perversionsatisfied:

I will be one of the "nots" too. For as long as I can hold out. . .

You can do it, be strong... Spend that money on real non dial up internet, just think, how much would you rather have that

thenegativecreep:

Not trying to pick a fight with the admins, but why do we need this change?
Most of the input is "The idea sucks and I'm not paying" from what I see.
What we want is nothing. This transistion doesn't need to happen. Mistakes other sites made?
How many bands do we need to list saying "I'm not on those boards because I have to pay"?
I like Queensryche as much as AiC, I would spend time on their boards too if it didn't cost money to be a fan. I don't know the chronology with the boards being under the $20 dollar thing on their site, but I see that coming here somewhere around next year...

dickliquor:

"gwen, for me it's not about things changing.....it's about the almighty $ and greed"

Let my try to address all these concerns...and I don't see it as picking a fight, so not to worry.

Why do we need change you ask - if this everything stayed the same and never evolved, that would suck. I am so happy to have new pages up and running now, (paid and free ones!) like Layne's tribute page. That was a long time coming and I couldn't be happier that that change happened.

The idea that no one likes this idea and there are no subscribers is untrue. Dozens of people are signing up for subscriptions and are currently getting the chance to pick up exclusive merch and getting the opportunity to see Alice via ticket giveaways from the site among other features that are continuing to evolve. 

Try and look at it from this perspective; you go to your local record store (gosh, I just called it a record store... does anyone else still call 'em that?!) and there is a disc there, that damnit - you want SOOooooo bad. Then you look behind it and there is the same disc for less money. WTF?! you ask.

Well, the disc in front has bonus tracks, or is an enhanced version, or perhaps it has video footage too. This naturally explains the difference in cost. Not dissimilar from how the free site runs alongside the subscription version.

I am sure there will continue to be more concerns, and that’s okay, it’s to be expected.

Have a good one,
Gwen

naturegirl:

With all the commotion lately on their return, the best pr imaginable would be to let as many people as possible see the latest Alice in action & win a few more hearts over to the transition happening.....

Baldy, you're just caught in the middle of this....we appreciate what you do whether we get to see it or not .....& I will be one of the "nots"......

I totally agree!  I can see a possible subscription fee in the near future; but to have it NOW is actually surprising to say the least.  This is completely jumping the gun.  Alice needs to establish themselves first.  As Nature said; there is too much commotion and unresolved issues with many fans who still do not want to accept the band with William singing.  Whoever made this decision was not thinking this thru.....

Also, It was great to see a "free" old Layne clip added to the Layne Tribute page.....but please don't allow fans to think they will be getting more Layne "never seen before" stuff in the subscription price if it WON'T be happening..... 

moondrop:

I totally agree!  I can see a possible subscription fee in the near future; but to have it NOW is actually surprising to say the least.  This is completely jumping the gun.  Alice needs to establish themselves first.  As Nature said; there is too much commotion and unresolved issues with many fans who still do not want to accept the band with William singing.  Whoever made this decision was not thinking this thru.....

......well, ya know, considering Alice hadn't planned on touring this year (& the VR thing is so short)....and considering they have been just noodling around in a studio somewhere, with no definate plans on what they're gonna do with those results.....it is jumping the gun, totally....

But I'm gonna take a cue from Baldy's reaction ~ & bet the band had no clue about this either......so it's another corporate-suits attempt at makin money, which probably won't ever see the bands' pockets either....and someday, hopefully in my lifetime, maybe the suits will figure out that fans are not the ones to piss off or alienate while on a quest to make "big bucks".....

Gwen:

Annik:

Will this Baldy membership include only recent footage of the band, or will there be added stuff from the past?

It will absolutely have recent footage, and we are hoping to have past footage in there as well. It's a matter of adding what makes sense and what we have available.

Is there any footage you would love to see; but, have a hard time tracking down?

'preciate the curiosity!

Well I have been searching for footage of Layne on the Australian music show Rage, to no avail. If this was made available on the subscription section, then I might consider joining.

moondrop:

Also, It was great to see a "free" old Layne clip added to the Layne Tribute page.....but please don't allow fans to think they will be getting more Layne "never seen before" stuff in the subscription price if it WON'T be happening..... 

I agree. I wouldn't want to be lead to believe that I would be able to get rare footage of Layne when in actual fact it won't be available. 

Nickg666:

I always thought that band websites were sort of a promotional tool. You know, show some free live and behind the scenes footage to encourage people to get out and see the shows and buy the CDs. I have to pay to get full access now? Lets see, I've payed for all of their albums, which is roughly $100 or so dollars, I payed $45 for a long sleeve T-shirt which probably cost about $5 to manufacture, I paid $50 to see them last November in Milwaukee, I paid $75 to see them on August 28th in Chicago, and I paid another $54 to see them again on the 31st at the Rave for the acoustic show (actually, each time I bought tickets, I bought 2 of them, so double the ticket amounts). That's roughly $503 so far that I've spent being an AIC fan and now I have to pay to see the cool stuff on the site? YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! I must say that this is a very "Metallica" thing to do. At least I expect this sort of thing from Metallica, but Alice? C'MON.

