You need to burn your gypsy jazz guitar!

Twang

@billyshakes I don’t like subscription. It seems to be the way everything has to be bought nowadays. I bought lessons on DC music school a couple of years ago that I haven’t gotten round to looking at properly yet. I wouldnt have bought them if they were on subscription.

I have always used Sibelius for work but sometimes go months without using it. My bought version is no longer compatible with new hardware and Sibelius is now on subscription (unless i pay hundreds of pounds and I already have a perfectly good old version. It just wont work with my new mac).

billyshakes

@Twang I understand your position. With everything going to a subscription service, it just seems like more money pouring out of your pocket. But, it can mean you can control what you want and for how long you subscribe. You could pay $6.50 and get one month's access for the past 2 months of content created. There are probably people that spend that much for a Pumpkin Spice Latte, drink it in 10 mins and move on with their day. Instead, you'd have 30 days to digest all that content. For your Sibelius software, rather than spend $99 on a physical version, you could subscribe for $9 during the month or 2 you want to use it, then unsubscribe when life gets in the way. Pain in the a$$? Sure is for me, and might even be a barrier to signing up in the first place. Sounds like you and I are the same. I enjoy going back to some of the older material I purchased and finding new things that perhaps I wasn't ready for at the time of purchase.

I think the reality here is that pirating of digital content is so prevalent (go ahead and search for your favorite gypsy jazz printed instructional material in pdf) that charging for physical ownership does not make as much sense for the owner of that material. Offering unlimited free content for a low monthly fee seems to be the current model. Would be interesting to hear the perspectives of some of these folks. @dennis offers a one-time purchase of his materials. Robin Nolan used to have courses and books for purchase, but now seems to favor more of the subscription to his Transfusion Club.

My comment was just in general to support the people whose content you like. However you choose to do that. With real money, so they can continue to make a living and make more of what you like.

Twang

@billyshakes All good points well made. You make a convincing argument for subscription especially regarding piracy. There is still a culture that seems to think that it's not stealing and the odd thing is these people would never dream of shop lifting but are almost proud of the fact they got hold of a ripped off copy of something.

But there is another side. There is one great gypsy jazz guitarist who only offers subscription but he's not charging $6.50. You've gotta move the decimal point! Now, annoyingly his stuff is brilliant but I feel like I'm under pressure to get as much from his site as possible before my subscription expires. That's not fun and it's also my point. It's also one more thing to remember, in our already complicated lives, to cancel these subscriptions.

Someone bought me a beer subscription once. It was crap and the beer company made it really, really difficult for me to cancel.

billyshakes

There is still a culture that seems to think that it's not stealing and the odd thing is these people would never dream of shop lifting but are almost proud of the fact they got hold of a ripped off copy of something.

This. +1!

dennis

I do “a la carte” because I can’t afford the infrastructure to move onto a subscription model . A lot of the bigger companies are going in that direction so it must make sense for them, but for my business, I just don’t have the capital.

While I do make most of my income from DC Music School, I still cater to a very niche market and don’t even make 1% of what the biggest company does. I was told that one of the biggest companies generates 7 figures in sales a month, I haven’t verified that but I can believe it. Of crouse That’s gross and not net, I guess with paying artists/ staff etc, it’s significantly less. The same with me, I have a small staff as well, and a lot of money goes towards artists/staff/overhead.

I think the biggest market is the Fast Food music / beginner market. That’s not what my business is haha.

With the sudden inflation , it’s been a bit difficult for me and I ‘ve had to for the first time raise the prices on DC Music School. I definitely try to make things as affordable as possible while giving the most, but I need to start thinking more effective strategies to stay in business. It’s not doing poorly , but because my thing is so niche, I have to be really smart about things.

flights that used to cost 800$ now cost 1200-1600$. The hotel that I used to book for artists around the corner went out of business, and the closest one is 30-50% more expensive.. It’s a lot harder for me to produce lessons now. Instead, I’ve been traveling to major international cities and booking multiple artists in one shot to lessen the burden of production costs, the problem is that each product costs me a few thousand dollars (video editor, transcriber, studio, flight, hotels), I’ve recorded about 20 artists or so this year already which is far more than I usually do.. multiply that by a few thousand dollars and you can imagine what I spent already this year.

It’s brutally difficult but I love what I do :-).

On the topic of Youtubers, I only started monetizing my channel recently , and it actually makes a huge difference. I have a very small channel though, the bigger Youtubers make significantly more, and quite frankly I applaud them for their success. It’s a freakishly tough business with so many things to deal with that most people simply aren’t aware of . I really don’t blame anyone who have to resort to some kind of “gimmick” to draw attention so long as it remains ethical.

Actually, one thing I don’t do is spam social medias to make people buy my stuff, I really don’t like that, but I see that people have success doing it. I only started plugging my stuff when I make Youtube videos, and I notice what a difference it makes!

The biggest advertising tool I’ve noticed is when other people write sincere comments and positive reviews. It makes a HUGE diffrerence, it is the really the best type of advertisement. And to all those who do that whether for me, Christiaan, Martin, CLément , Sven, etc.. THANK YOU!!!!

JDRooke

This came through my facebook feed today. Anybody want a little soft porn with their Django licks? I just reported to the Gypsy Jazz Licks and Tricks group admins, for what it's worth. I suppose, if it bothered them, they would have taken it down already. It may be time to remove myself from this group I don't use.

stuology

The way things are going, burning our guitars may well be a cheaper way of heating my home!

I don’t mind the over the top tongue in cheek titles of the video is good - it’s tough making any kind of living in this game.

I do wonder about titles and videos which over simplify the genre and give the impression that anyone can play it without much effort.

I suspect the subscription model is about to drop off a cliff. The first thing people will get rid of as the cost of living crisis bites is their subs.