Art Bell

[DanTSX]

It seems many of you don't have the ability to read and comprehend the written word.

I NEVER complained about paying my $5. I AM NOT affected by the price increase on Aug. 20. I would gladly pay double that for archives to Art's show. So would many other loyal listeners who have followed Art over the last few decades. That is NOT THE POINT!!

The points are:

* many loyal fans will pay to support costs for the live show and get archives, wormhole as a bonus
* other loyal fans will not pay a subscription cost and will either only listen live, record the show and/or attempt to find archived shows elsewhere ( pirate)
* Art & Keith need to attract a larger new audience; large market on the east coast which makes listening to the show live difficult for most
* listeners who can't listen to the show live and pay for archive access want easy slick access on the device of their choice
* listeners who are not able to listen live and count on the archives to listen to the show will stop paying if the experience of getting the program on their device of choice is clumsy, awkward, frustrating and labor intensive
* new listeners need an opportunity to get hooked on MITD before they will pay...and then now being asked to pay more
* even though there can be no archives without a live show, some listeners only care about their experience in accessing the paid archives; stating that a price increase is necessary to support streaming the live show free is not a great selling point for those who can't listen live
*Art and Keith need to consider both the loyal following that Art has...those who will pay anything to support him and those who won't, listeners new and old to make MITD a viable business success.
*MITD the show is beyond stellar; we could not ask for more. Now the back end needs to be brought up to the same level of excellence: ease to sign up and pay via payment vehicle of choice, ease of streaming/DL/RSS for any device of choice, ease of finding the "wormhole" instantly on the site during the show etc.
* raising the price after only 1 month since launch, without both having a slick back end in place, along with not giving a new audience more time to get hooked on the show is a mistake IMHO

I and everyone here want nothing more that for Art, Keith and MITD to be a great success for as long as Art is willing to do the show and is having fun!!

....and btw I know a lot about business, product development, marketing, customer satisfaction...been doing it professionally for several decades, but that isn't any of your business. 

   

Blah blah Blah blah blah whine whine sniffle snivvle whine.

Yeah it sounds like youve been watching people do business, not actually getting things done.

And when I say watching things get done, I don't mean by actually bein party to business success.  I mean that by it sounds like you watched every season of MadMen on a snow day.

[serenity]

It seems many of you don't have the ability to read and comprehend the written word.

I NEVER complained about paying my $5. I AM NOT affected by the price increase on Aug. 20. I would gladly pay double that for archives to Art's show. So would many other loyal listeners who have followed Art over the last few decades. That is NOT THE POINT!!

The points are:

* many loyal fans will pay to support costs for the live show and get archives, wormhole as a bonus
* other loyal fans will not pay a subscription cost and will either only listen live, record the show and/or attempt to find archived shows elsewhere ( pirate)
* Art & Keith need to attract a larger new audience; large market on the east coast which makes listening to the show live difficult for most
* listeners who can't listen to the show live and pay for archive access want easy slick access on the device of their choice
* listeners who are not able to listen live and count on the archives to listen to the show will stop paying if the experience of getting the program on their device of choice is clumsy, awkward, frustrating and labor intensive
* new listeners need an opportunity to get hooked on MITD before they will pay...and then now being asked to pay more
* even though there can be no archives without a live show, some listeners only care about their experience in accessing the paid archives; stating that a price increase is necessary to support streaming the live show free is not a great selling point for those who can't listen live
*Art and Keith need to consider both the loyal following that Art has...those who will pay anything to support him and those who won't, listeners new and old to make MITD a viable business success.
*MITD the show is beyond stellar; we could not ask for more. Now the back end needs to be brought up to the same level of excellence: ease to sign up and pay via payment vehicle of choice, ease of streaming/DL/RSS for any device of choice, ease of finding the "wormhole" instantly on the site during the show etc.
* raising the price after only 1 month since launch, without both having a slick back end in place, along with not giving a new audience more time to get hooked on the show is a mistake IMHO

I and everyone here want nothing more that for Art, Keith and MITD to be a great success for as long as Art is willing to do the show and is having fun!!

....and btw I know a lot about business, product development, marketing, customer satisfaction...been doing it professionally for several decades, but that isn't any of your business. 

   

Well then, if you know so much about business, you know enough to shut up unless Art elicits your input. In other words, no, in these exact words SHUT UP ALREADY!

Damn, 2 weeks and the gripping still doesn't stop. Why does everyone seem to know so much more than the guy thats been in the biz for 50 years? Be happy he's back. Take the broomstick outta your butt, drink more coffee, sit down and smell the fucking roses already!

[PB the Deplorable]

The thirty-third clone of Peter Thiel. Look. I get that you don't like PayPal. No one whose opinion counts gives a shit....

