Audio Drama Co-op?

[AuralStageStudios]

What about an audio play/audio book cooperative?

So here's the idea:
We all live in different areas of the world/country/etc. I personally live in Buffalo, NY. I work with actors in NYC and know people in Vegas. All of these places have local haunts. Local bookstores and coffee shops tend to have owners that are at the register or somewhere in the building. That means you have direct contact with the people who make the decisions and don't have to figure out ways to cut through bureaucratic red-tape. Market locally, market small... but do it in mass.

This is where the cooperative comes in. Say I have a contact for a bookstore in Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and NYC, but instead of hooking him up with just a few of my CDs to sell, I'm also kicking some of your CDs his way. And you're doing the same. Suddenly you've got CDs sold at local stores, but local stores in NYC, Buffalo, Vegas, Vancouver, Toronto, London.. and just about anywhere else we can convince to get in on the act...

I think to get anywhere, you have to find ways to bypass the red tape involved with corporate hoop-jumping, which is usually costly and nearly impossible to navigate as every office has there own "policy" which usually translates into ease of connection for industry people, and a big pain in the butt for independents.

Small businesses, such as bookstores and coffee shops run into the same problem. Can we maybe find a way to use that?

[Bill Hollweg]

The problem for most of us is money.

I myself am 43, work 3 graphic art jobs- am married and raising my 2 granddkiddos on top of mortages et all.

I can find actors from all over the world from New Zealand to the UK to the US and Canada, and we have people from these parts as a part of our BrokenSea Audio Group. All are willing to VA or mix or write or just listen for the sake of fun and art and we have a great time producing "free audio drama art".

BUT...

I and my cohorts have no start up cash <as we all work day jobs just to make ends meat> to pay VA's for their time/talent, musicians involved, artists for CD covers, script writers, et all... Much as I would love to <speaking of original works here>. And yes one could pay a percentage of the sales etc... But then you would need an accountant to keep up with it all- or someone better than I to keep up with the figures-LOL.

Of course what happens if your costs are say $500 and you sell 100$ of CD's or DL's? And yes that's the issue that all start up businesses face- if you build it and they DON'T come- then what?

I agree with your ideas and they are very interesting, and might just work if you have the capitol to start with. I just don't see anyone doing AD for the fun of it so I or my group can make a buck while they simply get a credit if that makes sense.

By all means pursue this thoough! Wish I had a chunk of change to do this myself.

[JulieH]

Not to mention, everything we do is available for free, so why woudl anyone pay? And with the costs involved in producing a CD, the measly hour or so of material that can fit on it is hardly worth the cost to the average person who's never heard of it.

We'd be better off (from a marketing standpoint) to make up a MP3 cd with bits from everyone out here, and send it round to these coffee shops for them to use as a free incentive - give it away with every order of $20 or more, since then we might get some more listeners.

I was just commenting to someone that I'd love to have a clearing house site for audio drama, where each episode woudl cost like 10 cents - a person would pay up front X amount, and then download til he ran out - then it's all accounting again, to split up everyone's share

I know it doens't sound like much, but no one would balk to pay 10 cents, even those "entitled" folks who absolutely don't want to - and no one would take the time to go hunting for a bootleg download, just to avoid paying 10 cents...

[Bill Hollweg]

There's an idear too Julie!
;-)

Though I think that unless the BBC, or Big Finish, or the guys doing Twilight Zome, CBC, or some such other large company wants to back the AD venture and promote etc... It's just not that viable a medium for making cash of any amount. Maybe Sirius or someone would want to back something-or a local radio station- though most local radio is dead and uses DJ's via satillite...

An ART Grant might work- lord knows Obamma's writing checks for evrything else right now, why not AD?
LOL

The other thing is- there is no bottom line when doing it for free, so there is a freedom of artistic expression to do whatever ya want whether listeners DL or not- you can make it and put it out there, expand to your hearts content <POTA by me anyone? Clocking in at 14 epsiodes-LOL>

[Bill Hollweg]

Not to say it can't be done, Colonial and a few others seem to do it. So go for it man!

[Bill Hollweg]

Just some simple math here, as I am at lunch, were someone to pay everyone up front.

lets say <using simple flat figures here> you have 4 VA's.
You pay 4 VA for their talent: 100$ ea. or 400$ total
You pay the mixer: 100$
You pay the musician for a brilliant score: 100$
You pay the writer for the brilliant script: 100$
You pay the artist for the CD art: 100$
and you make 100$ of CD's/cases for CD's: 100$

Right now we are at 900$ and Not a Single CD has been sold.

