A note from Matthew to all the subscribers here at Matthew Ebel dot net. Here’s the audio:
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And the transcript is below the fold…
Good morning, subscribers! Get comfortable, this is a long update. A “year in review” of sorts, and it concerns the very future of Matthew Ebel dot net.
First of all, as always, thank you so much for making Matthew Ebel dot net a raging success. As most of you know it’s only existed for less than a year now and already people are saying this is the future of the music industry. I don’t know about that, I’m just happy you guys are still listening after all these months.
So I’d like to talk to you about the future of Matthew Ebel dot net. When I started this little project, I had no idea just how big it would become in so short a time. I also had no idea what to expect, so I made a lot of promises right from the very beginning. Some were easy to keep, some took a lot of work, and some… well, some of them may have been a bit unrealistic. Let’s walk through them together.
- Monthly Live Recordings
- The whole concept that started Matthew Ebel dot net was that touring the nation in a van at $4 per gallon was a bad idea. Still I wanted a way to bring live music to my fans whether we could actually connect in the same building or not. Personally I think the live recordings have been a great success to that end. I’d like to record bigger and better shows, but I’ll cover that later.
- 2 Song Downloads Per Month
- For the All-Access and VIP members, this is the meat. The backbone of Matthew Ebel dot net. Without question, this seems to be the most popular feature that you guys love. It’s also a lot more work than I anticipated. When I was sitting on Block Island with a pen and a blank sheet of paper, 2 songs per month sounded easy enough to do. True enough, writing a couple of songs a month is easy. Writing good songs, however, and backing those up with good productions takes up most of my time in any given month. Still, I’ve been able to pull it off and I think my writing has improved greatly because of all the deadlines. I couldn’t be doing this without your support, so thank you again.
- Members-Only Albums and Deluxe Albums
- Like I said, back in October I didn’t think 2 songs a month would take that much time. I figured I could easily come out with albums just for my subscribers and albums for general release while I was doing all this. Good Lord, what was I thinking? To be honest, it looks like those promises may just not be possible. At least, not with material you’re not already hearing twice a month. I imagine that, once I’ve been at this for a couple of years, I’ll be able to re-record some of the Studio Recordings with a live band and release them as album material for the general public. To be honest, though, I don’t know how in the world I’m going to find time to come up with members-only albums on top of that. Between 24 new songs per year AND trying to find places to play live concerts, I just don’t think there’s enough time in the day.
- Two Annual Tickets to Matthew Ebel House Concerts
- At this point I need to flat-out offer an apology. I had no idea how hard it would be to book any kind of live concerts on my own. Even house concerts. As any musician will tell you, booking a tour is the single most difficult task for any new artist. Right now I can’t afford to go on a tour that won’t actually pay the bills- like I said, that was the big reason I started Matthew Ebel dot net in the first place. With no booking agent or interns doing this work work for me, I barely have enough time to set up my weekly UStream shows, let alone try and get into colleges, house concerts, and conventions. I guess this part will have to go into my wish list, which I’ll get to in just a minute.
- Members-Only Merchandise
- I’ve actually had a Members-Only store open since day one, complete with shirts and other items you just can’t get anywhere else. Unfortunately, not many of you seem that interested in wearable stuff. So at this point I really need to hear from you. What do you want to see in a Members-Only store? Do you even care about a Members-Only store, or is it not that big a deal? As of today I’m axing the old store entirely and replacing it with a single item- Songs from the Vault. If I get some ideas for other store items that you guys actually want, I’ll do what I can to make it happen, but right now the archive CD’s seem to be the only thing in demand. And I’ll cover those a little bit later.