Just wondering, when did you start speaking for Art Bell?

[PB the Deplorable]

... SHUT UP ALREADY!...

Or what? 

[serenity]

Or what?

or keep babbling...lol Have a cup on me. 

[PB the Deplorable]

Well then, if you know so much about business, you know enough to shut up unless Art elicits your input. In other words, no, in these exact words SHUT UP ALREADY!...

You don't seem all that serene



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEMHtoWGLW0

[ChairSpud]

I'm a time traveler subscriber and long time art Bell listener (early 90's) and want to support the show but not at any price. Being retired on a fixed income and already recording the live stream for my own consumption I don't need the archives and don't think under the current circumstances I'd be willing to pay $7.99 (I know current subscribers are grandfathered).

So I have a couple questions. The pending increase for new subscribers is to support exactly what? and where does the revenue from advertising come into play and exactly what does that pay for and is that going to increase too or are new time travelers shouldering the burden? And as I recall Art said the subscriber rate might go up not that it would go up, am I correct?

[ItsOver]

I think Dave Nori is looking for a job.

I don't think Dave is looking for anything that requires effort .

[onan]

I'm a time traveler subscriber and long time art Bell listener (early 90's) and want to support the show but not at any price. Being retired on a fixed income and already recording the live stream for my own consumption I don't need the archives and don't think under the current circumstances I'd be willing to pay $7.99 (I know current subscribers are grandfathered).

So I have a couple questions. The pending increase for new subscribers is to support exactly what? and where does the revenue from advertising come into play and exactly what does that pay for and is that going to increase too or are new time travelers shouldering the burden? And as I recall Art said the subscriber rate might go up not that it would go up, am I correct?

The increase is for Art's overdue account at Taintco. I would need permission to release more information.

[boxman]

Then don't pay and go away.

It's $5 holy shit.  this is two dudes doing the show, not a Silicon Valley startup with $30m in angel investor funds rolling in every quarter.   Support art or don't.  It's not about the money for any of us.  It's about making this work.

Can I pay you $5 to go whine to someone else?

Seriously....what do you know about business?

Did you actually even read what this guy was posting?? He mostly had POSITIVE things to say, and yet you attack him for having ONE SINGLE criticism/worry. He even stated that he happily will pay for this show even with the flaws he pointed out. Why is it so hard for some of you people to understand that he posted this because he cares and worries that this will hurt Art's business?? This guy like you wishes that Art Bell the best and only wants him to remain on air, but yet you attack him?? You act like a typical fanboy who see evertying revolving around art through rose tinted glasses and are unable to see it from the perspective of someone else.
Most of the potential time travelers are not hardcore fans that would pay just to keep art on the air, but people who pay for a GOOD SERVICE. When you have a service where you have to go through extra hops to listen/download the archived files when competition does not, then you are going to get less paying customers especially when price is higher. You dont need a business degree to understand this fact.

Even to become a subsriber you now have to go through extra hops like having to register a separate paypal account which is yet another issue that will lead to less paying subscribers.

[serenity]

You don't seem all that serene

In my case Serenity is a battle not a life style.  You want peace? Go to a Monastery. I just calls 'em as I seez 'em. And all I see is a bunch of us thinking we know more than the guys that are in the business. Of course Art and Keith probably haven't thought  of all this, they have NEVER done this before. (sic)

*venomous sarcasm *

[bobo17]

I am a Canadian subscriber (at $5 per month U.S.) and am already paying close to $7 a month with the exchange rate between the Canadian and U.S. dollar....no big deal,  if and extra $2 bucks a month is going to break you, you have bigger financial problems than paying for access to podcasts of an Art Bell shows.  JMHO
bobo

[dan7800]

It is easy to criticize when you're not the one bearing the burden of all the work being done. No significant issues in the 1st 2 weeks & I think Keith has done a very good job as an army of one.

They are getting a mobile app. Issues are being addressed. Calm down everyone.

[serenity]

Look, let me clarify something. We all know there are problems. And I am sure Art, Keith and the crew are working on them, it is after all their business. Airing gripes here or by e-mail is fine thats what we do and Art as well as Keith reads the forum and know our concerns. I am sure there is a lot of good advice out there. We have people from all walks of life and there is an endless supply of knowledge here. If Art or Keith want to hear ideas, I am sure they will ask. But airing gripes couched in what seems to be "ideas" just adds to the work load and the load on the minds of those behind the show.
All I am saying is give them time. There are a lot of good ideas here but stop pushing them as if you know more then them. Me? I am just a dumb soldier and all of these good ideas make my head smart, which is why I keep my own inane ideas private. Until wars break out on here that is.

