Monday, 20 June 2011
Fanclubs: Rewarding Loyalty or A Waste Of Money
A few weeks ago and just out of curiosity, I looked up how much it would cost to jion the fanclub of a group I liked when I was about 11 and what you got for your money. For this group it cost $40 a year and for your money you got exclusive songs, access to exclusive events, the chance to win Meet and Greets with the band and discounts for the online stores. Pretty straightforward fanclub stuff really but the range of prices offered by other acts varies so much with the most expensive of these fan club packages being at $159 per year.
This has got me thinking more about the purpose of fanclubs and whether they are just a way of exploiting the loyaly of fans.
The fans are what makes an artist successful, they're the ones that buy the albums when they first come out, they're the ones that buy the concert tickets. Isn't that enough? Why do they have to be charged even more to get 'exclusive' content that could easily be offered for free? What about those fans who have been loyal to an artist but cannot afford the membership charges? They would be the ones who were losing out.
On the flip side of the coin, you could argue that you get for what you pay for and why should you get something for nothing? Surely it's enough that the artist releases new albums and goes on tour? You buy your ticket, you see the concert? The concert is your reward for the money you spend on the ticket.
Meat Loaf doesn't have an official fanclub anymore and I think it is a shame that he doesn't have one anymore as I'd have loved to have seen it offer some of the things I have read about from other artists. At the moment we pay nothing so in the theory of getting what you pay for, we should expect nothing other than what would normally be expected out of an artist.
This has got me thinking more about the purpose of fanclubs and whether they are just a way of exploiting the loyaly of fans.
The fans are what makes an artist successful, they're the ones that buy the albums when they first come out, they're the ones that buy the concert tickets. Isn't that enough? Why do they have to be charged even more to get 'exclusive' content that could easily be offered for free? What about those fans who have been loyal to an artist but cannot afford the membership charges? They would be the ones who were losing out.
On the flip side of the coin, you could argue that you get for what you pay for and why should you get something for nothing? Surely it's enough that the artist releases new albums and goes on tour? You buy your ticket, you see the concert? The concert is your reward for the money you spend on the ticket.
Meat Loaf doesn't have an official fanclub anymore and I think it is a shame that he doesn't have one anymore as I'd have loved to have seen it offer some of the things I have read about from other artists. At the moment we pay nothing so in the theory of getting what you pay for, we should expect nothing other than what would normally be expected out of an artist.
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
New Look
As I said in a previous post, Everything Louder recieved the Celebrity Site of The Day award on 8th June and I looked at some of the other recipients of the award. Some of the other sites were really pretty so that got me thinking about how I can improve Everything Louder. As much as I wanted a pretty site at the time, it wasn't going to work for the subject matter so I experimented a bit and came up with a new idea.
With the old layout, it was only the galleries that got updated regularly and there was no news or anything like that on the site. A lot of these other sites had news and after trying to find ways to encorporate it into the current site layout, I decided to try another system altogether. I decided to experiment with Worpress which was used on a lot of the other fansites and came up with a layout which I put out to a few friends to evaluate. Overall the response was good and so on Monday, the new layout was launched on the domain. It was easier to transfer it over than I thought it would be and the beauty of this system is that I don't have to be tied to the one computer to do site updates.
I hope you all like the new layout.
With the old layout, it was only the galleries that got updated regularly and there was no news or anything like that on the site. A lot of these other sites had news and after trying to find ways to encorporate it into the current site layout, I decided to try another system altogether. I decided to experiment with Worpress which was used on a lot of the other fansites and came up with a layout which I put out to a few friends to evaluate. Overall the response was good and so on Monday, the new layout was launched on the domain. It was easier to transfer it over than I thought it would be and the beauty of this system is that I don't have to be tied to the one computer to do site updates.
I hope you all like the new layout.
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
More Recognition for Everything Louder
It seems that things for Everything Louder are looking up because not only has one of the individual pieces of artwork got recognition, the whole site has, in the form of 'Celebrity Site of The Day'.
I submitted the site to Celebrity Site of The Day, mainly to get it listed on their site. I certainly wasn't expecting it to ever be named Celebrity Site of The Day since the requirements for that title were that the site must have something special, for example a good layout, good design, excellent graphics or lots of information to become Celebrity Site of the Day. I guess I'm still my own worst critic because today, after less than a week 'Everything Louder is Celebrity Site of The Day'.
For today, Everything Louder's link will be on the homepage of 'Celebrity Site of The Day' and it will be listed in the winner's archive. Hopefully it'll generate more hits for the site.
