The Future of MPN?

[zephonic]

Go KC Brethren! 💪

 

[Synthaholic]

I tend to buy from Sweetwater most of the time. If they had a banner here I would be happy to click it to get there to make a purchase. I would just have to remember to do it. Same for any other companies. Any chance of getting Only Fans? (I kid, I kid!!! 😂)

[Floyd Tatum]

I just became a Patreon supporter of MPN!   My first Patreon.

[Dave Bryce]

2 hours ago, Synthaholic said:

I tend to buy from Sweetwater most of the time. If they had a banner here I would be happy to click it to get there to make a purchase. I would just have to remember to do it.

 

I’ll put it back.  

 

dB

[nursers]

9 hours ago, JazzPiano88 said:

 

- Keyboard Chronicles podcasts. (worth their weight in gold!). These are hidden away but could get a bigger audience on YouTube.

 

 

As Dave mentioned, we link to the MPN YouTube channel from our YT channel proudly. For those that listen to the podcast we do a detailed plug for MPN at the end of EVERY show (isn't that right @Joe Muscara ) and you hear Dave's dulcet tones as the pre-show ad at the start of every second show as well  

 

The getting to 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours is challenging and as Dave says it takes a lot of time and a budget.

[RABid]

I just signed up, $5 a month. Not much on its on, but it is a number I am comfortable with, and when grouped with others....

 

Have you considered a virtual yard sale? I'm willing to put a couple things on the list, donate the shipping, and let the payment through PayPad go direct to MusicPlayer. 

[Dave Bryce]

14 minutes ago, RABid said:

Have you considered a virtual yard sale?

 

I have not!  Really interesting idea… 🤔

 

 

14 minutes ago, RABid said:

I'm willing to put a couple things on the list, donate the shipping, and let the payment through PayPad go direct to MusicPlayer. 

 

That’s very kind of you, brother.  I wonder how we would do it - sort of like the Garage Sale sub-forum?

 

dB

[RABid]

I think a Garage Sale sub form will be the simplest. Things are greatly simplified if the donor of items also donates shipping. That would open the door to the buy paying Music Player directly. Then the donor would only need notification that payment has cleared and the shipping address. The biggest complication is overseas shipping. While I am okay donating $20 for same country shipping, I'm not so sure about overseas shipping. I also understand that we have members around the globe and don't want to exclude them. Something to think about.

[bill5]

On 6/2/2023 at 12:15 PM, 16251 said:

I never minded ads when they were banners. Then it felt like they were weeds and multiplied and started devouring the content. Piano World has non-intrusive ads, which never bothers me IMHO.

Gearslutz is similar. I'd be cool with ads but ask/hope they are not animated or anything that "streams" as my bandwidth is not unlimited. And yes I do occasionally click on them when I see something of interest.

[RABid]

6 minutes ago, bill5 said:

are not animated or anything that "streams"

When I visit a sight and it starts to play a video with audio, I'm gone and don't look back. One reason I don't visit ESPN.com is they have all those videos that auto play. Even though they start with the audio down it is still more than I want to put up with.

[bill5]

Agreed. The news sites tend to do this a lot as well, drives me nuts...if there's a video, just post a link and let me decide if I want to watch it. So I go to bbc.com instead.

[ksoper]

I read a daily blog that is ad-free, totally reader supported. They're a bigger operation than we are but they're able to pay the salaries and benefits for 3 full-time writers, the publisher and her family. At the top of the home page and the bottom of every article is a bold, but not obnoxious plea for donations or subscriptions and links to pay through PayPal or Stripe. It can be one-time or monthly. They're also set up with Amazon. Every once in a while, maybe once a quarter, the owner writes an article that gently reminds readers that they need cash to continue. I donate 2 or 3 times a year, amounting to $50-75. 

 

Dave, I think your Patreon link on the page is too polite. Until this thread I never even saw it, though my eyes have scanned past it hundreds of times. It should be obvious. On my Android devices it only appears on the bottom of the page and many times I don't scroll that far. Like others I'm not into pop-ups, auto-play junk, etc., but I can survive a little badgering. This post is also my confession, I have yet to donate. I'll rectify that here in a minute. 