- The VIP Goodie Bag and Beer Bash
- Some of you were here in Boston last weekend for the first annual VIP Beer Bash. Of all the things I envisioned back in October when I started this little journey, the Beer Bash was quite possibly the weirdest thing I came up with. Who the heck would want to sacrifice a weekend just to hang out with me and drink some of my beer? Apparently, some of you did. Some of you flew up from Texas for this. For those of you that showed up, thank you. Getting to meet some of you in person for the first time made me feel so good, I just hope you had half as much fun as I did. And I hope you enjoy the goodie bags I gave you at the event. The rest of you will get yours soon and I really look forward to hearing your reaction to these things. Let me know what you think about them, and please feel free to post videos or photos online when you get yours in the mail!
- The Custom Songs
- As of this recording I’ve only done one, so I’ll be drawing a name from the hat later this week to award another VIP their custom song. It took me a while to finish Tony’s custom song, “Two Stars“, but that’s because I wanted to make sure it was exactly what he wanted. The emails and comments he sent me absolutely made my month, so apparently the custom songs are worth keeping. Like I said, stay subscribed for the next custom song that will be announced soon.
WHEW! That was a lot to cover. I really want to hear your comments about all of this, and there’s two ways to do it… we could just discuss via the website at Matthew Ebel dot net/blog, or I could set up a little “town hall meeting” of my own. Just you, me, and the other subscribers via UStream. What do you think? Drop me a comment on the blog either way, I really want to know what you’re thinking.
Mostly I’d like to talk about the future of Matthew Ebel dot net. I’ve got some questions, some future plans, and some things I’d like to see happen IF I can keep your support and keep growing over the next year or two.
Some Questions:
- Songs From The Vault
- Since it looks like I won’t be able to release members-only albums, should I make “Songs from the Vault” available as a free download to VIP’s? I was thinking that the most recent Vault collection could be included as a download, thereby catching up a new VIP on the last half year of songs. If you’re a VIP, drop me a line and let me know what you think about this. Just leave a comment in the blog or email me
- New VIP level
- A few of the VIP’s have suggested that I should have yet another subscription level, sort of a “platinum VIP” or something. Suggestions have ranged from a guaranteed custom song to a guaranteed concert in your town. Something like that would need to have limited slots, like 5 to 10 at most, and depending on what I can come up with it may cost $750 to $1,000 per year for something like that. I really need to hear from my VIP’s and anyone considering buying a VIP pass. I already consider you my investors, but for the few of you who want that “I’m with the band” kind of status, what would you like to see? And what would you consider reasonable?
- Make VIP passes Annual only
- The more I look at the difference between All-Access and VIP passes, the less sense it makes to do the VIP thing on a monthly level. The big upgrades from All-Access to VIP are mostly once-per-year events anyway, like the beer bash and the goodie bag. The custom songs only happen twice per year. I think I may make the VIP pass available as a yearly subscription only once we get to October, but let me know your thoughts on that.
Finally, now that your ass is asleep from sitting through all of this, here’s where I think Matthew Ebel dot net is headed in the future. Some of this stuff will happen soon, some will take time, and some will only happen if I can find enough subscribers to afford these changes.
- Garage Band versions for All-Acess and VIP members
- Since the house concerts and members-only albums may be a bit more than I can honestly handle, this may be a good replacement that’s worth your support. More than a few of you have asked for remixable versions of the Subscriber songs and I can definitely provide that, at least once every couple of months.
- Professional mixing and mastering
- I’m doing pretty well at the controls so far, but there are people out there who could take my songs and really make them sound like a major label (you know, back before they all started to suck). Once I’m bringing in enough money to pay for a real engineer, I can give you guys better-sounding tunes every single month. The songwriting and production will still be all me, but I could offer you tunes that will stand up next to anything you hear on the radio or Pandora.
- Fix the damn website already
- Believe me, I know how clunky it is right now. Fortunately, it works well enough to deliver everything I need it to, but the second I can afford a programmer to make it function WELL (like Apple well), I will have someone iron out all the wrinkles once and for all. I’ve had to sacrifice a lot of flexibility and function in order to keep my costs at minimum, but I want to fix these bugs as much as you do.
