So I found a new site called Jelli via Lifehacker about a month ago and I think its about time a site like this arrived.

Jelli is 100% user-controlled radio℠, enabling users to take over a radio station using their web browsers. Leveraging the power of the web to reinvent traditional broadcasting, Jelli empowers the community to interact with the broadcast in real-time and determine dynamically what plays on the air. - http://www.jelli.net/about/

Today I am going to take you through how you can start using Jelli and enjoy all that musical goodness. I will be covering how to create a account, how to tune into a radio station, how to control the radio, and how to add some detail to your profile.

Clicking any image will make it bigger.

Create an account

The first time you visit the site you get the landing page. From here you can create an account or login. Setting up an account is just as easy as any other website, just click on the I WANT IN button that is in the green box to the right.

You will be presented with two options. With Facebook and without Facebook. This is totally up to you. If you select the Facebook option then you will enjoy the options to post to your wall and also a quick login with the login with Facebook option on the landing page (if you are already logged into Facebook).

Jelli won’t ask for anything private from you during the creation process. The closest thing to anything private is your Zip/Postal code and your birth year. And these are just to find out where their users are coming from and the approximate age of their users to help form the site better in the future.

Tuning In

Once you are done with all of that account creating then you are ready to dive in and start listening.

When you login for the first time you should see the Tuner page

You may see some popup messages giving you the tour, you can read through them if you want or just close them, I will be talking about the same stuff and more here.

On the left column you have the stations that you can tune into. There are the basic Jelli stations (Green, Orange, Red) then you have the broadcast stations (Choose the Hits, Live 105). These stations are broadcasted on over the air radio stations either 24/7 or at specified times.

In the middle you have a lot of stuff so starting from the top you have the tune in button, clicking this will take you to that stations page. Below that is the now playing and to the right of that is either an advertisement or the allowed genres in that station. Below that is the last played songs and to the left of that are the current genre trends. At the bottom is the activity meter.

To go to a station you can double click on the station in the left bar or click the tune in button.

I will get to showing you around the station page soon but we want to get that music playing first.

To listen to the station click the Listen button. You should be prompted to download a .m3u file. You can save it or open it with your default media program. If you are having problems opening the file or your media player dosn’t support .m3u then you can download VLC Media Player as it will play the file with no problems.

After opening the file in your favorite media player you should be listening to the live stream and you will be ready control the radio.

How To Control The Radio

NOW PLAYING (1) – Songs currently playing have rating systems. If you like a song you can click the Rocks (3) button, and if you don’t then you can click the Sucks (2) button. When the rating bar (4) is full to the sucks side then the song is taken off the air. If someone (5) rocketed (see power-ups) the song currently playing and the rating bar (4) is full to the rocks side then that person gets an extra rocket as a reward for picking a song that everyone loves.

WHO’S NEXT – To the right of the screen is the Who’s Next section. Each song has its own ranking (3), the more people that check (4) a song the higher it is on the list (2). Checking the song adds +1 to the song ranking and clicking the cross adds -1 to the ranking. The top part (1) has the top 3 songs, these songs are usually in a tie for first so the site keeps shuffling the songs around until it is ready to play and will play the song that is closest to the left. A song that has been rocketed (5) is shown in green with a rocket icon on it.

CHAT BOX (1) -This is very similar to other chat boxes on the web. You have the chat window, message bar, user list (2), and emoticons(3). Self explanatory really, type a message, hit enter, and everyone can see it. You will not show up in the user list (2) if you don’t type anything. Once you send a message then others can see that you are participating in the chat. If you leave the page or close the window then you will be removed from the list.

FAVORITES – The Favorites Box (1) shows all of the songs you favorited (see song drawer to favorite). You can sort your list (2) and also mark all or your favorited songs with a check (3) using the top bar. If you have lots of favorites then your songs will be shown in pages and to move from page to page use the bottom navigation bar (4).

SONG DRAWER (1) – The Song Drawer is show when clicking the Nuclear icon (2) on a song. The icon only appears when you hover your mouse over a song. You can access this area on any song in any section of the site. From this panel you can Favorite (3), Rocket (4), and Bomb (5) the selected song (see power-ups for Rocketing and Bombing). You can also see how may Rockets and Bombs you have.

POWER-UPS – Now to the all mighty power-ups. When you or someone rockets a song it jumps up to the top of the list, giving that song a better chance of being in the top 3. When you or someone bombs a song it is removed from the list and sent to the bottom with a rating of 0. It is very bad Jelli etiquette to bomb a song that someone else has rocketed. You have a number next to your rockets (1) and bombs (2) at the top of each page, this represents the number of each that you have. If you run out don’t worry, you get more each day. You also get more if a song you rocketed gets a full rocks rating when played, so don’t be shy to rocket, it may pay off. You are allowed to stockpile up to 11 rockets and 5 bombs.

Make Your Profile More Personal

You can change your picture to anything you want like on other sites. Just click on your username at the top of any page to get to your profile then click upload picture. Browse your computer for a good picture then upload it. Remember that this is a public site and anyone can see it so keep it appropriate.

While you are on your profile you can add a little message describing yourself and link to your website. You can also see your favorites here and if you look a little further down the page you can see your messages.

Change your Username and Password

If you don’t like your username or T_Bone isn’t saying your name right then you can change it. At the bottom of your profile click Edit Settings. This will bring you to a page that will allow you to edit your username, password, email, and Facebook connection.

Thats about it… If you want to know more then see Jelli’s FAQ page.

I am always in Jelli green so if you see Syntax_Error_Geek in the chat it’s me.

EDIT:

I forgot to mention how to change stations. This is simple at the top of every page on the left you have the navigation bar. Clicking home will take you to the station page (if you are on another page). Clicking Tuner will take you to the station list page, from here you can select another station. You can also select another station by clicking Change Station, this is in the Now Playing box to the top right of the chat. This will bring up a popup list for quick changing.