[weeberwubber]

Because PayPal was originally set up to help facilitate transactions between consumers and merchants that didn't qualify for credit card transactions. There are a few of us around that still remember, that the large growth of Flea-bay happened when PayPal offered a quicker and safer way to make purchases on EBay.

To help you understand, Mr Jackstar, Research who owns both PayPal and EBay

Actually PayPal just separated from eBay last month and control themselves again. But that's a minor point. Paypal has come full circle as far as I'm concerned. I began selling extra merchandise from my retail stores on eBay and before Paypal I was getting retail prices for them, hell sometimes even better. Because that was so good I started buying lines or buying extra product just to list on eBay. I was one of those "credit worthy" sellers. One of the few to take credit cards and so my eBay experience was awesome. Then Paypal started up and evened things out which was bad for someone like me but better for the consumer. Eventually eBay bought Paypal and rules gradually moved to where I had to have a Paypal account to sell effectively which bothered me because, along with lowering my average selling price with the increased competition, the processing costs were higher. Therefore I stopped selling on eBay.

Then something weird happened. The major credit card processors kept upping their rates and Paypal mostly did not. The advent of rewards cards put huge costs on businesses. Sure, people want a rewards card, give me points the credit card companies can afford it. Well, sure they can because it's a pass-through charge to the business you're buying from. It's added into a nefarious category called "Interchange Fees." It then became a constant battle to figure out what's going on and why we're getting blasted with different fees every month. My record was $140 in extra fees on a single transaction. My sin? Accepting an Amex corporate awards card on a tax exempt purchase. I pay double the base rate for it being Amex, I pay for the rewards, and I pay for accepting a corporate card on a tax exempt transaction which is apparently is the type of card in the type of transaction that makes for the highest fraud rate, so instead of removing the money from your account if it's fraud which they will do anyway they also just go ahead and assess a fee for taking the card every time. The worst month for me I had a merchant rate of 1.75% and a real cost of 6.5% after fees and penalties and rewards with no way to control it. If someone wants to pay with a card that costs a ton of fees, according to the merchant accounts I can't decline to take it and I have no real way of knowing anyway.

So back comes Paypal and says "Hey Weebs, let us do all your processing and we'll process $20k per month for free for the first 6 months and charge you a flat rate with no extra fees." The flat rate was 1% more than my merchant rate, but the real costs are always far less than my average of 4%. I've been with them ever since, not because I'm not a credit worthy merchant, but because they beat the pants off the banks and added tons of flexibility. I can send out invoices via email for free and charge people at their doorways during a home delivery.

Before the 6 month offer I delayed this a year because I was threatened at the bank. They said "Paypal uses no security matrix (another recent years cost add-on) therefore if someone requests a chargeback and Paypal reaches into your checking account to take the money back we will have to automatically freeze your checking account until you file a police report and we make sure everything is sorted out which usually takes about 6 months. That scared me off switching for a while so that guy did his job. He was probably full of shit but I wasn't willing to risk my cash flow on Paypal until I knew what was up.

A month after switching to Paypal they froze my account and stopped my business cold because my sales were high and they were worried about fraud. I had to submit to a personal credit check and go over my business with them so they could understand the sales, even though the charges were being made on physical swipes on their card reader complete with customer signatures. I spent a few frantic days and nights on the phone and filling out forms but it all got sorted out. I think I was just part of their growing pains, but they really did check me out good. Apparently, it was a huge problem that I don't have a catalog showing product numbers and definite prices for them to reference because I sell a custom made product out of a combination of many thousands of items and different labor requirements and every purchase is for a different amount.

So I was nearly one of those people who have their Paypal accounts jacked up and I'd probably be hating on the DMDN payment method here too if it wasn't resolved properly. But it was, and it's gone smoothly ever since, and they have saved me a boatload of money. If your account is jacked up and you really did nothing wrong it's probably worth giving them a call now to try and straighten it out. They own themselves again, no longer under the thumb of eBay, so they might have more customer service flexibility.

[aldousburbank]

I am a Canadian subscriber (at $5 per month U.S.) and am already paying close to $7 a month with the exchange rate between the Canadian and U.S. dollar....no big deal,  if and extra $2 bucks a month is going to break you, you have bigger financial problems than paying for access to podcasts of an Art Bell shows.  JMHO
bobo

I'm paying 5782.02 Iraqi Dinars per month. Still a deal.

[serenity]

I'm paying 5782.02 Iraqi Dinars per month. Still a deal.

Aldous.....Where did you find my picture? I thought I scrubbed it from the Viet Nam pothead of the year yearbook lol

[ItsOver]

I'm paying 5782.02 Iraqi Dinars per month. Still a deal.

What?  How come I'm paying 80.62 Pesos a month?  Something fishy here.  Damn PayPal.

