Art Bell

[PathoJen]

Personally I think $5 is way to low. You can find many podcasts dealing with similar subjects and they charging you more then $5, or they have free podcasts once a week, and do usually between 2 to 4 a month and they are charging you 8 to 10 bucks a month. IMHO charging $10 or $15 a month is reasonable for your show, after all You are the King of late night radio hosts, Period.

I agree. It's also perceived value. You are getting the great Art Bell for gods sake. I do think paying $.99 per archived episode is also a good idea.

[SciFiAuthor]

Abrams has done a descent job with StarTrek IMO.  However, just slapping the Star Wars brand name on a movie is guaranteed cash. Less CGI, more sets please.

Well, they're claiming that they're using mostly practical effects. We shall see. But if I see one more over-the-top Abrams action sequence where folks are defying the laws of physics I'm going to go nuts to the point that my gf will have to punch me to get me back to reality.

[bateman]

Mysterious Universe charges $9, Art could easily charge that.

http://mysteriousuniverse.org/plus/

[Richard Groyper]

Well, they're claiming that they're using mostly practical effects. We shall see. But if I see one more over-the-top Abrams action sequence where folks are defying the laws of physics I'm going to go nuts to the point that my gf will have to punch me to get me back to reality.

Call me Jar Jar... FUCK

[WOTR]

I agree. It's also perceived value. You are getting the great Art Bell for gods sake. I do think paying $.99 per archived episode is also a good idea.

I am going to be the one who says start with $5 and see how it works.  Given the choice of 100 subscribers @ $5 or 50 @ $10 I would take the 100.  It is easy on a fan board to say that he is worth $500 / year... However, what will the general public pay?

People are used to Art being free.  Encouraging me to pay a subscription takes absolutely no effort.  Convincing somebody who is new to Art to subscribe for the first time will be an easier sell @ $5 / month.

If there are not the quantity of subscribers necessary it will be easy enough to tell people that financially it is not working and bumping the subscription price.    $.99 / podcast probably works better for a once weekly show ($50 / year) than it would for a nightly show ($250 + / year.)   At that price I think you would really have a pirate battle on your hands...

[WhiteCrow]

Mr Bell,
Posted most of this before... But for you Bud here it is again 

Assume show is a hit, of course it will be, so after large listener base established from stream/ terrestrial. Track subscribers vs free stream listeners.

If large number of free stream listeners vs already paying/subscription listeners:
Give notice that free shows on Internet will end in xx weeks/months in future.
Keep Terrestrial going? and use it to advertise benifits of Internet subscription i.e. archives of shows, special features for Internet live listeners i.e. Bumper music, special call in line, etc.

Follow Netflix's model.
$5.00 / month, few care about that small of charge to credit/debit card monthly.
Offer free trial period with credit/debit card on file.
Listeners must cancel or they'll be auto charged after free trial ends.

Art, I'm a loyal fan and $5.00 a month is nothing to me. But, if you stream free forever, it's likely that, I'll never go through the hassle of subscribing. No need to jump on me bellgabbers, human nature thingie, I'm lazy.
So to get me subscribing from day one, you'll have to give something more; access to archives of old shows. Remember you're up against, I can record your 'free' shows with bumper music on tune-in pro but doing that, is the hassle thingie again.
So want my fiver per month, it's access to the archives from your well organized web site directory of past broadcasts.

Add a super secret Art Bell decoder ring for, Art Bell "insider" plus a few fan photos of Ms Redacted, and I'm in for $10 per month.

[analog kid]

Mysterious Universe charges $9, Art could easily charge that.

http://mysteriousuniverse.org/plus/

Yep, and I know people who have been monthly subscribers to that podcast for many years.

And that's two show per week that are roughly an hour and a half each. And those guys do nothing but read Reddit headlines anymore -- while regularly complaining about how hard it is to do the show.

[Richard Groyper]

Free sounds great too.

