Showing posts with label FAQ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FAQ. Show all posts

Thursday, January 5, 2017

KAL Plans for Covering Shows and Events in 2017


Happy New Year everyone! This post is to tell you about my plans for covering Kris Allen shows, concerts and events for 2017.

The big news?  I've decided to forgo making live tweet lists this year.

No worries, there will still be lots of live Kris event coverage. So why I am abandoning the twitter lists (which were the original reason this site even existed)? The twitter lists just didn't really add anything except extra work for me, people never told me to add them to the lists when I asked, very few people subscribed to them, and I think they negatively affected my show post view counts. When something isn't working for you anymore, you have to move on. I used the Comfort and Joy tour posts as a test for ditching the Twitter lists, and as you saw, we didn't miss a thing not having the lists.

We still have set lists (2017 set lists compiled will be here), video playlists, Spotify playlists (coming soon!), master song lists, etc., so no name change needed now - and the focus will remain Kris Allen live! I look forward to covering the one-offs (starting with a military concert tomorrow) and the Getaway tour with Parachute. There will still be posts for each event and show, and I'll continue to keep (as best I can) setlist information. I am hoping you guys will help by continuing to post the good stuff on IG and Twitter as you go to shows (and Facebook if you must). Thanks for reading and following, and let's have a great 2017!

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Summer Plans for KAL!


Hoping Kris is enjoying his "paternity leave" and family time! While he's doing that, I thought I'd post a short update on my summertime-and-beyond plans for this blog and its related social media accounts.

For Twitter and Instagram, while I'm not going to be spamming your timelines quite like I do during tour times, I do intend to do so on #ThrowbackThursday and #FlashbackFriday, using retweets and reposts of things I spot on there. (Links to my Twitter and Instagram accounts, and Kris' accounts too, are on the right hand side of the blog.)

My YouTube account has been the neglected stepchild and needs some real organization. So I'll be working on that when time permits. I also want to get videos linked on to the master song list.

As for the blog itself, summertime is always a great time to catch up on media you may have missed. To help Kris fans do just that, I'm planning to write some occasional posts to highlight different shows from the Letting You In Tour, with a focus on some performances or videos that are great and might have been overlooked.

So those are my plans for the site this summer! Let me know via Twitter or in the comments if you have any post or video suggestions, or any other thoughts or ideas! I hope you all have a great summer and stay tuned!

-KAL







Tuesday, May 31, 2016

FAQ: Periscope Tips!

Before we embark on the last leg of the Letting You In Tour, thought I'd share some lessons learned and observations on media that's been shared. My hope is that this will help future show-goers share their media with the rest of the fandom (and help spread the word of mouth about how great Kris is live in concert).

Periscope (updated 6/1/2016)

Periscope is an awesome new app (it's been around for about a year now) that lets a user livestream what they are seeing and hearing. It's being used now by many music fandoms for livestreaming concerts, including ours!

To get a Periscope account, simply download the app (free for iPhone or Android) and sign in with your Twitter handle. That's it.

How to Stream a Show

To stream, simply launch the app and click the picture at the bottom that looks like an alarm clock to begin broadcasting (and be sure click the little Twitter bird on the screen to share the stream link with Twitter). You'll be prompted to name your broadcast - name it whatever you want but make sure to include "#save" in the name. That will preserve your stream; otherwise, it goes poof after 48 hours. Check out this Kris fan's account for examples of naming your stream with #save in the name. (Breaking News: The very latest update to Periscope claims to automatically save your stream! See the screencap below. If this is for real (Kris fans haven't tested it yet), it will make the next section less important.)
Photo by @snapcracklypop

Preserving Your Scopes

Also, it is important to save your stream to your camera roll, in case you want to preserve it later on YouTube or another format. For iPhone users, simply check "Autosave Broadcasts" in the Periscope settings (see picture below). There are many tutorials online for how to take that saved footage and rip into a Mac using Quicktime. I'm still looking for a way to combine using a PC and an iPhone, and will update this post if I find one. (Update: Followers say they have been able to just simply upload the video from their camera roll to YouTube in this case.)