 So, I think I figured out the best way I can to express to the "Powers That Be" behind this whole paysite thing that this is a bad idea. If you notice I reposted my original comment so that people reading this can better understand where I'm coming from here. Here goes:

To Whom it Concerns,

One thing that you need to understand better than anything else is that Alice's core audience is not made up of teenagers anymore (no disrespect to any teens that are just hearing Alice for the first time... welcome!). The core group of people that into Alice are people that were teenagers in the early to mid 90's and are now in their mid twenties to early and mid thirties. These people are all grown up now and have steady jobs, reponsibilities, and dare I say spouses and children. The point is that the majority of us are simply not willing to fork out any significant amount of money to be a member of Club Metallica... or Club Alice for that matter. I feel that by instating a fee to look at the cool videos and backstage content, you are inadvertently alienating the bands core audience of LOYAL fans. Watch ANY Metallica documentary.... good things will not come from this.

 Sincerely,

The AIC online community

Nickg666:

 So, I think I figured out the best way I can to express to the "Powers That Be" behind this whole paysite thing that this is a bad idea. If you notice I reposted my original comment so that people reading this can better understand where I'm coming from here. Here goes:

To Whom it Concerns,

One thing that you need to understand better than anything else is that Alice's core audience is not made up of teenagers anymore (no disrespect to any teens that are just hearing Alice for the first time... welcome!). The core group of people that into Alice are people that were teenagers in the early to mid 90's and are now in their mid twenties to early and mid thirties. These people are all grown up now and have steady jobs, reponsibilities, and dare I say spouses and children. The point is that the majority of us are simply not willing to fork out any significant amount of money to be a member of Club Metallica... or Club Alice for that matter. I feel that by instating a fee to look at the cool videos and backstage content, you are inadvertently alienating the bands core audience of LOYAL fans. Watch ANY Metallica documentary.... good things will not come from this.

 Sincerely,

The AIC online community

Ah, ha, you have stumbled upon the secret reason behind this & you probably don't even realize it   .....bands with new labels, new management, new directions, new whatever ~ the first thing the suits have them do is aim for the young crowd...because "the young crowd spends more money (or their parents money)" because the "new/young crowd is more pliable".....the first thing that happens is the old fanbase gets run off so they can get the right demographics going.....

 The internet use to be free, aside from paying for having it.....once corporate America discovered a way to make money off of it, they were off & running like madmen/women........if you've ever visited any major label's artists' website they all are "pay for something" run now, some the entire site isn't viewable unless you do..... ~ ~ anyway, I'm rambling 

~ keep in mind, this is not (any of) the artists idea, they want to make music & pretty much don't want to have to deal with any of the other crap.....

perversionsatisfied:

Damn! Now I am too old for MySpace and this site??!?!?!

Amazingly sad, isn't it?  

But that's ok, we get the last laugh.....we understand LONGEVITY.....

I bet Brit's lost all her teeny fans by now.... 

Gwen:

Try and look at it from this perspective; you go to your local record store (gosh, I just called it a record store... does anyone else still call 'em that?!) and there is a disc there, that damnit - you want SOOooooo bad. Then you look behind it and there is the same disc for less money. WTF?! you ask.

Well, the disc in front has bonus tracks, or is an enhanced version, or perhaps it has video footage too. This naturally explains the difference in cost. Not dissimilar from how the free site runs alongside the subscription version.

The record store part made me laugh, but here's my side of the metaphor- Both CDs cost the same amount before. You wake up in the morning, and someone came in and stole your enhanced CD, which you obviously got because it wasn't more expensive. To improve the metaphor further, let's say the record company came and stole your enhanced CD. You go to the store because you love the CD, but now, it costs more for the enhanced one. And then you start thinking "You know, are those enhanced tracks really worth the extra money?" and a lot of us are saying no.

perversionsatisfied:

Sadly, no one will sell it to me. I practically live in a cave.

You sure you don't live near me? They're not even making an effort getting it to where I live- I know the Amish are demanding it , but there's still not enough people asking

thenegativecreep:

The record store part made me laugh, but here's my side of the metaphor- Both CDs cost the same amount before. You wake up in the morning, and someone came in and stole your enhanced CD, which you obviously got because it wasn't more expensive. To improve the metaphor further, let's say the record company came and stole your enhanced CD. You go to the store because you love the CD, but now, it costs more for the enhanced one. And then you start thinking "You know, are those enhanced tracks really worth the extra money?" and a lot of us are saying no.

I'm sorry, you've lost me.

Nothing has been taken from anyone, no users have paid anything to use this site "as-is" and subscribing is completely optional.

Gwen can you answer my question from page 1?: 

Who exactly have made the decision to make a subscription only section of the website ?

And what are the band members opinion about it ?

I dont really like the record store metaphor - I order a fair amout of japanese cds each year to get all the bonus tracks from my fav. bands but what exactly does that have to do with making a small part of this website a subscription only part ? Its not like you get exclusive music for joining the Baldy club.

Anyway Im glad that the powers that be decided to at least let the text reports from Baldy remain open. Obviously that also means that people have even less reason to join the stupid Baldy club.