Airwindows Swell: AU, Mac and PC VST (also, Patreon)

[VariKusBrainZ]

Yeah, how is this any different to mafia style 'protection payment' extortion, other than you can't refuse to pay up and have your kneecaps broken instead

It's exactly the same as all payment gateways, except that it's 2.9% and $0.35.

Payment gateways, which this is, are 2.9% and $0.30 everywhere else. https://givewp.com/paypal-fees-much-pay ... -donation/

Except, Patreon has no setup fee (some do, like Authorize $45) and Patreon's monthly fee isn't $25 (Authorize) or $30 (Paypal Pro), it's 5% out of your share. That part affects small creators less.

Merchant account payment gateways can be less: https://www.merchantmaverick.com/mercha ... son-chart/ but though you can get smaller retail rates (NOT necessarily ecommerce), you start to get into monthly fees like $79 or $199/mo if you really want to get low rates and fees on the transactions, plus they're not necessarily managing a website for you, and if people totally don't recognize who you're using, that'll make them more wary of getting involved. Also, I don't know which of those guys are going out of business, and when Kagi went out of business I lost months of income.

You can use this sort of thing instead of Patreon, but as someone who has done that, it forces you to be an entrepreneur and you have to do all this: be your own mafia, screw your own customers just the way Patreon's doing it, hope that your infrastructure (merchant account gateway, shopping cart system etc) doesn't go out of business or start cheating you. Kagi didn't cheat me and had very good rates, and they got driven out of business by newer sketchier companies in the same sector, who had worse deals but much flashier and more deceptive presentations.

If you want to draw Mafia comparisons, you should do it with the ENTIRE financial sector, because increasingly everybody who doesn't act like that just dies. I (politely, I hope?) take offense with the idea that Patreon is uniquely sketchy. If you research payment mechanisms, Patreon's become more typical and you can get things skewed various ways but there's always a catch. And Patreon's terms are extremely normal for a payment gateway, except that they have no setup fee and no flat monthly creator bill, and they balance that by having a creator percentage and five cents more per transaction on the patron side.

My comparison with the mafia, though obviously not meant by a long shot, was more about how theyve just changed the terms and conditions on you when youre an entrenched customer with not much other choice than to leave them.

If anything they should have allowed long term customers a grace period or exemption to the change in policy.

[Local Man]

But I believe these recent changes draw so much ire for two reasons that are unique to the way tech companies work. One is the false altruism. Patreon does not exist to empower artists, and these changes where not implemented to help artists support themselves with their creations. The objectives of patreon are the same as any company, increase market share and/or profits (but always ultimately profits). So why be disingenuous about this?

Dishonesty. In the absence of rules, cheating and hurting people works better than being civilized. Patreon is aiming to be a player in this world, so they have a plan that is all hype and fantasy, knowing that most people who get involved will NOT be empowered, knowing it's a hype. That's not new, but people thought they were different. I completely agree, the plan is false altruism… or, rather, they seek to help/transform just a tiny fraction of people who are part of their system.

That's all they ever could do (barring the very real aid that even twenty bucks or so means to someone who's really on the edge, LIKE MOST OF US). They're a Silicon Valley thing, it's become obvious that if they can't totally transform a creator's life they're not interested. I do blame them for that.

I'm also desperate, because my 'on the cusp of becoming a big deal' $700 a month IS NOT really enough for me to live on. And I'm a little entrepreneur from way back: I've already switched from one paradigm to another. I can tell you that when you do make a big change like moving to OR FROM Patreon, between half to nine-tenths of your revenue will just go away. Gone. You have to build up again from scratch, if you're lucky. Right now there's not a chance in hell I can do that, and I don't want to actually die for what I do.

So I don't feel like I have a choice. I have to make the best of Patreon, and hope it doesn't blow up on me. I am actually that close to the edge, and I don't like it. I can't even start selling off all my gear, because nobody's buying. It's Patreon (maybe Twitch?) or homelessness. And all I want is to make lots of plugins for people who have no resources at all: I'm not Patreon. I don't feel I can back down, better I should die.

Sorry for the heaviness, especially going into the holidays. I'll try to hang in there. I can't imagine what it must be like for people who are small Patreons, getting like 20-200 bucks all from people supporting dozens of one-dollar Patreons. The world just got way more brutal, and I'm damned if I'm going to break faith with the people for whom I'm doing my work.