 

As far as generating traffic goes, I read the Reddit r/synthesizer forum and whenever someone has a question that I know a forumite can answer I direct them here. I've seen at least one post here that I know was posted first on Reddit, so that method seems to work. Any of us can do that. Lots of young users of old gear there. 

 

I'm cool with ads. Today on Facebook I clicked an ad for a Spectrasonics Omnisphere add-on. I might actually buy it but I'm at the point where I don't buy that much with the exception of replacement accessories. So I can't promise that I'll click on everything. But whatever it takes, I'm in. KC is part of my family and I'm at the age where I'm running out of family. 

 

[MathOfInsects]

I also agree that the Patreon link is too buried. I went looking for it on my phone and couldn't find it. Finally I tried the three-lines, and even though that's where it actually is, I even missed it there. I also think our preferences for how we view the forum can be the difference between whether it shows up on the page or not. Maybe the banner should be the Patreon link for awhile instead of a Sweetwater ad?

I looked into it and you can't make a one-time payment via Patreon. They recommend making a large initial donation of whatever you want that one-time amount to be, and then just cancelling the support after that first month is charged. I'm going to do that because I'm not crazy about recurring charges. I'll donate tomorrow when my tax refund hits. It will artificially inflate the monthly amount, so if you prefer that I wait for this flurry of support to top out, so it doesn't suddenly look like we're on Easy Street, I'm happy to do that. 

 

[Dave Bryce]

Re: the Patreon sign - excellent points. 

 

I’ve had a box at the top of the Topics page sidebar in every forum with Tom Hanks waving for a while, but I guess that wasn’t a great choice.  

 

I’ve changed that one to Emoticons yesterday…but I can also run a more obvious 728 x 96 banner if you guys think that will help.

 

I appreciate the suggestion.

 

dB

[16251]

Considering that this site creates tons of Gas, you would think manufactures, music websites, stores, etc. would like exposure. I also see the whole column at right that posts trending posts as a landing spot for better use. How about a Patreon professional column there with those folks who want us to think of them, with the top contributors at top spots. I don't know about banners, etc. but if there was a minimum amount to make it on there, then they would be mini-banners. These could be music stores, healthy food options, bands, teachers, etc. Lastly, at bottom could be a hyperlink list for rest of those companies paying something, but so far not enough to move up to the exclusive mini-banner tier but can still get clicks to their sites.

[Joe Muscara]

The T - HANKS banner was very cute and likable, like he is, but I could see it getting overlooked by people.  

 

Would a Patreon banner ad on pages like where I'm seeing the MPN Shop right now that asks for sign ups be too obnoxious? It could rotate with the Shop ad, and maybe get more eyeballs. Ideally, it would appear in the other fora as well, so some plank-spankers, etc., would sign up. Clearly there was an awareness issue about Patreon that this thread has helped with.

[lightbg]

Wow……not only did I join Patreon, but apparently I’m a patriot as well since my first renewal is July the 4th!🇺🇸

[Dave Bryce]

3 hours ago, Joe Muscara said:

Would a Patreon banner ad on pages like where I'm seeing the MPN Shop right now that asks for sign ups be too obnoxious? It could rotate with the Shop ad, and maybe get more eyeballs. Ideally, it would appear in the other fora as well, so some plank-spankers, etc., would sign up.

 

Yep, that’s what I’m gonna try.  It’ll be in rotation in all three of the banner slots.  I’ll probably swap it out for the MPN Shop….but I gotta create the banner first.

 

dB

[surfergirl]

On 6/3/2023 at 11:07 AM, JazzPiano88 said:

I like the manually paid yearly lump sum.  I’ve started to dislike the monthly subscription as you lose track of everything you’ve signed up for and all of a sudden have 25 payments going out the door automatically and also making it harder to reprioritize if desired.  

I don't like and don't have any automatic payments out of my CC. I'm getting a prepaid card loaded with enough for 6 months donation, then reload it. That card will only be for MPN.

Edit: Since the prepaid cards are debit they may not work for monthly payments. I'll try one and if it doesn't I can just use it for other things. I can't do anything until I'm sure the longshoreman aren't going on strike. We're stocking up(not hoarding)just in case. If we can't get supplies, we can't work. 