[nooryisawesome]

I am a Canadian subscriber (at $5 per month U.S.) and am already paying close to $7 a month with the exchange rate between the Canadian and U.S. dollar....no big deal,  if and extra $2 bucks a month is going to break you, you have bigger financial problems than paying for access to podcasts of an Art Bell shows.  JMHO
bobo

Agreed. his fans who can't afford it can always listen live, which is actually the best way to listen to the show.

[FightTheFuture]

What?  How come I'm paying 80.62 Pesos a month?  Something fishy here.  Damn PayPal.

Ha! I pay only 1.52 Kuwaiti dinar!

Now, that`s a deal ANYBODY can afford.

[chefist]

MOM AND DAD STOP FIGHTING! I HATE IT, I HATE IT!

[ItsOver]

Agreed. his fans who can't afford it can always listen live, which is actually the best way to listen to the show.

With the current set-up, yes, that is my preferred way to listen to MiTD.  It's at night, which is always the perfect time to listen to Art and you get the bumper music. 

I've been downloading the podcasts but it's mainly for archival purposes.  I've had zero problems with doing it recently, using a fairly new laptop with Windows 7 and Chrome.  I had some initial problems with Chrome so I switched to Firefox and had no problem.  I'm back to Chrome and all is well.

For me the podcasts are no big deal.  I just want to listen to Art and would gladly pay just to listen live.  I'd just record the show if there wasn't a podcast.

It's so good to have Art back, any of the current issues are just noise to me and I would suspect for any die-hard Art fan.  I can understand why some new and casual listeners may be put off by some things but I believe Art will only strive to make things better with time, especially since he has full reign for calling the shots now.

[ItsOver]

MOM AND DAD STOP FIGHTING! I HATE IT, I HATE IT!

Hehehe.  Wait, why am I wetting the bed again?

[FightTheFuture]

Why should he trust them, and deal with their inexperience.


For fucks sake the show has been on for two weeks.  It's Art and Keith running everything for the most part,(and I suspect they want to keep it this way for good reasons).   Give them the room they need and they will make the show and it's associated items what they need to be. 

Let me be clear, I`m not complaining so much as  I`m merely offering a suggestion to make the show even better. I know of a couple good, young, talented radio guys that are huge AB fans. They might be able to assist in lining up new, fresh guests, topics, etc., all for next to nothing in compensation. It`s a win; win deal. Why wouldn`t anybody look into it??

[Meister_000]

I'm paying 5782.02 Iraqi Dinars per month. Still a deal.

Whowa! That's a radical transform in Avitaric persona!

[littlechris]

MOM AND DAD STOP FIGHTING! I HATE IT, I HATE IT!

Haha! IM LOVIN IT!!! Fucking KILL EACH OTHER!!!!

[Noorynoid]

It seems many of you don't have the ability to read and comprehend the written word.

I NEVER complained about paying my $5. I AM NOT affected by the price increase on Aug. 20. I would gladly pay double that for archives to Art's show. So would many other loyal listeners who have followed Art over the last few decades. That is NOT THE POINT!!

....and btw I know a lot about business, product development, marketing, customer satisfaction...been doing it professionally for several decades, but that isn't any of your business. 

When I was released from prison last year I didn't know what I was going to do but that all changed when I found a plastic jesus sitting on the shelf at a second hand store. I bought him for 50 cents, took him home and placed him on my coffee table next to my dried gum collection. Anyway, that's really none of your business but I still thought it would be nice if I shared.

[dan7800]

There are a lot of good ideas here but stop pushing them as if you know more then them.

Well said.

[SixWeekTenure(tm)]

I had an email exchange with Keith two weeks prior to Art's return regarding the well known problems with PayPal and the need for an alternate payment method, and he essentially blew me off with "well I've never had any problems".

That is Keith's response to everything. "Well I've never used an RSS feed." "Well I've never used anything but a Wordpress How To website."

They're not going to change anything unless enough people complain.

[dan7800]

That is Keith's response to everything. "Well I've never used an RSS feed." "Well I've never used anything but a Wordpress How To website."

They're not going to change anything unless enough people complain.

I am sure Keith is under enough pressure as it is. He has a lot on his plate, and remember that for every decent recommendation he gets, I am sure he probably gets 10 other garbage ones from people who are totally clueless. Digging through the trash to find the good suggestions takes time away that he could spend improving other things. Keith is much nicer than I am. I wouldn't even respond to peoples suggestions for him. I am sure he gets many many emails a week about people complaining about everything from legit issues, to the font on the website.

It's been 2 weeks, they've already promised a mobile app. The show is AMAZING. Things are going in the right direction. Step back and let Keith do his job.