- More live shows
- Hell, ANY live shows. I’ll say it again, I just don’t have time to act as a booking agent and still make quality music for you. If I can afford to hire someone to book shows for me, however, I’ll be able to go on tour (on that note, if any of you know a good booking agent that wants to work with me, that will solve a lot of problems). Once again, though, it’s all about money. If I get enough subscribers that I can afford a plane ticket once a month, I can fly out to a different city every month and play a show in your living room, or down at your local coffee shop, or whatever. Believe me, I want to see you guys as more than names in a chat room every Tuesday!
- Live band
- I keep saying it every Tuesday night during my UStream shows: I want a live band. The robots are nice, but there’s just something so damn cool about a real drummer with all the flying lumber making a huge sound. I can’t afford to feed anyone else right now, but once we get enough subscribers that will change. Imagine what could happen if your subscription involved a real rock band coming to your town to see YOU, not the other way around.
- Bigger and better goodie bags and Beer Bash
- Simply put, the more VIP’s that sign up, the cooler the goodie bags and the annual party will be. This one’s pretty simple, I just need more VIP’s to make it happen.
Alright. Deep breath. That was the last of it. The bottom line is this: You guys are awesome. You are making something possible that no musician could’ve dreamed of ten years ago. It’s been a wild ride in this first year, but we can make things even better in the years to come. All I need is your support and your help and I can keep cranking out the tunes that made you fall in love with me in the first place.
I can’t thank you enough for all that you do. I hope to hear from you soon, and let me know if you want to do the town hall thing via UStream. I’ve got a poll at the end of this blog post right now, so go to Matthew Ebel dot net before the end of August and drop me a line. Thanks!
When could you join a Town Hall meeting with Matthew?
- Right After Matthew's Tuesday Concerts (7:30pm EDT) (50%, 6 Votes)
- Weekday from 5-6pm EDT (17%, 2 Votes)
- Weekday from 6-7pm EDT (17%, 2 Votes)
- Weekday from 8-9pm EDT (8%, 1 Votes)
- Saturday Only (8%, 1 Votes)
- Weekday from 7-8pm EDT (0%, 0 Votes)
- Sunday Only (0%, 0 Votes)
- Not Really Interested (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 12
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August 26th, 2009 at 7:54 am
I am willing to help with the webpages for free. I am trained in HTML, DHTML, XML, Flash, ColdFusion, Java, Javascript,…
I am semi-retired, so I have time to spare. If it helps keep you playing, meranda and I are there for you.
August 27th, 2009 at 8:44 am
To be honest, I think you’re puttignm so much time and effort into .net that it’s become a destraction to the overall music dream and developement of the music career. Sure it’s helping with yoru song writing and creation, practice makes perfect, and the more material you have the better, but it’s taking you away from potentially more benefitial avenue’s. I have no idea how many subscribers you have, and I’m sure the monthly income is of tremendous help, and atleast a little security, but you’re looking to grow. The subscriptions themselves aren’t helping to promote you any more sucessuflly then having the web presence to begin with. It’s an awesome idea, to help your fans connect to you, and it’s been proven fans want connection and are willing to pay for it. You’re trying really really hard to provide enough quality material to support the subscription model and to make it a continuing value, but it’s taking so much of yourtime you’ve lost promotional ability and without a staff to help you, it’s actually become a roadblock quite possibly.
I’m sure you’d rather get booked at a bar or small venue for a $500 fee then try to struggle up 4 VIP’s especially considering thats a one time pay out, and can be done multiple times a year (one would hope)
Personally, while “front of line” access to your new material is nice, i’m not thinking it’s somthing i’d commit a monthly fee to doing, especially $10. the other items of note, liek teh house concert tickets and merchendise have no interest for me, and while the idea of acces to an (as not non existant) delux version fo albums is kinda cool, might be more benefitial to allow everyone to buy the (more expensive) deluxe version. Same thing with the member only albums, why limit your audence? limited audience means limited sales, and not sure how many people will sign up for that benefit.
