diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index d8d9ceeec..bd32b1897 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -21,7 +21,9 @@ gem 'pg', '0.14.0'
 gem 'compass-rails'
 gem 'rabl' # for JSON API development
 gem 'gon' # for passthrough of Ruby variables to Javascript variables
-
+gem 'eventmachine'
+gem 'amqp'
+gem 'logging-rails', :require => 'logging/rails'
 
 group :development, :test do
   gem 'rspec-rails', '2.11.0'
diff --git a/app/controllers/api_music_sessions_controller.rb b/app/controllers/api_music_sessions_controller.rb
index be6756944..7e946e641 100644
--- a/app/controllers/api_music_sessions_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/api_music_sessions_controller.rb
@@ -5,6 +5,11 @@ class ApiMusicSessionsController < ApplicationController
 
   respond_to :json
 
+  def initialize
+    @mq_router = MQRouter.new
+    @message_factory = MessageFactory.new
+  end
+
   def index
     @music_sessions = MusicSession.paginate(page: params[:page])
   end
@@ -35,16 +40,18 @@ class ApiMusicSessionsController < ApplicationController
   def participant_create
     @music_session = MusicSession.find(params[:id])
 
+    client_id = params[:client_id]
     @music_session_client = MusicSessionClient.new()
     @music_session_client.ip_address = params[:ip_address]
-    @music_session_client.client_id = params[:client_id]
+    @music_session_client.client_id = client_id
     @music_session_client.music_session = @music_session
     @music_session_client.user = current_user
-    @music_session_client.save
+    saved = @music_session_client.save
 
-    unless has_errors?
+    unless saved
       # send out notification to queue to the rest of the session
-
+      user_joined = @message_factory.user_joined_music_session(current_user.id, current_user.username)
+      @mq_router.user_publish_to_session(@music_session, current_user, user_joined, sender = {:client_id => client_id})
     end
 
     respond_with @music_session_client, responder: ApiResponder, :location => api_session_participant_detail_url(@music_session_client)
diff --git a/config/environments/development.rb b/config/environments/development.rb
index aa53a0aab..6125a237d 100644
--- a/config/environments/development.rb
+++ b/config/environments/development.rb
@@ -34,4 +34,10 @@ SampleApp::Application.configure do
 
   # Expands the lines which load the assets
   config.assets.debug = true
+
+  # Set the logging destination(s)
+  config.log_to = %w[stdout file]
+
+  # Show the logging configuration on STDOUT
+  config.show_log_configuration = true
 end
diff --git a/config/environments/production.rb b/config/environments/production.rb
index 47abeeb2b..fe7b0ac91 100644
--- a/config/environments/production.rb
+++ b/config/environments/production.rb
@@ -64,4 +64,10 @@ SampleApp::Application.configure do
   # Log the query plan for queries taking more than this (works
   # with SQLite, MySQL, and PostgreSQL)
   # config.active_record.auto_explain_threshold_in_seconds = 0.5
+
+  # Set the logging destination(s)
+  config.log_to = %w[file]
+
+  # Show the logging configuration on STDOUT
+  config.show_log_configuration = false
 end
diff --git a/config/logging.rb b/config/logging.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..42cb34eff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/logging.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+
+Logging::Rails.configure do |config|
+
+  # Objects will be converted to strings using the :format_as method.
+  Logging.format_as :inspect
+
+  # The default layout used by the appenders.
+  layout = Logging.layouts.pattern(:pattern => '[%d] %-5l %c : %m\n')
+
+  # Setup a color scheme called 'bright' than can be used to add color codes
+  # to the pattern layout. Color schemes should only be used with appenders
+  # that write to STDOUT or STDERR; inserting terminal color codes into a file
+  # is generally considered bad form.
+  #
+  Logging.color_scheme( 'bright',
+    :levels => {
+      :info  => :green,
+      :warn  => :yellow,
+      :error => :red,
+      :fatal => [:white, :on_red]
+    },
+    :date => :blue,
+    :logger => :cyan,
+    :message => :magenta
+  )
+
+  # Configure an appender that will write log events to STDOUT. A colorized
+  # pattern layout is used to format the log events into strings before
+  # writing.
+  #
+  Logging.appenders.stdout( 'stdout',
+    :auto_flushing => true,
+    :layout => Logging.layouts.pattern(
+      :pattern => '[%d] %-5l %c : %m\n',
+      :color_scheme => 'bright'
+    )
+  ) if config.log_to.include? 'stdout'
+
+  # Configure an appender that will write log events to a file. The file will
+  # be rolled on a daily basis, and the past 7 rolled files will be kept.
+  # Older files will be deleted. The default pattern layout is used when
+  # formatting log events into strings.
+  #
+  Logging.appenders.rolling_file( 'file',
+    :filename => config.paths['log'].first,
+    :keep => 7,
+    :age => 'daily',
+    :truncate => false,
+    :auto_flushing => true,
+    :layout => layout
+  ) if config.log_to.include? 'file'
+
+  # Configure an appender that will send an email for "error" and "fatal" log
+  # events. All other log events will be ignored. Furthermore, log events will
+  # be buffered for one minute (or 200 events) before an email is sent. This
+  # is done to prevent a flood of messages.
+  #
+  Logging.appenders.email( 'email',
+    :from     => "server@#{config.action_mailer.smtp_settings[:domain]}",
+    :to       => "developers@#{config.action_mailer.smtp_settings[:domain]}",
+    :subject  => "Rails Error [#{%x(uname -n).strip}]",
+    :server   => config.action_mailer.smtp_settings[:address],
+    :domain   => config.action_mailer.smtp_settings[:domain],
+    :acct     => config.action_mailer.smtp_settings[:user_name],
+    :passwd   => config.action_mailer.smtp_settings[:password],
+    :authtype => config.action_mailer.smtp_settings[:authentication],
+
+    :auto_flushing => 200,     # send an email after 200 messages have been buffered
+    :flush_period  => 60,      # send an email after one minute
+    :level         => :error,  # only process log events that are "error" or "fatal"
+    :layout        => layout
+  ) if config.log_to.include? 'email'
+
+  # Setup the root logger with the Rails log level and the desired set of
+  # appenders. The list of appenders to use should be set in the environment
+  # specific configuration file.
+  #
+  # For example, in a production application you would not want to log to
+  # STDOUT, but you would want to send an email for "error" and "fatal"
+  # messages:
+  #
+  # => config/environments/production.rb
+  #
+  #     config.log_to = %w[file email]
+  #
+  # In development you would want to log to STDOUT and possibly to a file:
+  #
+  # => config/environments/development.rb
+  #
+  #     config.log_to = %w[stdout file]
+  #
+  Logging.logger.root.level = config.log_level
+  Logging.logger.root.appenders = config.log_to unless config.log_to.empty?
+
+  # Under Phusion Passenger smart spawning, we need to reopen all IO streams
+  # after workers have forked.
+  #
+  # The rolling file appender uses shared file locks to ensure that only one
+  # process will roll the log file. Each process writing to the file must have
+  # its own open file descriptor for `flock` to function properly. Reopening
+  # the file descriptors after forking ensures that each worker has a unique
+  # file descriptor.
+  #
+  if defined?(PhusionPassenger)
+    PhusionPassenger.on_event(:starting_worker_process) do |forked|
+      Logging.reopen if forked
+    end
+  end
+
+end
+