Thanks to @christig428 for this example

For Android users, there is an app called Scopedown which you can use to preserve your scope (or turn it into something you can put on YouTube. Simply click on your broadcast in Periscope, copy the URL link and paste into Scopedown.

Tips for Scopers

Here are some tips on using Periscope from Kris fans who have tried it and our resident fandom expert on Periscope, the fabulous @Maryet34, who preserved a lot of your scopes!
  • You may want to bring a small tripod to prop the phone (this assumes you have something to place the tripod on). 
  • Break the stream into parts (in other words, don't stream the whole show at once; break it into 20 minute chunks). Periscope will take out the middle if your scope is too long when you preserve it.
  • Make sure to fully label each part with a title and #save.
  • Bring a fully charged portable charger. I found when streaming another artist's concert that a crossbody purse was great for stowing the portable charger, especially if you have to plug it in mid-concert. (Of course, a pocket works well too.)
  • It matters how you hold your phone: 
    • If you film horizontally, Persicope users can turn phone & watch full-screen horizontally. The resulting video is sideways, but easily rotated to horizontal full-screen. 
    • If you film vertically, Periscope users watch vertically, & when sent to YouTube, it results in a right side up, narrow video.

Other Ways to Stream:

If you're not sold on Periscope, there's always UStream and its ads (unless you want to pay for an account). Or if you just want to do an audio stream, you can record with your iPhone w/the Voice Memos app & upload/share later (on Soundcloud). Finally, there is a new free app called Mixlr which will broadcast an audio stream and then share it later to Soundcloud.

Monday, March 28, 2016

New Tour, New Tour Post FAQ!


With the Letting You In tour starting on Thursday 3/31, I thought I'd put up a new FAQ post to give a few administrative and housekeeping notes and answer any questions people have about the twitter lists or show posts. By the way, I have a request: please use #LettingYouInTour as a hashtag on Twitter when discussing the tour - will make it easier to follow the tour!

What are Kris Allen Lists?
This site started out by setting up twitter lists to follow live tweets from Kris Allen's events and shows! (Hence the name, Kris Allen Lists) People follow them to flail vicariously, track his set list and/or see the pictures and videos that get tweeted. It's a great way to meet and connect with other Kris fans. Since those early shows and tours, I've expanded to full show posts that host the lists, keep the setlists, and give links where you can watch videos of each show as well as showcase some of best media posted by fans.

How do people get on the lists?
Well, ideally, you tell me to put you on one when I ask via twitter who's going to the show! But if you don't tell me you're going, since Twitter is public domain, if I spot you tweeting about going to the Kris show, you get put on the list!

What if I don't want to be on the list?
Boo, that's no fun! But I will always honor a request to be taken off a list; just tweet it to me.

I'm locked, what does that mean for me listwise?
If you have a locked Twitter account, only those you have approved to follow you will see your tweets on the list. It also means if you tweet me, I won't be able to see your tweet unless I'm following you.

OMG I feel pressure to tweet great things!
RELAX. The best tweets are the ones who are just tweeting normally as they always do and enjoying the show. I definitely appreciate set list tweets, though, as we maintain a chart of the set lists. And if someone can give a fashion report on what they're wearing, that's always welcome!

When do you post the show posts?
About 48 hours before a show. That way, information about the show is available for those going as well as those who might need a ticket link. I really appreciate it when people going tweet, DM or email (krinjalists@gmail.com) a picture of their ticket - it's helpful to make the show posts a complete archive and I always edit the pictures to block out the bar code and personal info.

How do you make the lists available?
About 48-36 hours before the show (or the morning of the show), I'll unlock the list and tweet the link. I'll also embed it on a blog post over here and tweet that link as well. About 48 hours after the show, I'll delete the list.

Why don't the lists work on my phone?
When I list watch, I generally prefer just to do it on the computer. It works better. But it can be doable on the phone, depending on some variables.

If your phone is not a smart phone, the lists won't work on your phone. Sorry but that's Twitter's fault. Twitter wants you to use a smart phone. Without a smart phone, I'd just watch the list over here.