This si just my own personal opiniun, run yoru site and career however you see fit, but a few suggestions that just seem logisticlaly to work better.
the u stream dowload option for $5 seems like a good idea, lets people archive the concert, and it’s a nice small number to “help feed matt just cus we love him” without nessicarily needing anything in return just to say thanks and support you. maybe even have member only concert streams a few times a year showcasing as yet unreleased to general public music. access to buy a bi anual songs from the vault collection
if the all acces option were to stay, i think they should still get front of line access to any /most of the songs you make, but without the gaurnteed song release cycle (think we’d perfer you to get a concert booking then make you feel like you HAVE to work on a song for us, and god forbid you want to go on vacation), a % discount to your store, something like 10% off cd’s, maybe a monthly raffel for a free cd, maybe special versions of existing songs, instrumental? accapella? dance remix? not available to the general public. something like that. access to buy a bi anual songs from the vault collection. ability to purchase beer bash or house concert passes, though i dont expect many will travel to someones house by plane to see you, yet.
I think the VIP level should be a once a year type thing, but if they want to break it up into monthly installment payments I think you should allow for that. It should include everything from above and the unique thigns it does now, invitations for free house concerts, beer bash etc. the custom sogn raffel si a good thing too., maybe a bigger cd discount.
for the non subscribers, access to songs in album form, or songs from teh vault once a year 12 months after a song release, but you can still use thsoe songs for any live concert etc.You may want to drop the bit rate of the concerts and leave the hq stuff for the albums and song downloads.
maybe auction off a custom song or sell raffels but i think a bidding process is better.
just a few suggestions, take or leave any or all of it. Just soem idea’s I’ve been bouncing around.
Personally, i rather not pay anything ro pay very little and buy albums as they are released (just bought songs from the vault)
I’m on a free subscription right now. I may actually purchase the basic one, nto sure, depends on if/how you re-work some thigns, I want access to the cd’s and sonsg fairly quickly but i almost rather pay per song on a seelctive basis then commit to anythign monthly. but it’s hard to sell songs to non members or light level members without makign the all access / vips feel under valued. it’s a lto of thigns to balence, Good luck.
I like the songs in the vault by the way, glad I got it, lots of good material in here
August 28th, 2009 at 8:27 am
[...] things better for your customers. Want to see a great example at a small business level? Look at how Matthew Ebel is working his subscription service. Ask his VIPs if he’s all about himself or all about them, and you’ll find nearly [...]
September 5th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Matt,
I must admit I may have only stumbled upon you a few months ago, and I am enjoying every minute. I blast your music at work, but the guys at work just don’t appreciate good music. I’ve had a few ask, and I’ve pointed them your way but if they’ve actually come looking is something I have yet to see.
As far as your long post is considered.
2 New Songs a Month.
In the beginning this is a good idea until you get up in popularity. I would not mind if you backed off and it was 1 New Song a Month. I’d rather have something from you that you enjoy to play and sing, rather than something your not all too happy with. Even big name artists still come out with new material, but at a much slower rate. With Songs from the vault, you’ve got 3 albums out and not one of them has repeat songs from one of the others, where as Linkin Park has several CD’s out but 2-3 of them are different remixes of the same shit. So, in my mind, your on the same level.
About the Members Only Store.
Let me say that, people are more interested in your music right now. Its whats going to bring people to you. I say your store should not be a Members Only fling, and anyone should be able to purchase music from your store.
However, you could keep some of the more famous songs you’ve done, like Night Train, LP, and CT require a Membership. This way you can spread most of work, but if they want those few extra songs from you, they gotta support you a little more than just buying your songs.
Lastly, I think I probably should have received your goody bag by now. But with me living in Japan, it may have been stopped at customs. If you could, drop me an email at Houshourattengod@yahoo.com and inform me what was in it. I hate to have the surprise of the Goodie Bag spoiled, but I’d rather know that it was confiscated by Customs or not, if you know what I mean.