[morgana213]

Did I miss it?

It ended at 12:00AM Eastern.  The podcast will be posted to the Future Theater website if you missed it.

http://www.futuretheater.com

I'm not sure when it will be posted though.  They all done good!!   

[MV/Liberace!]

I hope I'm wrong too, but I'm scared shitless.

white people problems.

[WhiteCrow]

It ended at 12:00AM Eastern.  The podcast will be posted to the Future Theater website if you missed it.

http://www.futuretheater.com

I'm not sure when it will be posted though.  They all done good!!   

I listen to the show and felt compelled to call in and let everyone know that I'm not gay.

[WOTR]

You will not be judged on BellGab, sir. (providing you avoid certain words.)

[Autistic Star Children]

It ended at 12:00AM Eastern.  The podcast will be posted to the Future Theater website if you missed it.

http://www.futuretheater.com

I'm not sure when it will be posted though.  They all done good!!   

I'm listening to the MV interview, "I was accidentally brilliant there ladies and gentlemen. Carry on."


Ah, that MV. He's dreamy.

[SciFiAuthor]

white people problems.

I am 1/48th Chickasaw.

[morgana213]

I'm listening to the MV interview, "I was accidentally brilliant there ladies and gentlemen. Carry on."


Ah, that MV. He's dreamy.

Yep, the hearts on the chest and belly are a huge turn-on!!!  Very Dreamy and Hawt!

[morgana213]

I listen to the show and felt compelled to call in and let everyone know that I'm not gay.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. 

[Dexwithers]

Ok, well I'm new here and this will be my first post, of many I hope, but I have been lurking Bellgab since 2013 during the Dark Matter days and have listened to Art since 1999. I am a huge fan and probably listen to 4-6 hours of old rerun shows a day.

Here is just my idea on the $5 fee.

I think $5 is a great price to be able to download or stream previous shows that I may have missed or would like to hear again. $5 is actually a steel considering that Art is the master of late night radio.

Art has already said the show would be free live and $5 for downloads, so if he changes it now, I think many people will complain, piss, and moan. But many of us will be happy to give more a month since we see the real value in it.

But at the same time, let's say someone signs up a year from now for one month @$5 and downloads a year worth of shows, then it's not really fair, especially since all that bandwidth costs money.

So the way I think to solve all these problems is to have two membership levels. 1st is a basic membership at $5 a month, charged once a month, and can be canceled at any time. This level would allow the member to of course listen live free, duh, but only download let's say the last 5 episodes. That would be a weeks worth of shows and if you only logged on once a week lets say, you would be able to get every show Art has. That's it, you forget to download a show after that week then you will have to upgrade your subscription or the idea that was posted earlier, buy that one show for $.99.

2nd membership level is for the more die hard Art fans that want complete access to all the shows all the time. This should cost $10 or $12, hell even $15 a month would be worth it. It could start at month to month payment for the first 3-6 months since the show is just getting off the ground. But after that, any new subscriber will have to pay for 6 months at a time up front. Reason for this is to stop people from just buying one month and getting all the shows for lets say a year or two then canceling. I think paying for six months up front, with no way to cancel, would be fair for everyone.

Also, to make it more enticing for regular members to upgrade, Art could offer an extra podcast each week of 30 minutes to an hour of content not streamed live. Could be him just chatting about current events, or telling us a story he hasn't told on air (like the Ouija Board story), or a conversion with a guest from that week. Like some times they run out of time at the end of a show right when Art and the guest are getting into something interesting, but they have to cut it short. So Art could actually stay on the line with the guest after the live show ends or call back the next day and record the rest of the idea or story that was cut short on air. And only the Premium members would be able to download that segment.

Art could maybe even put a live webcam in his studio that only the premium members could view during the live show too?

Well, that's just some thoughts I had about the paid membership topic and though I'd share with you all and see what you think. 

-Dex

[MV/Liberace!]