I submitted the site to Celebrity Site of The Day, mainly to get it listed on their site. I certainly wasn't expecting it to ever be named Celebrity Site of The Day since the requirements for that title were that the site must have something special, for example a good layout, good design, excellent graphics or lots of information to become Celebrity Site of the Day. I guess I'm still my own worst critic because today, after less than a week 'Everything Louder is Celebrity Site of The Day'.
For today, Everything Louder's link will be on the homepage of 'Celebrity Site of The Day' and it will be listed in the winner's archive. Hopefully it'll generate more hits for the site.
Saturday, 4 June 2011
One Piece of Artwork
I mentioned in a previous post that a piece of artwork got recognition and said that elaborate more in another post and so here I am keeping to my word.
Meat Loaf and three of his Celebrity Apprentice team mates released a single recentely called 'Stand In The Storm' which is available from the US iTunes store. I couldn't purchase this single myself but I saw the artwork that the download came with and didn't think much of it so whilst waiting for a file to download, I decided to make my own. I used the same Celebrity Apprentice promotional shots as a nother fan had in their creation but I went for a different style, using different fonts and layer styles. Once the image was complete, I decided to upload it to various places on the internet because although I didn't have much use for it myself, I thought someone might find a use for it.
I recieved some lovely comments from other fans and a few days after sharing it on MLUKFC. I get several emails and Facebook messages. The first one I read told me to go to MLUKFC. I immediately thought about the things I'd said lately and went to the site. I go to the thread that the message told me to look in and I see that the artwork I shared was quoted by none other than Meat Loaf himself. He said he liked it. I was so amazed to have someone I admire so much recognise my work. I read the rest of his message and he asked if he could use it in the CD booklet. By this time I was speechless, it took me about 10 minutes to be able to type out a reply to him.
I've been teaching myself to make graphics for six years and it's not always been easy. I'd got used to having my creations ignored so to have this kind of recognition was beyond a dream come true.
As yet I don't know anymore information about it but regardless if it does or doesn't get used, it is still a moment I will never forget.
Thank you to everyone who has sent me congratulations and feedback on the artwork.
Meat Loaf and three of his Celebrity Apprentice team mates released a single recentely called 'Stand In The Storm' which is available from the US iTunes store. I couldn't purchase this single myself but I saw the artwork that the download came with and didn't think much of it so whilst waiting for a file to download, I decided to make my own. I used the same Celebrity Apprentice promotional shots as a nother fan had in their creation but I went for a different style, using different fonts and layer styles. Once the image was complete, I decided to upload it to various places on the internet because although I didn't have much use for it myself, I thought someone might find a use for it.
I recieved some lovely comments from other fans and a few days after sharing it on MLUKFC. I get several emails and Facebook messages. The first one I read told me to go to MLUKFC. I immediately thought about the things I'd said lately and went to the site. I go to the thread that the message told me to look in and I see that the artwork I shared was quoted by none other than Meat Loaf himself. He said he liked it. I was so amazed to have someone I admire so much recognise my work. I read the rest of his message and he asked if he could use it in the CD booklet. By this time I was speechless, it took me about 10 minutes to be able to type out a reply to him.
I've been teaching myself to make graphics for six years and it's not always been easy. I'd got used to having my creations ignored so to have this kind of recognition was beyond a dream come true.
As yet I don't know anymore information about it but regardless if it does or doesn't get used, it is still a moment I will never forget.
Thank you to everyone who has sent me congratulations and feedback on the artwork.
Progress has been slow
I was thinking that without doing screencaps of Celebrity Apprentice every week, other things would get done quicker on the site but that's not been the case. The two big tasks that are planned/in progress are still just that. The review of 'In Search of Paradise' was one of the tasks that I was hoping to get finished but I discover that the DVD has a scratch on it and it won't play properly. I buy a replacement but I have to wait almost a week for it to arrive because of the Bank Holiday weekend.
The other task is the Celebrity Apprentice graphics set which is making very slow progress at the moment because of a lack of creative vibes. I've got about three icons so far and I need at least five more before I'll call it a set. I don't know why creativity is so low at the moment because I should be very inspired considering the recognition I got last week for a creation (more about that in another post).
The other task is the Celebrity Apprentice graphics set which is making very slow progress at the moment because of a lack of creative vibes. I've got about three icons so far and I need at least five more before I'll call it a set. I don't know why creativity is so low at the moment because I should be very inspired considering the recognition I got last week for a creation (more about that in another post).
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