Sorry, too much drama. I generally prefer to not reveal much about my situation.

Nothing but respect for what you do and the desicions you have made here. Honestly when this patreon thing went down, you were the first person I thought of and I was really hoping this wouldn't derail or in any way slow your success. I support you 100%.

[jinxtigr]

Have you thought of doing a monthly YouTube livestream Superchat thing? Seems like the sort of thing that might fit in with your business model.

The Twitch thing is livestreaming. I've been working really hard on being able to do that properly, and it's on the brink of being ready. I have no problem if it becomes Airwindows chat, or Airwindows tech support. And for those who hate Patreon now, it is a parallel alternate way to fund Airwindows a little.

My model there is Deadmau5: I like it when he streams music composition in his studio. Except that he doesn't seem to like using the stacks-o-gear. I had to build a lot of my own stacks-o-gear but I propose to use them onstream.

[shroom81]

Always hard to loose loved ones, my deepest condolences.

Must admit I was one of the people who dropped out reading the news about Patreon as I was subscribed to 1$ a month. Instead I sent over a little Christmas present via Paypal. I will continue to support you as I can and I love using your plugins, great sound and very low on cpu!

Keep up the great work and happy holidays.

[VariKusBrainZ]

I had to build a lot of my own stacks-o-gear but I propose to use them onstream.

This sounds interesting

Hows it going with the Axoloti by the way?

[jinxtigr]

I had to build a lot of my own stacks-o-gear but I propose to use them onstream.

This sounds interesting

Hows it going with the Axoloti by the way?

I still have 'em! I've got one that's screwed onto a little wood box that has knobs on it. Need to wire it up so the knobs work, probably add some pushbuttons as well. Then, it's about programming the Axoloti. I'm particularly interested in doing a FM bass sequencer that takes in MIDI clock, and steps through knob-set bass notes with some portamento on both the root note and the FM components: I think there could be a very organic, interesting sequenced bassline out of such a thing.

I'm super busy trying to keep so many plugins coming out, but I haven't forgotten the Axoloti. I'd like to see more uses for Axoloti.

[jinxtigr]

Update: as you might have heard Patreon is abandoning this plan. Welp! I've amended my patreon so the $1 pledge says 'really $1 after all!' and for the rest of it… I'm going to have to see what they do. Nothing of mine really depends on their being able to 'unbundle' or 'de-aggregate' pledges, so it's just a matter of whether pledges represent what people will really be charged.

If it is, I now have tiers related to 'a plugin a year' or more, that do make sense. Two a year gets you to be a mod on stuff I do, three and four plugins a year means I'll link to your stuff on the Airwindows site in a sidebar, and five plugins a year is that plus I'll put you on my videos that people will see. This wouldn't exist without Patreon's derps, so… thanks? I guess?

When there's a plan, which apparently I'll only hear about second or third hand, I'll bring you up to speed on exactly what it means.

[Tearing Riots]

Update: as you might have heard Patreon is abandoning this plan.

Wow, the change was kinda scummy, convoluting the system and punishing the 'broad' approach for something something "life changing" but what do i know.
Now changing this back without letting us know makes me lose even more trust in patreon.

I'd drop patreon in a heartbeat so keep us updated, ready to switch to carrier pigeons.


So sorry for your loss, all the best to you

[VariKusBrainZ]

I've signed up for $50 a year.
I don't yet use any of the plugins but have most in my folder and have demoed a few.
I keep meaning to make some Frankenstein chains with them.

I'd like to see where this funding idea goes though

[jinxtigr]

Update: as you might have heard Patreon is abandoning this plan.

Wow, the change was kinda scummy, convoluting the system and punishing the 'broad' approach for something something "life changing" but what do i know.
Now changing this back without letting us know makes me lose even more trust in patreon.

I'd drop patreon in a heartbeat so keep us updated, ready to switch to carrier pigeons.


So sorry for your loss, all the best to you

I will, I'll keep you updated. I'm exhausted now from trying to keep up with all this, and I have a ButterComp video to do: I don't want to miss any weeks when I have major stuff coming out for the end of December. ToVinyl is January, and PurestDrive is February, and we're finally on the way to the open source goal.

Once I have that, maybe someone will show me sidechaining (ideally, one that works for AU and VST both)