I need your thoughts
Added 2024-11-28 03:25:48 +0000 UTCThanks, first of all, for all the feedback on my last post where I asked what kind of content you’d like to see. One of the main points, of course, was longer courses—for example, on The Grid, Bitwig, or how to make music in general. That’s something I’ve been planning for a long time but haven’t gotten around to because I’m constantly making tutorials or YouTube videos every few days.
However, creating full courses—from A to Z, Zero to Hero—is definitely something I want to do.
But here’s where I have a question for you, and it’s not just about these courses but my content in general. I personally believe that knowledge should be free. All my knowledge comes from free sources. I’m also not a fan of logins, cookies, paywalls, or anything like that. My natural inclination is to make as much as possible freely accessible for people who might not have the money but still need access to knowledge.
Now, here’s my dilemma. I have a Patreon where people can support me, and I also have tiers with content locked behind a paywall. Not everyone has access to those things. So, I wanted to ask for your thoughts.
What do you think?
Do you think it’s fair if you pay for my Patreon but I still make some content publicly accessible? Or would you prefer that, since you’re already supporting me here, the content is exclusively for you?
I really don’t want to upset anyone or make you feel like you’re wasting your money or anything like that. I’m just not sure how to handle this. On one hand, I absolutely want to reward my Patreons for their amazing support each month. On the other hand, I also want to make certain content freely accessible.
So, I’m a bit torn. Let me know what you think—I’d love your input!
On one hand, I might lose out on a lot of potential income by making everything free, but on the other, money isn’t my main priority. What’s most important to me is keeping knowledge as free as possible.
So, I’m stuck on what to put behind a paywall versus what to leave open. This is honestly one of my biggest challenges.
I’d love to know your thoughts—should I keep doing things as they are, make everything free, or only offer “lite” versions of courses for free with full versions behind the paywall? What’s your take on this? Let me know—it’d mean a lot! Thank you! 🙏
Comments
Dear Robert, I can understand your dilemma very well. I think that your approach so far is very well balanced. As a paying Patreon member, I have no problem with your content being freely available. My motivation for supporting you has nothing to do with a comparison that others could also get the content for free. My motivation is that you impart real knowledge to me. That you don't impart this knowledge with "fancy" plugins, but rather with fundamental knowledge and your experience. And everything with Bitwig stock, which is very important to me personally (different topic). I would like a Grid course and a Melodic House or Ambient course (even though you have already provided a lot of content on this). Perhaps you can also organize something with Bitwig to hold a "Bitwig Studio Official Level 1 Certificate of Achievement Workshop", for example. I know that this is a lot of work and I think that it should be rewarded. So I would have no problem if such courses were subject to a fee and would gladly pay for them out of conviction. Your content is absolutely top class - thank you very much for that. Best wishes from Cologne. Dirk
Colognialist
2024-11-30 06:56:08 +0000 UTCsame here
GT
2024-11-29 06:22:11 +0000 UTCFWIW my personal motivation is to chip in so that you can continue publishing stuff for free.
icaria36
2024-11-28 23:19:41 +0000 UTC