[CowboyNQ]

On 6/3/2023 at 12:36 PM, Polychrest said:

Maybe the Guardian model has a solution for us.  It’s one of the great newspapers of the English-speaking world, but unlike its peers, there’s no paywall on its website.  After registering, you can browse for free, you can contribute an amount of your choosing one time or regularly on your own schedule, or you can take out a full-cost subscription.  Full-cost subscribers get the option to view the paper ad-free.  If you choose option one or two, in addition to ads, you are gifted with regular reminders that providing all this great content costs money and your financial help would be much appreciated.  Launching three comparable options here might help raise the revenue for which Dave has made a convincing case, while keeping the front door wide open for those who can’t or don’t want to pay to learn which Hammond clone has the best key click or crosstalk emulations.

This is the also model that sprang to mind when I first started reading this thread.

[mauriziodececco]

I think this is a equation with a very difficult solution to find: there is a balance between being a community, and being a company offering services to this community. Growth is a very difficult subject on Internet, and around music in general :-<.

 

You can discuss if the services provided are worth it, if the price is good or not and so on.

 

But i personally don't care; this place has been my musical house in the last years, helped me in so many different ways that i have given in the past and I'll give again my contribution to keep it up and running; everything else is a technical detail.

 

Anyway, since we are discussing it, a Patreon like contribution is closer to my idea of community, so i am happy with it; but ready to contribute in any other possible way.

 

Maurizio

[Threadslayer]

On 6/3/2023 at 8:50 AM, PianoMan51 said:

Just signed up for Patreon. While folks can debate and decide on the best solution for the long term future, those of us who appreciate Keyboard Corner can donate the price of a burger each month to keep the lights on.

Let's not get carried away. 

[zxcvbnm098]

Signed up for $10 a month on Patreon. Well worth it. Keep up the good work MPN peeps! 

[zephonic]

From Friday morning (PST) with 8 Patrons and $40, to Monday morning with 35 Patrons and $ 207.49

 

Well done, forumites!

 

[ksoper]

After reading more comments about the Patreon subscription model I've decided to halt the monthly payments. So you've gotten a one-time paltry sum and I will await another option similar to the Guardian model, which is very much like the blog I described in my first post. I signed up because I want to help but I'm really not comfortable with a monthly draw. The Dave Ferris option, sending you a check, is also something I'll do if it'll buy you some time to figure out how to proceed.  

 

Edit:  In fact, I'd probably send you more as a lump sum than I would with a monthly subscription.

 

 

[David Emm]

11 minutes ago, Dave Ferris said:

Dave, I want to help out but I'm not comfortable with this Patreon platform. Too many poor reviews, plus they take a percentage. I would prefer sending you a check and then feel free to put it in Patreon through your own account, or however you want to use it.

 

I like this idea the best for its directness, but it still leans towards needing someone to manage the details. That's probably a bigger issue than any discussion of value-added tiers and the like. I won't say a solid No to Patreon yet, but as a semi-responsible biped, I could see doing the PayPal thing as part of my top-of-the-month disbursements. I think we're creeping up on the most sensible fix, somewhere in the middle of the debate.

[Dave Bryce]

If y'all wanna use Paypal, I imagine that would work - especially for those who only want to contribute once.

 

MPN does have a PayPal account. I think it uses my MPN email… 🤔

 

dB

[ksoper]

3 hours ago, Dave Bryce said:

If y'all wanna use Paypal, I imagine that would work - especially for those who only want to contribute once.

 

MPN does have a PayPal account.  I think it uses my MPN email… 🤔

 

dB

 

Done.  Check your email. The net after everybody takes their cut ought to equal out to what I wanted to send originally. 

 

[Dave Bryce]

Wait - I was wrong.  It uses davebryce@me.com. 😬

 

I just got an email to the MPN anccount asking if i want to accept it and create a new account.   Go ahead and cancel the send, and try again with the right email address.

 

Sorry...

 

Also - anyone wanting to use Paypal please choose the Friends and Family option or Paypal will take a cut.

 

dB

[ksoper]

I re-sent.  Check your email.