All-Access and VIP Update 5/6/09

Since the VIP’s are like board members at Matthew Ebel dot net (dividends paid in cool shwag annually) and the All-Access subscribers are like share holders, it’s time to ask them how best to proceed with a particularly tricky issue facing the site.

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This question recently came up on Yahoo Questions… something we really don’t like to see, but anyone who’s been alive and digital for the past 10 years knows that piracy will indeed happen. We’d like to give people legitimate means of purchasing songs, but we also don’t want to sacrifice the exclusivity that you folks are paying for!

We need to find a way to make expired songs available. How can we do this without making the subscribers feel like it’s just another music store? Here’s what we’re thinking (and we want your feedback on this!):

Sell Members-Only Archives

• Run the songs as we have been for the last 6 months. Matthew will keep releasing new material that the All-Access and VIP Members get as part of their monthly subscription.
• Once a song has expired, it’s gone… for 6 months. Wait, 6 months? Didn’t we say exclusive for 12 months in the FAQ? Yes… but we’re not going to release the songs to non-members just yet…
• When 12 songs or more have expired, release them as a Members-Only Archive. You’d still need to be a member to purchase the album, but new members could still grab old songs on a volume-by-volume basis.
• These would NOT be Members-Only Albums. Matthew still intends to release albums that VIP‘s get as a free download and All-Access members can purchase- such as his planned Christmas album he hopes to release this fall. Archive albums would only be there to let newer members buy old songs.

So what do you think? Would this be acceptable to you as paying members? Please leave a comment right here in this thread and let us know how you feel. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated!
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