021

• December 30: We created a new page to help musicians and publicists find staff writers by the writer's preferred style / area of expertise (e.g. big band). Give it a try.
• December 20: Newly restructured Jazz Near You launches.
• December 8: Just in time for the holidays, we present Yule Dig It, our latest playlist. Listen.
• December 2: We made writer information more accessible by popping up a window when you click their byline photo or byline name on any article page. Example.
• November 18: All About Jazz launches The Jazz Menagerie Spotify playlist. Learn more...
• November 10: All About Jazz restructuring project completed.
• October 22: Supersized and stylized our header logo. It's a bold step forward for the brand.
• September 15: All About Jazz partners with Sweatshop Studios to create new YouTube Channel and high definition video content. Learn more...
• September 4: Jazz Near You Turns 10. Learn more...
• July 15: Published the 2021 Musician's Guide to All About Jazz Coverage and Promotion.
• July 15: Improved the appearance of the Jazz Near You embeddable calendar widget. Place an events calendar by city, musician, venue, festival or livestream on your website or blog.
• June 24: The official launch of the Jazz Influceners Project.
• June 10: Jazz Uncorked returns after 17 years.
• June 2: Moved 84 static pages into our database to move efficiently maintain them.
• May 13: We improved Jazz Near You! More...
• April 29: Connect with All About Jazz. Learn how here.
• April 15: Kristen Lee Sergeant's Jazz & Juice column launches.
• March 30: We developed promotional packages exclusively for record labels. Learn more.
• March 17: We have a brand new advertising Rates & Options page. Behold, then consider purchasing any one of our awesome services.
• March 15: Sitewide implementation of "LIKE" button. More...
• March 2: Went live with phase 1 of the website redesign project. More...
• February 5: Developed two advertising packages exclusively for record labels. More...
• February 3: Announced our new podcast and radio schedule here.
• January 6: Announced the winners of the following polls: Top Jazz Cities, Fantasy Festival, and Record Labels.

2020

• August 25: Moved to new server / architecture (three servers are better than one!)
• August 15: All About Jazz turned 25! More...
• July 31: Onboarded new ad partner.
• July 17: Comments are back and this time they are ad-free!
• July 3: All-in-one super search! Final phase completed to include tracks and videos.
• June 27: Added tracks and video results to our fast search option.
• June: Automated the entire process of broadcasting a livestream event at All About Jazz and Jazz Near You. More...
• June 16: Added newsletter signup sections to both All About Jazz & Jazz Near You.
• June 12: Upgraded the header and footer portions of both websites. We also replaced the navigation bar items with an EXPLORE button.
• May: Improved home page FEATURED and LATEST section; Improved navigation bar and introduced EXPLORE overlay.
• May 24: You can now explore future tracks of the day. Listen to them ahead of their scheduled date here.
• May 18: Launched jazz patron program. More...
• May 18: Launched our Instagram page. Follow us!
• April-May 10: More livestream broadcasts including Joey Alexander and Dominick Farinacci's Songbook Watch Party.
• May 17: Automated livestream broadcasting pre-promotion and show activation steps.
• April 9: Adopt and maintain a musician page at All About Jazz program underway. More...
• April 6: Second livestream broadcast a success! More...
• April 1: All About Jazz broadcasts Live From Our Living Rooms: An Online Music Festival and Fundraiser. More...
• March 31: We now identify livestream-capable venues & festivals. More...
• March 25: Place a Livestream Jazz Calendar on your website or blog and help promote livestream jazz events. More...
• March 20: Jazz Near You promotes livestream events. More...
• March 15: Improved album personnel handling. More...
• January 9: All-In-One search project underway at All About Jazz! More...

2019

• December 9: Added "Show Password" to help members sign in.
• December 6: We built a new contest giveaway platform from the ground up--it now supports music and ticket giveaways. More...
• October 30: Greatly improved the appearance of the Jazz Near You eblast. It looked like "1995"—now it looks like 2019. More...
• October 22: Completed an upgrade to our premium musician page promotional service (includes page preview).
• October 17: Launched three new polls: Top Jazz Cities, Top Record Labels, and Fantasy Festival.
• October 16: Vastly improved the appearance of the weekly Jazz Near You eblast.
• August 30: Optimized All About Jazz and Jazz Near You to improve page speed.
• August 20: Completed the All About Jazz and Jazz Near You redesign project.
• July 12: We moved All About Jazz & Jazz Near You to the cloud. More...
• June 3: Launched revamped home page. Looking good! More...
• May 31: Introduced Publisher’s Desk section on the home page. More...
• May 9: Launched Premium Venue Page Promotional Service. It's like our Premium Musician Page Service but for clubs! More...
• May 5: Improved Video of the Day Promotional Service. More...
• April 30: Implemented a series of Jazz Near You design changes to improve navigation and flow.
• April 18: Completed our first readers poll. View results from the Top 100 venues.
• April 15: Supported the National Endowment for the Arts and live streamed the NEA Jazz Masters concert. Learn more.
• February 13: Jazz Near You imports GigPress events for jazz musicians. More...
• January 29: A dozen improvements. More...
• January 24: Press Release Distribution service improvements. More...

2018

• December 18: Premium Musician Page service upgrade. More...
• December 17: All About Jazz celebrates the NEA Jazz Masters. More...
• December 13: Village Vanguard events now available through Jazz Near You. More...
• October 1: Top 100 Jazz Venues poll. Learn more about our annual polls here.
• September 13: Jazz Industry Day 2018.
• August 21: Jazz Near You improvements: event poster support; a new festival date page; more Orlando (FL) events; and more Jazz Near You city websites.
• July 28: Preliminary work on the Europe Jazz Network event import project. View EJN member listing.
• July 25: Musician primer. Learn about the introductory guide here.
• July 5: Alternate venue names to improve matching on event feeds.
• June 23: Event aggregation expansion.
• June 14: Personal events calendar;
• April 12: Musician tags.