Comments on: How a Subscription Model Can Enhance Your Release Strategy

By: Forrester’s New Music Release Strategy for Independent Musicians | Hans Erik

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:17:13 +0000

[...] This tiered approach could take many forms. Refe Tuma over at Creative Deconstruction makes the case for a subscription model. Either way, you’re looking at restricting distribution of your music to some channels and, [...]

By: Paolo

Paolo — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:31:12 +0000

Not for everyone I’m sure but an exact timetable for releases helps keep fans involved. AND the family wanting to buy presents for the fans – the family/friends are targeted for CD/EP purchase. The fan for Fan Special – digital downloads & DVD performances.

Right from the getgo a certain US Female artist was established for Nov releases.

1/ Nov album releases every 2 years = own material
2/ Nov EP Fan specials inc non-released fan favorites for alternate years (the record company already confirmed 3rd EP for Nov09)
3/ This year introduced some digital only fan special singles “cover versions” & “film cameos” to fill gaps between the official single releases.

By: refe

refe — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:48:48 +0000

When it comes to releasing music, I’m always hesitant to advise anyone to put that music behind a paywall, which is in effect what subscriptions can be used to do.

However, in most of the artist examples I gave above, the music itself was usually also available for free or for pay-what-you-want style donations. The different tiers added value on top of the music itself, usually related to a personal connection with the artist.

This allowed the music to still spread to as many people as possible, while the scarce value (like getting to meet the artist, or exclusive merch, etc.) was only available through the subscriptions.

By: Will

Will — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:49:54 +0000

This is a great idea – unfortunately many musicians don’t know how to do this or are dependent on 3rd party services (which take a nice hefty chunk of the profits).

I’m doing this today for guitar lessons where I charge a membership fee to access 7 video courses and get access to me in monthly live streaming Q&A sessions. It’s easy to create multiple levels if you want (silver, gold, etc). You can use wordpress (free) and a plugin called wishlist member to protect your pages of content. I can do this as a service or you can learn how to do it yourself.