Definitely a good question and I covered this in the vLog I made in response to the responses in this thread. It had only one click on the link so I changed the name to “Eminem rap video” in the hopes that you guys would be more inclined to click it ha. Here it is again if you missed it: https://youtu.be/56dF1ResLIM
I can’t remember exactly what I said, but the shorthand version is this: The idea is not that you guys in the community are subscribing to the Patreon. You guys are the ones that should be benefitting from it. I asked what would attract you to sub, because if you, the current community wouldn’t sub, then no-one else is going to.
What I am doing for the community currently simply isn’t sustainable without funding and community support in doing what everyone can. The old forum had ads. Stu took in that revenue to cover the costs of running this site. This is just but one expense of many. I don’t like ads as much as the next person, so I’m not planning on plastering them all over this site.
Every little bit helps, no matter what it is. I want this place to be a success once more. Success to me means that we all gain something from it and that we at least break even.
@Manton ok now i understand after watching the video (check views and clicks lol). i legit thought that was a link to an eminem rap video and was like that must be an inside joke i don’t get yet. it all makes a lot more sense to me now. i kinda suspected that more money was going out than coming in. I helped run an early version of the invisible records website back in the 90s. got exposed to a lot of the industry as a result.
i don’t know what the right frequency is to put content up, but once a month can be kind of slow but that’s about all i expect. you’d have the content with each month’s release to cover that.
with releases coming out every month, you could do a patreon code on bandcamp to get a % off. if you had $1, $5, $10 a month tiers maybe $5 means 10% off and $10 means 25% off? bandcamp does have a subscription service that you could look into as well. Amon Tobin uses it for the nomark club. Might be another revenue stream or something to look into leveraging.
if i was a superfan of a label i’d hope for their patreon to offer at least monthly releases of some sort. stems for a track on that release at a certain tier. does anyone even look at liner notes and do they exist for digital releases? some artists include you in the thanks section of each of their releases. just a thought
asked my wife what she would hope to gain from being a patreon for the label that puts out music of multiple artists she liked. she asked me why she wouldn’t already be a direct patreon of the artists. I thought it was a helpful way to start framing it for myself as well. there are definitely ways, and maybe it doesn’t matter that much right now.
but i hear you on the financial aspect. sorry i didn’t watch the video initially.
I could see this working for the artist, actually. It’s kind of like free promo that also benefits the label, especially for people who already make them on a pretty regular basis. The same goes for videos, tutorials, etc. The label has always been good about sending people back to the source with a link and a shout out, so I honestly think building a community helps everyone.
It’s not really all that different from getting your music released on the label. People buy it and support the label, and they listen to your music. Pretty decent exchange all around.
Plus, whenever you see other communities in their early stages it’s just kind of like that, but it snowballs. Bigger and better things come out of it, or at the very least it just becomes a really fun circle jerk for the insiders. There’s really not much of a loss, especially if you already enjoy making shit.
(For people who don’t already do those types of things though, I agree)
I forgot to mention preset packs would be a hell of a lot of fun along with sample packs (not sure if I explicitly mentioned them), but I don’t know how frequently people use stuff like that these days. Also everything I mentioned (aside from interviews) are things I’d personally contribute
I probably should have put more around the framing of that line. Starting out, it’s always donated for the most part. I was thinking about long term it can get hard, but i agree with everything you’ve said. I said it thinking the goal should be to find a way that it doesn’t need to be donated (nothing wrong with donating, i’d personally be up to donate whatever i could).
an artist i sponsor on patreon releases samples every month of some sort and i always love getting those. i don’t know how much i could contribute to unique samples as most of mine are “illegal” as they are lifted from tv, movies, etc and i’m not talking about the vocal ones. not that anyone is really going to be able to say “that drum sound is a sample of a cannon from movie X during Y scene” but i’m fairly cautious to not get into trouble.
like i said, i’d join a patreon for this community to show support and i think there’s enough ideas that would definitely offer something unique and different to fans. I don’t have a lot of spare time during the week, but i could block time on the weekend to help in some capacity.