• Text Updates – Excerpts from any books, short stories, poetry, or whatever else I’m working on in a word processor.
• Video Updates – This one’s been around a while, but now that I’m releasing in-studio and documentary videos, this is where you’ll find them.
• Graphics – Illustrations, sketches, posters, and comic pages developed for the projects I’m working on.

Check your Backstage Area for new links to the new categories of stuff I’ll be delivering over the next year. Of course, this stuff will still be enclosed in the Podcast and RSS feeds, so tune in and download away!

VIP Members: You’re officially invited to the second annual Beer Bash! If you can make it up to the Boston Area on July 31, 2010, you can join the party at Matthew’s new studio! Details below…

(If you’re not a VIP, it’s not too late to become one! Just grab a VIP Pass here…)

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Any questions? Just Contact Matthew or leave a comment here!

Just a few notes to my VIP supporters about what’s happening this month.

• I’m Moving! That’s right, we’re packing up all our crap and getting into a new house in New Hampshire, just north of Boston. Setting up the studio’s my first priority, so don’t worry about that.
• VIP Beer Bash: July 31? I know we voted on this, but that was before my room mates closed on their house and we found out we were moving in June. If you’ve got any objections to having the Beer Bash on July 31, 2010, contact me now!
• SHIRTS! If you haven’t already, double-check your shirt size in your Backstage Profile. The shirts are in, and they’re going out with the VIP goodie bags soon!

It’s that simple, really. Every new subscriber that grabs a Yearly VIP, All-Access, or Backstage Pass can get any Matthew Ebel dot net CD for free. Not a download, an actual round piece of plastic in full 16-bit quality. Why wait? Check out the various passes on the Subscription Page

In case you hadn’t heard, I’ve had my laptop (my only machine) in the shop twice now, taking it out of my hands for over a week. On top of that, unprecedented rainfall flooded my studio and knocked it out of commission for… well, I’m still waiting for everything to dry up down there.

Instead of trying to find some way to produce two new songs in the next couple of days before I leave for Atlanta, I’ve got a better idea: This weekend I’m going to try and film a live concert DVD and send THAT to you instead. You wouldn’t be able receive it before the end of March, but if we can pull this off you’ll get it soon enough!

If you’d rather just get a coupon code good for one free month of your subscription, let me know. Otherwise I’ll let you know when the DVD’s ready to ship out to you.

Again, I’m sorry about all the crap that’s happened around here this month, but we just didn’t plan on installing an indoor pool in the middle of my studio. Hopefully the worst of it is over!

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• Some users can access the site but not the downloads. If you haven’t noticed, I host the actual files at matthewebelentertainment.com instead of here (that will change when the site’s redesigned). My website host recently moved all my sites to a new machine (hooray upgrades!). This means your internet provider might not have updated their DNS servers yet, so “matthewebelentertainment.com” might point to the old machine instead of the new one. Other than calling up Comcast, Verizon, or whomever controls your internet and telling them to update their DNS servers, I’m not sure what to tell people having this problem. Look into getting OpenDNS instead?
• Pretty much everyone is having trouble logging into the Backstage area from links in the blog or the sidebar. I am too. It sucks and it’s a failure of the software I’m using. I’ve got a trouble ticket open with the programmer and he’s going to try and get it working, but until then your best bet is to log in directly from the backstage area.

  Update: Looks like a simple setting change was all that was needed. Go ahead, try it out for yourself, the login widget should work fine now.

I know it’s not much of an excuse, but I do all this stuff myself, so I’m working as fast as I can to fix the problems. One of these days I’ll be able to afford an actual web dude, but until then this patchwork of software will have to do. Thanks for your patience!

All Matthew Ebel dot net subscribers will be receiving The High Orbit Holiday Special as part of their regular downloads.

That’s right. Since the album project took all of my time for the last month, I haven’t been able to deliver on certain things. Hopefully this project will make up for it. Merry Christmas!

Download audio file (HOHS-Subscriber-Intro.mp3)
A Note About Novmber and December – 2.3MB MP3

I’m happy to announce that, based off the feedback I’ve been getting from fans like you, there will be some major changes in the way Matthew Ebel dot net works. The following changes won’t be immediate, they’ll be rolled out in the next few weeks…

Introducing a whole new pass… The Entourage

• Membership will be limited to only 5 subscribers per year.
• Entourage membership includes all the benefits of the VIP Pass
• The Entourage will receive The Entire Matthew Ebel Catalog as a download (Except Life’s Been Good, that one’s officially “the lost album”)
• Every Entourage member will get a custom song written by Matthew Ebel The same non-commercial rules apply, of course.
• The Entourage will receive framed, signed copies of new Songs from the Vault albums as they are released.
• An official Matthew Ebel Entourage Collector’s Pass
• Entourage Membership will cost $500 as an annual membership. This item will not auto-renew, but current members will have the option to renew when the time comes. If there is a waiting list, current members will be first in line.

What’s Happening to the Other Passes?