If you do have a smart phone, you will need to use an app. I used to recommend Echofon but now I find the basic Twitter app works much better with lists then it used to. Whatever app you use, navigate to my profile page on twitter, then choose lists and subscribe to the list of your choice in order to access it in list format.

Any other helpful hints for show watching?
It's a good idea to refresh the page with the Twitter list occasionally. That way if we've added someone after you opened the page, you'll see their tweets too. 

How do I find the lists from past shows?
As noted above, I delete the live tweet lists after about 48 hours. However, the show posts and resulting media live on here forever. Simply search the city in the search box and all posts with that city's tag will appear.

A fun thing I've started - if a list was particularly lively and/or gave great media - they were rewarded with a #gavegoodlist hashtag. It is an honor to strive for! If you want to see past ones, just put that hashtag into the search box.

Do you really watch live tweets from every Kris show?
I try to! But I do have a real life and sometimes I have other things to do. In that case, I have a friend who will do the list watching thing if she's available. And if not, well we'll post the list and that's that! Of course, after each show, will try to update the related post so you can catch up.


That's all the questions I usually hear, but if you have one I didn't cover, please hit me up on Twitter @KrisAllenLists or in the comments below and I'll do my best to answer!


Friday, December 11, 2015

Today's the Day! Tickets on Sale Today for the Letting You In Tour!


http://krisallenofficial.com/tour/

Today is the big day! Tickets go on sale today for Kris' first major US tour since the Out Alive tour of 2013! (Unless you are in Washington DC (presale, see newsletter from venue), Chicago (venue website), Ann Arbor (presale ended) or New York City (presale), in which case tickets went on sale a couple of days ago! No worries, you can still get them!) The name of the tour is Letting You In and there are indications that it will be full band. The great news is that he is playing major cities that he has not played in years!

Click the picture above or click here to go to Kris' official website, where ticket links for each show are to be posted today!

Some questions I've seen people asking and some answers:

Is there VIP? According to his street team, they are still determining that. If you see a VIP ticket, it is something the venue is working up, but not the official meet and greet.

What is the venue? For some reason, the mobile version of his website doesn't show the venues. They are there though - just use a real computer. They are also on his Facebook page or his BandsinTown page.

Good luck to everyone buying tickets today! I am going to have a busy day, but when I can, I'll be on Twitter @KrisAllenLists and will RT all ticket links I see.





Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Getting Ready for the No Limits Tour 2014!


The first shows of the Boyce Avenue/Kris Allen fall tour start this week! I thought it would be a good time to review how lists work and preview my plans for the show posts and lists this fall.


What, there's a tour?

You mean you didn't get tickets yet? You need to get on that! Here's what you should do:

Go to krisallenofficial.com/tour for ticket and show information

Go to krisallenvip.com for the "VIP experience" (a meet and greet with Kris)

Tweet me @KrisAllenLists to let me know which show you are going to so I can add you to the live tweet list! Also if you could tweet me a picture of your ticket, I'd appreciate it!


Lists!

For those who don't know what I mean when I say "list," I'm talking about twitter lists that contain live tweets of posts from a specific show. I have a basic FAQ you can read here.

If you are wondering how you got on a list, I or someone I know probably saw you tweeting about a show. Please don't stress about it - just relax and enjoy the show. But please do throw out a tweet or two - don't hold out on your fellow fans who are trying to enjoy the show vicariously! Not everyone is lucky enough to go see Kris live.

Preview!

For the Boyce Avenue shows, obviously, Kris is not the headliner. My focus in tweets and posts, however, will be Kris since he's who this blog is about. I have added Boyce Avenue fans to the lists, because we all know seeing Kris live is something that will hopefully and likely make them Kris fans, but please don't expect them to tweet a lot about Kris. :)  If anyone on the list is rude to Kris, I'll take them off the list; please don't harass them.

Aside from that, the posts will take the usual format and timing - I'll put up the post and open the list a couple of days before a show, and close the list down a couple of days after. In the meantime, I'll update the post with set list, photos and links to videos, articles and photo albums, so that there's a great record of Kris' part of each show.

