Moving Forward...
Added 2022-01-26 15:00:10 +0000 UTCHey Party Members! Hope you all are doing well. :)
I've got kind of a long post here, but I have some important announcements and questions for you all, so please take the time to read it whenever you have a chance. (I added a TL;DR at the end for anyone who is short on time.)
So it's been over a year now since I launched this Patreon. Things have honestly gone pretty well, and I'm super thankful for each and every one of you who have joined me on this journey.
I've been thinking a lot recently about how I can improve things in general. I think I have some good ideas, but I figured it would be best to run through it all in a post so you understand my thought process.
First, I'm going to start bundling the Youtube music for new song packs. Truth is, since I have been doing 2 songs a week for Youtube and Patreon (in addition to scoring a handful of games in between), it's been tough to write enough music to produce any new song packs.
Considering I'm basically writing a song pack each month, I think it would be wise of me to start utilizing that content for new song packs. This is where things get a bit tricky...
I'm also considering using the music I release each Tuesday for new song packs. My concern is that for this past year, this music has been exclusive to you Warriors and Mages.
The last thing I want to do is make any of you feel like I am taking content away from you, or ripping you off in any way. So I want to throw this out to you guys, is the exclusivity a selling point for you, or would you not care if these songs were also available in song packs??
Just had a thought while writing this: If I do this approach, I could add a couple of bonus songs in as an incentive for Mages. That way you are getting some songs that are unique to your tier.
Another concern I've had is content overwhelm. It's already been voiced to me by one recent Patron that they were a bit overwhelmed by all the music in the archives. I don't want new people to feel overwhelmed, so I had an idea...
Instead of uploading individual songs, I could bundle each months songs into one zip file. So basically the archives would look something like this:
- Jan 2022
- Feb 2022
- March 2022
...and so on. Of course there would still be the separation for different tiers.
This would also result in easier to manage archives, as well as less posts from me throughout the month. I'd still do one each week with little updates, things I'm working on, etc. But the songs would come bundled once each month.
So as you can see, I have a lot of thoughts! I have others, but I'd like to see how this pans out first, so we'll tackle those at a later date.
I'd love to get your feedback on these ideas, especially on the song packs and delivering the bulk of the content once a month instead of weekly.
As always, thank you so much for your support! And thanks for taking the time to check this out.
-Bert
TL;DR
- I'm going to start bundling my Youtube Music and selling it in song packs.
- I'd like to use the Patreon Exclusive tunes for this as well, but looking for your feedback on that first.
- I'm considering condensing the archives down to monthly updates to avoid content overload. You'll still receive the same amount of music, but it will release all at once at the beginning of the month, rather than twice a week.
Comments
Hey thanks for that feedback Josh! I think right now I'm leaning towards sticking with weekly releases based on what you and Daniel have said. But I think making folders for each month will make the archives easier to navigate. Theoretically at least haha! Thanks for being a part of this community dude, I really appreciate it. :D
Bert Cole (AKA Bit By Bit Sound)
2022-01-28 01:09:25 +0000 UTCI don't feel super strongly one way or another, and honestly whatever works easiest for you is fine with me. I'm a supporter no matter what. I will say I'd personally lean toward continuing to do weekly releases. I genuinely look forward to them, and I worry a monthly release would cause them to get lost in the shuffle. I can see the argument for being overwhelmed, but that might be solved by recap-style posts ("digests"). Dunno! Like I said, I'm here regardless
Josh Bossie
2022-01-27 21:31:32 +0000 UTCCelestrium, thank you so much for your honesty. Even if everyone else responded, and you were the only one who felt exclusivity was important, that would still be a very important factor to me. Thank you so much for all your support this past year, and for offering your feedback whenever I ask. I'm going to keep working hard to make sure you and everyone else are happy to be a part of this community! :D
Bert Cole (AKA Bit By Bit Sound)
2022-01-27 15:11:57 +0000 UTCHello Bert and fellow supporters, Hope this finds you all well. Long time mage supporter. I am here to voice how I feel about the proposed changes. First, inclusion of the songs in song packs for resale...I do care, and I feel others should as well. I do want some of the music to be exclusive, the exclusive songs are like a symbol of our relationship, to strip that completely alters the relationship. To elaborate, I don't mind that you place some of the songs into packs or whatnot, but I want being your patreon to mean something special and different from the casual purchaser. It doesn't have to be like you have done in the past, but I decided to stick with you due to your dedication and that you reached out and said my support meant something to you. I don't want you to stretch yourself thin, but maybe one or two song titles per song pack as exclusives to patrons? There are other artists that I enjoy, but I stopped using their work because I played too many indie games that used their music. I strive to stand out, I ask that you give some exclusivity to those that have supported you for this reason. You can spread your music and make some profit, but still give us something special. The majority of your supporters are likely drawn to be your supporter due to your sheer volume, you are a tireless worker and have provided so many quality songs, I appreciate that. Exclusive titles helps persuade me to stay, instead of patiently waiting for song bundles on itch.io on Black Fridays. 2. Archiving monthly is fine. Please do whatever is easiest for you, I feel you make the music, I can organize it lol! Bert, been with you a while, and I am not going anywhere no matter what you decide to do. You work hard and are so passionate about what you do. I enjoy waiting to hear what you put together. I also value that you listen to what I have to say, and understand I said this because you asked my opinion. You are one of the best, if not the best, asset creators that I have worked or bought from. Thanks for all your hard work!
Celestrium
2022-01-27 05:41:23 +0000 UTCThank you so much! Glad to hear that. :D I was imagining what the archives may look like for a new supporter 1 or 2 years from now, and it would be an absolute mess doing things the way I am now haha. Thanks for your support, I'll continue to write quality music for you!
Bert Cole (AKA Bit By Bit Sound)
2022-01-26 18:13:51 +0000 UTCAwesome, thanks so much for this feedback Daniel! It really does help me moving forward. :D
Bert Cole (AKA Bit By Bit Sound)
2022-01-26 18:10:40 +0000 UTCI think it's great that you want to do the song packs, and total support from me on this! Personally, I also think it would be great to release one zip file a month-- it would be nice to get the content all at one time instead of having the overload like you mentioned. Cleaning up the archives would make it more user friendly for sure. Whatever you decide, I'm sure that it's gonna be awesome and I look forward to seeing what you do. Thank you for providing quality music for us!
Randi Tisdall
2022-01-26 16:08:56 +0000 UTC- Bundling the YouTube music for packs seems good. I'm honestly surprised you haven't done that before considering how much music you do. - I'm not a mage or warrior, but the thing that attracts me about those tiers is not the exclusivity itself but the fact that I could get more content. And using them for music pack could bring more options to the buyer; if you want an specific song just buy the pack with it but if you want more you can become a patroner. - Although I prefer weekly, I don't have a problem with monthly releases.
Daniel Matias
2022-01-26 15:51:20 +0000 UTC
