October 2020 Wrap-Up

Another month is coming to an end and I'd like to give you a little informal update about what is going on with this Patreon site.

Unfortunately, Europe is currently seeing a large second wave of Corona which causes many things to become increasingly difficult due to restrictions and lockdowns. However, other than in spring, recordings all over the continent are still taking place, usually with stricter hygienic concepts. I recorded with Budapest a few days ago and will be recording with Prague in a few days, unfortunately all remotely which I'm really not a big fan of (as for instance you can't really tell what issues are being adressed already in the room after a take) but better than not recording at all.

In spite of these developments, we're still going ahead with the first Orchestra Discovery Session which I announced a few months ago and hope that until we're ready to record, the wave has gone down again so that we can safely travel to the recording. I'll make an official announcement for it in early December so you won't be missing it.

Other than that, it seems that for now we have hit the ceiling of the potential for this Patreon site as in fact we even lost a few patrons in the last couple of weeks. It currently seems like many musicians on Patreon are struggling with growth rates and are even losing patrons. I'm not quite sure what the cause for this is and whether this is a temporal phenomenon or will manifest into a trend. However, I hope that eventually we go back to growth as there really are a few things that I'd like to do on here that are only possible when this page generates more revenue. These Orchestra Discovery Sessions are just one of these things. So again, if you know anybody who might be interested in the content on here, I'd really appreciate if you would recommend this Patreon to them.

Maybe it will help that Patreon contacted me recently asking for a personal quote and a cut down version of my video for Gazing at the Night Sky to use in a commercial campaign on Insta/Twitter/Facebook during November so keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you discover the campaign somewhere.

Lastly, I observed the phenomenon with a few patrons who sign up for a month, download all the content and then cancel their membership for a few months and then do the same again a few months later. It's currently only a few people doing that but of course it is unfair for the rest of the patrons who are continuous members. As a consequence I might limit the time certain contents are available in the future (such as score sheets, multitracks and maybe even written content) but for now I'll keep all the things as they are and keep observing. But in case you haven't downloaded anything yet that you are interested in, it might be better to do so in case I have to be more strict about these things in the future.

Again, I can't thank you enough for being my patrons, I really appreciate your continous support and hope that you will find your investment into it worthwhile. And of course, I also hope that you stay healthy and safe in these difficult times.

Robin