I am 1/48th Chickasaw.

Howgh.

[MV/Liberace!]

I'm listening to the MV interview, "I was accidentally brilliant there ladies and gentlemen. Carry on."


Ah, that MV. He's dreamy.

and i'm a top left 4 dead player on xbox live.

[MV/Liberace!]

Ok, well I'm new here and this will be my first post, of many I hope, but I have been lurking Bellgab since 2013 during the Dark Matter days and have listened to Art since 1999. I am a huge fan and probably listen to 4-6 hours of old rerun shows a day.

Here is just my idea on the $5 fee.

I think $5 is a great price to be able to download or stream previous shows that I may have missed or would like to hear again. $5 is actually a steel considering that Art is the master of late night radio.

Art has already said the show would be free live and $5 for downloads, so if he changes it now, I think many people will complain, piss, and moan. But many of us will be happy to give more a month since we see the real value in it.

But at the same time, let's say someone signs up a year from now for one month @$5 and downloads a year worth of shows, then it's not really fair, especially since all that bandwidth costs money.

So the way I think to solve all these problems is to have two membership levels. 1st is a basic membership at $5 a month, charged once a month, and can be canceled at any time. This level would allow the member to of course listen live free, duh, but only download let's say the last 5 episodes. That would be a weeks worth of shows and if you only logged on once a week lets say, you would be able to get every show Art has. That's it, you forget to download a show after that week then you will have to upgrade your subscription or the idea that was posted earlier, buy that one show for $.99.

2nd membership level is for the more die hard Art fans that want complete access to all the shows all the time. This should cost $10 or $12, hell even $15 a month would be worth it. It could start at month to month payment for the first 3-6 months since the show is just getting off the ground. But after that, any new subscriber will have to pay for 6 months at a time up front. Reason for this is to stop people from just buying one month and getting all the shows for lets say a year or two then canceling. I think paying for six months up front, with no way to cancel, would be fair for everyone.

Also, to make it more enticing for regular members to upgrade, Art could offer an extra podcast each week of 30 minutes to an hour of content not streamed live. Could be him just chatting about current events, or telling us a story he hasn't told on air (like the Ouija Board story), or a conversion with a guest from that week. Like some times they run out of time at the end of a show right when Art and the guest are getting into something interesting, but they have to cut it short. So Art could actually stay on the line with the guest after the live show ends or call back the next day and record the rest of the idea or story that was cut short on air. And only the Premium members would be able to download that segment.

Art could maybe even put a live webcam in his studio that only the premium members could view during the live show too?

Well, that's just some thoughts I had about the paid membership topic and though I'd share with you all and see what you think. 

-Dex

i think this post contains a lot of thoughts art and keith should consider.  also, i liked scifiauthor's idea about adding premium content only available to subscribers (the "dreamland" sort of content).  it's a good idea to add real value to the subscription.  don't make it entirely a charity drive.  let people feel like they're really getting something special for the money they spend. 

[WOTR]

Ok I have a question for the group, of course we will begin with a live stream as promised BUT if it gets to big to fast we will be faced with a impossible situation perhaps very quickly, I refer to our music which I must have. There are two possible solutions both are tough. If we get past a point where about 70,000 are listening live and not enough people choose to order the Podcast we can either limit Bandwidth which will piss people off or start charging everybody who wants to listen five bucks a Month unless we do one of those things we will go broke pretty quickly. Opinions please???

Could be a moot point if we start small, nobody knows.

Art

I think you should have a couple of months of clear sailing... After that?  Who knows?  The tough thing will be if you have to limit bandwidth and those paying the subscription suddenly find that they are unable to tune in live and have to wait for the podcast stripped of music.