None of the prices for existing subscriptions will change. In fact, the Backstage Pass will stay entirely the same. Based on how things played out last year, though, a few things will change about the remaining passes…

The New All-Access Pass

• 1 Live Recording per month
• 2 Studio Recordings per month
• Remixable tracks for new studio recordings
• An annual All-Access goodie bag including an official All-Access membership card (instead of a members-only store)
• Discounts on non-member album/track downloads like Beer & Coffee or Goodbye Planet Earth (instead of members-only albums)
• Discounts on all concert tickets/cover charges (This may not apply to conventions where attendees are not charged for the show.)
• Members-only parties at most (or all) live concerts

The New VIP Pass

• All the goods from the All-Access Pass
• Access to any deluxe albums when available (box sets, special editions, etc.)
• Invitation to the annual VIP Beer Bash
• An annual VIP goodie bag including an official VIP Pass (and all the items from the All-Access goodie bag)
• Entry into the bi-annual drawing for a Custom Song

Songs and Albums via iTunes, Amazon, etc.

Also, I’ve heard from the overwhelming majority of you that you just don’t care about exclusivity all that much, so long as you get a first crack at all the new music. Quite a few of you have encouraged me to get these songs on iTunes for the rest of the world in less time than a full year.

There have also been people outright looking for torrents and free downloads out there, a sign that if I don’t release these songs to non-members sooner they’ll just go get them anyway. Considering all this, Studio Recordings will now be available to non-members after two months. First they will be individual downloads available through http://matthewebel.com and Matthew Ebel dot net – then they’ll be sent to CD Baby with new Songs from the Vault releases.

We? Who’s We?

In case you didn’t notice, I’m dropping the pretentious third-person voice of this site. Pretty much everyone knows it’s just me here and, until I really do need to hire someone to man this site, I’m going to stick with what I do best… communicating personally.

That’s about it. Again, these changes are the result of a year of thinking, working, talking, and laughing with you. You’re the reason I can still sing, and you’re the reason I’ll be making more music in the coming months. I hope to see you on Tuesday night for another UStream concert, and maybe at some colleges in 2010 as my booking team tries to get me out of the house!

Ian Boswell, you have just won a full year of the All-Access Pass! Congratulations! Now go find a medic, you’re on fire.

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!

You can listen to the WBUR segment right here:
Download audio file (news_0820_basement-musician.mp3)
Download MP3

There’s also some video from WBUR’s website:

Just a video update from Matthew Ebel.

• The “I Blame The Spy” video contest is now over, results will be announced soon!
• The annual VIP Goodie Bags have now been ordered and will be shipping out soon. If you’re a VIP, you’ll get yours either in the mail or at the Beer Bash.
• It’s not too late to sign up for VIP Beer Bash 2009. If you’re a VIP member, be sure to grab a ticket here. If you’re not, you can still become a VIP at matthewebel.net/subscribe… but tickets are closing soon!
• Last, the new Matthew Ebel dot net Store will be opening soon with Songs from the Vault, vol. 1. Now you can grab the songs that you missed from the first six months! You’ll need to be an All-Access or VIP subscriber to get that, tho!

VIP Members: You’re officially invited to the first annual Beer Bash! If you can make it up to Boston on August 16, 2009, you can join the party at Matthew’s studio! Details below…

(If you’re not a VIP, it’s not too late to become one! Just grab a VIP Pass here…)

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Fans of The Orange Box from Valve Software have probably become addicted to the online game Team Fortress 2, just like Matthew has. Now those addicts have a chance to win a full year of the All-Access Pass (a $99 value) and show off their movie-making skills.

Make an in-game music video (aka Machinema) using “I Blame The Spy” and you could win a full year of free music from Matthew Ebel dot net.

Read on for more details…

The Official Rules:

• Videos may use the entire song or part of the song, length is up to you.
• Do not use any copyrighted material such as other songs or movie clips that you do not own the rights to. Sound effects and other creative additions are okay, but don’t do anything illegal.
• Videos must be posted publicly to YouTube to be eligible (though they may also be posted elsewhere).
• Videos must contain a legible, full-frame credit of at least 3 seconds with the phrase
  

  Music “I Blame The Spy” by Matthew Ebel
  www.matthewebel.net

  (Can be at beginning or end of video clip.)

• The first sentence of the video’s info must be
  

  http://matthewebel.net – Music “I Blame The Spy” Used With Permission.

  (Yes, with the http:// in there.)

• Post a link to the video’s YouTube page in the comments to this blog post so we can find it!
• Submission deadline is July 31, 2009. All videos must be posted to YouTube before August to be eligible.
• Entries will be judged by a panel of Matthew’s friends and colleagues who have played TF2 but have not submitted a video.
• Judging criteria will be: “Best.” Seriously, that’s it. Judges will simply pick the video they feel was the best, based on their opinions alone.

If you have any questions about the contest, please Contact Us

Not sure exactly what we’re talking about? Something like this…

Download Video

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