By the way, this is not intended to slight Boyce Avenue or their fans at all. From the tweets I've seen, they seem like very nice and cool people! I'm assuming they have their own fan pages where one can get videos, photos, set list etc. (I'm happy to pass along the link if it's sent to me because I know Kris fans will enjoy them!) I'm also hoping the two acts will collaborate on stage, so will definitely chronicle that if it happens.

Have fun this Fall! See ya on the lists!
--KAL



Wednesday, February 5, 2014

February 2014 Tour and List Preview!

How excited are we!!!!?

Kris Allen's mini-tour this month gets underway Saturday, February 8, in Watseka, IL!

In recent interviews, Kris has indicated that this month's tour is to get the FULL band used to each other and to work out some of the new songs in a live setting. Every time he tweets about the tour, I see many of you reply in despair that he is not coming your way. If you live in the USA, relax. He is coming your way later this year! (Another thing he has said in recent interviews.) If you want to see all the scheduled dates and events I do know of (including the ones that aren't "official" yet and thus not on KAO or Little Pawns, scroll down to the bottom of this page to the calendar (aka the Kralendar).

By the way, if you are a google calendar user, you can click the little google calendar logo at the bottom to add the Kralendar to your calendar. Another tip: I like the calendar best when you click on the "Agenda" tab - gives you a nice simple list of upcoming dates.

But back to the tour preview!

This week, the band has been rehearsing in Nashville. It will be full band, which I am assuming means:
  • Kris on vocals and guitar (@KrisAllen)
  • Cale on guitar (@calevis24 but sadly taking a way too long twitter break)
  • Andrew S.M. on keyboards (@thenmarie)
  • Torres back on the bass! And maybe the box? (still no Twitter)
And introducing the new drummer for the Kris Allen Band, Steve Soderholm (@SteveSoderholm)!

Photo by @KrisAllen 

I think Steve looks like he will fit right in!

Big Daddy (@BigDaddySays) returns as tour manager. He is already having the usual trouble with the road vehicle.

And of course, we'll be back with live tweets from each show, courtesy of our twitter lists! If you aren't on Twitter (and you really should be if you are a Kris fan, but if it's just not for you) - the lists are embedded over here in a post to go with each show. If you aren't sure what Twitter lists are, or how they work, read my updated FAQ.

I'll also be continuing our new format of giving you pre- and post-show publicity, press, pictures and the setlist here as well, with each show's post. The post and list for each show will normally go live the night before or the morning of the show (depending on my schedule). As soon as possible the day after a show, I'll update our Tumblr and our spreadsheet to keep track of the setlists.

So get psyched! Live Kris Allen is the best Kris Allen and great shows and new music are coming our way!

 - KAL






Sunday, March 3, 2013

Catching Up on Kris Allen Out Alive Tour Media

Ahhh and now we have a break! After so many wonderful Kris Allen Out Alive Tour shows, now it's time to catch up on all that great media - pictures, videos and what not!

To help you out, and to help guide new fans Kris made, I thought I'd share where I like to go to find Kris stuff and fun:

Kris Allen Media (no twitter) - This is the place to find the BEST mp3s, plus a recap of every show with video and picture links. You will need an account with Live Journal (you can use your Twitter or Facebook account) in order to access the mp3s.

By the way, other smart Twitter accounts to follow if you enjoy Kris live mp3s: @dawnmyst, @summerdaze_ and @p_eleph

Kris Allen Setlists (no twitter) - This is a page I keep up - it's meant to be an archive for every show of what Kris sang. In the past year, I've started adding links to the best YouTube channels with videos of a show.

Little Pawns (@LittlePawns) - This is Kris' official street team and is a great resource for his calendar of events! (Better than his Facebook page, to be honest.) Plus it is worth signing up with them just for the weekly emailed "Pawncast" - a great way to recap the past week of Kris and see what's ahead for the next week. Also be sure to follow the Twitter account of the regional street team that covers where you live:
@RedPawns: CA, OR, WA
@BluePawns: TX, and all mountain time zone states
@GreenPawns: The midwest from the Dakotas through Arkansas
@YellowPawns: Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and the south
@PurplePawns: The mid-atlantic and northeast
@GrayPawns: All other countries

The Dirty Minds (@TheDirtyMinds) - This is the "official unofficial group of super fans" and many of our great list tweets came from their membership! Obviously, they specialize in the hotness that is Kris. This March, they are doing a fun thing called the #30DaysofKrisAllen and will tweet a different topic each day - post your response and that hashtag to participate!