I don't know what the solution is- As you get closer to the listener cap it will become a big deal and once it becomes pressing I'm sure people may have some solutions.  Could you split it so that there were 5 000 listener slots behind a coded log-in secure area and the other 65 000 available on a first come, first serve basis for the "non-subscribers?"  Do you put everything in an area that you need to log into and do a lottery system of some sort?  Do you start pushing the Ccrane shortwave radio really hard (or the MITD capable baby monitors?)

[WOTR]

Ok, well I'm new here and this will be my first post, of many I hope, but I have been lurking Bellgab since 2013 during the Dark Matter days ...
-Dex

Wow- a well thought out and reasoned post...  Normally (as I'm sure you have noticed) you would be invited to "post often."  However, I believe it should be more of a demand than a request in your case.

Good to see a new poster...

[Autistic Star Children]

Bryan Alvarez moves into the "Dreamland" spot on DMRN starting THIS Sunday, 9PT/12ET.

Listen to him, he's great. Call in to the show so we don't have the same 5 callers (on occasion 6 if I call).

It's Live. Give him a chance if you haven't listened before.

Oh and he offers the last show for free on afterdarkradioshow.com. If you want to delve deeper, that'll be 10.99 a month. (includes his entire Wrestling/MMA site)

When Art said $5 I thought it was too low as well. However, once you advertise that price, it can't be changed. You can insert tiers, but somewhere that $5 has to give people the show so there isn't backlash before it even airs.

[SciFiAuthor]

I think it's a bad idea to limit bandwidth. Make the live stream available as hell to anyone that wants to give a listen and treat it as though you are building from the ground up. Treat it like free live listening is the holy grail and focus on making it an internet phenomenon instead. Get the gabbers out in full force to make it viral. Go on Reddit and start an AMA. Then make the memberships valuable to people but also monetize the individual shows. And probably raise the full access price a bit, I agree with all the comments on that. $9.99/month isn't excessive. I'd have gladly paid that for access to Dark Matter.

Old listeners like me and most of Bellgab will be the base initially. But as word of mouth spreads a whole new audience is going to emerge from the net and tiered pricing might prove to be key. If you want to hear a specific show, pay a buck. If you want full access, then pay ten bucks a month auto-billing.   

[MV/Liberace!]

When Art said $5 I thought it was too low as well. However, once you advertise that price, it can't be changed. You can insert tiers, but somewhere that $5 has to give people the show so there isn't backlash before it even airs.

i'm not sure if $5 is too low or not, but i do agree it must be a pricepoint now that the lid is off of this thing.

[WhiteCrow]

Not that there's anything wrong with that. 

There's not? Thanks... After listening to the Bellgab Girls I wasn't sure.

[MV/Liberace!]

There's not? Thanks... After listening to the Bellgab Girls I wasn't sure.

listening now...

[jazmunda]

i think this post contains a lot of thoughts art and keith should consider.  also, i liked scifiauthor's idea about adding premium content only available to subscribers (the "dreamland" sort of content).  it's a good idea to add real value to the subscription.  don't make it entirely a charity drive.  let people feel like they're really getting something special for the money they spend.

This.

If you want people to part with their hard earned  you have to provide extra content so they feel like they are getting some "bang for their buck" particularly because they are getting it for free anyway.  Whilst there are many of us who will happily donate extra there are a lot of people who can't and also many that won't. You need to entice people in, the people who won't just "donate" extra for nothing. You need to give them extra whether it be access to exclusive content/access like webcams, fast blasts, deeper access in the archives or whatever.

I like the idea of different tiers of membership with access to more exclusive content.

[WOTR]

listening now...

Where... Is there a link?

Also, for the love of all that is holy, please tell me that nobody uses the "F" word in the broadcast- or that Keith at least used his delay / dump board to censor it so that we are not subjected to another 50 pages of everybody ranting and spitting out their talking points (on both sides, myself included.)

[WOTR]

I like the idea of different tiers of membership with access to more exclusive content.

You forgot to ask Art in this post how much access to listen live, and in person would cost with the additional "bonus" of sleeping in the guest room...