Mind you- you might pay some people less and others more- but that's just run of the mill simple accounting that even I can understand. LOL

Not to mention the cost for copyrighting your work and/or trademarking etc... And if you have to purchase sfx or hire a foley dude... And printing costs for the CD's...Bandwidth and fees for a website et all...

Mind you some costs may be offset by yourself doing one or more of these roles...

On a side note: most of my productions have casts with a minimum of 10 people and some 25-30 and I use 5 or more musicians usually to get the right feel for a scene.

I hate math..I just wanna make AD and have cash roll in-LOL

And this is all pretty redundant stuff for you and others I am sure- just calling the pink elephant a pink elephant when I see it.
;-)

[Icebox]

Just to throw in here, I think we don't want to dismiss this idea of a CD co-op too quickly. I've found that the various ways of having people listen represent distinct communities. Podcast listeners are one community, radio listeners another, CD another and so on. There's a lot of folks out there that might might want to support us through CD sales, who don't have the tech-comfort to become a podcast listener.

But here's another idea I've kicked around for some time, but I've been reluctant to mention on-forum simply because a) it's a game-changer and b) it wouldn't be for everyone.

First, recruit as many audio theater companies as possible, with an eye toward quality. Next, create a website with a front page featuring free samples, but only one or two complete episodes. Next, sell memberships at a low rate. I think Netflix starts at about $9.99 a month, yes? That's sounds like a good rate to begin with. For your membership in the site, you would have access to every podcast available, both new and archived. All the money that comes in would be distributed to the producers after a chunk was taken out for site maintenance and promotion.

Now the problem with this plan is that it wouldn't work unless all the shows banded together and pledged to use only the membership site to distribute their work. Old feeds would be shut down, old archives cleaned out. We'd need to create a long transition campaign to give the fans a chance to voice their opinion, and go through the seven stages of grief for the death of free audio. I'm being serious here. We could expect a 75-90 percent loss in audience at first. But the benefit would be we could now have resources to promote the art form as something worth paying for, and could rebuild it to present levels, and beyond.

The other big downside is that fan fiction would have to be left out for legal reasons. Unless, of course, we could use our newfound resources to legally acquire the rights.

And one other idea? Pay Jack and Shannon to maintain The Sonic Society as a free podcast which would then promote all the other podcasts. Much to think about.

[Bill Hollweg]

	Quote:	Icebox
	Just to throw in here, I think we don't want to dismiss this idea of a CD co-op too quickly. I've found that the various ways of having people listen represent distinct communities. Podcast listeners are one community, radio listeners another, CD another and so on. There's a lot of folks out there that might might want to support us through CD sales, who don't have the tech-comfort to become a podcast listener. But here's another idea I've kicked around for some time, but I've been reluctant to mention on-forum simply because a) it's a game-changer and b) it wouldn't be for everyone. First, recruit as many audio theater companies as possible, with an eye toward quality. Next, create a website with a front page featuring free samples, but only one or two complete episodes. Next, sell memberships at a low rate. I think Netflix starts at about $9.99 a month, yes? That's sounds like a good rate to begin with. For your membership in the site, you would have access to every podcast available, both new and archived. All the money that comes in would be distributed to the producers after a chunk was taken out for site maintenance and promotion. Now the problem with this plan is that it wouldn't work unless all the shows banded together and pledged to use only the membership site to distribute their work. Old feeds would be shut down, old archives cleaned out. We'd need to create a long transition campaign to give the fans a chance to voice their opinion, and go through the seven stages of grief for the death of free audio. I'm being serious here. We could expect a 75-90 percent loss in audience at first. But the benefit would be we could now have resources to promote the art form as something worth paying for, and could rebuild it to present levels, and beyond. The other big downside is that fan fiction would have to be left out for legal reasons. Unless, of course, we could use our newfound resources to legally acquire the rights. And one other idea? Pay Jack and Shannon to maintain The Sonic Society as a free podcast which would then promote all the other podcasts. Much to think about.

Cool idears all round Jeff!
;-)

We need to buy the rights to Kolchak Mister Carl...
;-)

[Bill Hollweg]

Of course Jeff- all kidding aside- this still has the problem of paying the people you use to create these audio gems. Some might be ok with a group making a few bucks this way- but I have a feeling more than a few would want their "cut" and deservedly so. And might believe that the money made by this entity you just proposed was bigger and therefore making more cash than might be the case, and because of this- they deserved more of a "cut" and all sorts of headaches of that nature.

[Bill Hollweg]

And although 9.99 isn't that much a month. Not sure how many people would pay 9.99 a month for AD. 9.99 a year maybe, though that could be the cynical me spouting off...

Love the idea though

~Devil's Advocate Bill-- here