Fourteen Plums (@FourteenPlums) - This is a great blog with all kinds of Kris media - not updated as quickly, which means they have time to add the stuff that pops up later! (Believe it or not, not every Kris fan uploads a video as soon as they get home from the show! coughAspencough) And they are great on Twitter for spreading the word of all things Kris.

Kris Allen Addicts (@KAAddicts) - Another great blog/fansite for Kris that also keeps you updated on his news and media!

As for me for this small break - I'm going to work on the video playlists I keep on KAL's YouTube Channel to update them for this past tour leg. Rather than wait for me, I suggest you check out @snapcracklypop's playlist of all the covers Kris did!

Monday, January 7, 2013

Twitter List FAQ (Updated 10/15/2014)


Thought I'd put up a quick FAQ post to give a few administrative and housekeeping notes and answer any questions people have about the twitter lists. (Updated FAQ 7/16/2014)

What are Kris Allen Lists?
Twitter lists set up to follow live tweets from Kris Allen's events and shows! People follow them to flail vicariously, track his set list and/or see the pictures that get tweeted. It's a great way to meet and connect with other Kris fans.

How do people get on the lists?
Well, ideally, you tell me to put you on one when I ask via twitter who's going to the show! But if you don't, since Twitter is public domain, if I spot you tweeting about going to the Kris show, that earns you a spot!

What if I don't want to be on the list?
Boo, that's no fun! But I will always honor a request to be taken off a list, just tweet it to me.

I'm locked, what does that mean for me listwise?
If you have a locked Twitter account, only those you have approved to follow you will see your tweets on the list. It also means if you tweet me, I won't be able to see your tweet unless I'm following you.

OMG I feel pressure to tweet great things!
RELAX. The best tweets are the ones who are just tweeting normally as they always do and enjoying the show. I definitely appreciate set list tweets, though, as we maintain a chart of the set lists. And if someone can give a fashion report on what they're wearing, that's always welcomed!

How do you make the lists available?
About 48-36 hours before the show (or the morning of the show), I'll unlock the list and tweet the link. I'll also embed it on a blog post over here and tweet that link as well. About 48 hours after the show, I'll delete the list.

Why don't the lists work on my phone?
When I list watch, I generally prefer just to do it on the computer. It works better. But it can be doable on the phone, depending on some variables.

If your phone is not a smart phone, the lists won't work on your phone. Sorry but that's Twitter's fault. Twitter wants you to use a smart phone. Without a smart phone, I'd just watch the list over here.

If you do have a smart phone, you will need to use an app (I like Echofon but others prefer TweetDeck) to make them work well. Some people like the Twitter app; others have trouble following lists using it. Whatever app you use, navigate to my profile page on twitter, then choose lists and subscribe to the list of your choice in order to access it in list format.

Why are lists hinky sometimes?
Twitter has a bug with twitter lists that sometimes causes the past few weeks of tweets to appear when someone new is added to a list. This is why I try to compile the list far in advance of the show. There's nothing you can do about it. Many have reported it to Twitter and Twitter refuses to fix it. You just have to wait for the list to refresh itself after a few newer tweets push the old one down.  It's a good idea to refresh the page with the Twitter list occasionally. That way if we've added someone after you opened the page, you'll see their tweets too. (Update: Twitter fixed the bug! Praise Kresus!)

Do you really watch live tweets from every Kris show?
I do! But I do have a real life and sometimes I have other things to do. In that case, I have a friend who will do the list watching thing if she's available. And if not, well we'll post the list and that's that!


That's all the questions I usually hear, but if you have one I didn't cover, please hit me up on Twitter @KrisAllenLists or in the comments below and I'll do my best to answer!