This Just In: We’ve Gone Podcast Only

Hey there,

Since we started The Standard Variety Hour (roughly) a year ago, we’ve done our best to feature the best new music, somewhat mindful banter and occasional interviews each and every week. (Yeah, sure— we’re still figuring out our “format”, but the “figuring it out” part has been an essential part of the fun.) And each week, the staff at community radio WITT 91.9 FM has been extremely gracious in opening their airwaves and hosting our show. We love community radio. We love quirky radio.  That said, we’ve decided to switch the lever and go podcast only.  The reasons:

#1: Kevin and I are entering that “busy” time of life.  Translate: we’re pretty bad at keeping up on the somewhat rigorous deadlines that a radio broadcast schedule entails.  Maybe we’re actually busier or we’re just getting worse at honoring our time commitments.  It’s likely the latter.  Regardless, there are pretty firm deadlines when producing a show for broadcast. When we don’t meet those deadlines, it causes us and the WITT station a lot of stress.

#2: See above.

#3: We can’t acknowledge that we are drinking beer on community radio.

#4: We’ve come very close (many times) to violating the FCC regulations governing community radio and putting the station at risk of losing their license.

#5: See #2 & #3.

So… given that.  We’ve decided that,  while we will continue to produce a weekly show, we need to relax our schedules a bit and allow for some flexibility that our schedule and emerging format dictates.

For many listeners, this change won’t matter much. In fact, nearly all of the listeners we’ve heard from through email, our call in line, or through random conversations have indicated they listen to the show through iTunes.  We aren’t sure how many listen to the show when it aired on WITT 91.9, but for the many who do (tens? hundreds?), we hope you will both continue to support WITT and download our podcast.  In fact, we have plans to return to the air and embrace the medium of radio for certain holiday and overly-adventurous shows.  Until then, we hope you continue to download our podcast and send us suggestions to radio@standardrecording.com

 

-Mark

 

 

Nuvo Spotlight on WITT (SVH Gets a Nod)

Our own newsweekly, Nuvo, has a great article on WITT and the man behind the station, Jim Walsh.  It’s certainly worth a read. Have a pile of money you don’t need?  Community radio could use it. We’re happy that the Standard Variety Hour got a mention as well.

William Evans: Beautiful Biology

As featured in SVH #6, Beautiful Biology as told by William Evans.  Recorded at Locals Only. Enjoy,

William Evans, Beautiful Biology

Standard Variety Hour has a Facebook Page

Standard Variety Hour has a Facebook page. And… only 4 members. How sad 😦 http://ht.ly/28eEE

Thanks everyone for coming out to the Thunderhawk release shows

Thanks everyone for coming out to the Thunderhawk LP release shows! Next stop: Austin.

This is what your Monday needs: Preview

This is what your Monday needs: Preview Thunderhawk “King Basement” before it’s March release. http://bit.ly/58zsg2 #musicmonday #nowplaying

The Metrics of a Variable Price Digital Release (Or: Who Would Pay If It’s Free?)

On November 25th, we teamed up with Nuvo Newsweekly (the alt-weekly in Indianapolis) to release a digital Christmas compilation, A Very Standard Christmas, Vol. 2 (more details about the release are in the post below this one). We’ve all heard of digital-only releases and using a variable pricing, or “Pay-What-You-Want”, model (Radiohead?), but how many have actually used this method to release an album? Since this was our first release using this method, we really had no idea what to expect.

But, before I get to the hard numbers, first a few points:

-As far as national labels go, Standard is pretty low on the totem pole. We have national and international distribution, but most would likely classify us as a regional or (gasp!) local label. Would the results be different if there was wide-spread, built-in name recognition? Probably.
-The album was bundled as a zipped file with mp3 audio tracks and a digital booklet. The tracks were not copy-protected.
-The album was only available for download from Nuvo’s website. Of course, it’s possible that the entire file was sent around after downloading, but who knows.
-We used Paypal to handle the payments. This itself could have impacted the numbers, but then again- most of us are used to using Paypal.
-The advertising and publicity consisted of print advertising in Nuvo and internal publicity to blogs and radio stations.
-The album was available for a little over one calendar month (November 25th – January 1).
-While we didn’t require payment, we did require each person to enter in an integer before allowing a download.
-We did ask for a donation (since we wanted to actually have money to give FACE), but we don’t feel the suggestion of payment was overly aggressive and made it clear payment was not required.

Okay, so on to the real, hard numbers:

As I mentioned, we’ve never a) released an album with a variable pricing method; and, b) we’ve never teamed up with a newsweekly to release an album. Since we were giving all of the proceeds away to FACE Low Cost Spay/ Neuter clinic, the big question during the planning stage was, “Is anyone going to pay for this album if they have the option of getting it for free?” As it turns out, some did, but not an overwhelming amount: 12% of the people who downloaded the release paid something for it. How much? The average dollar amount offered for the release was $4.75.

Of those who paid, 60% offered $5-$15, with 40% offering $5 (or close to it), 13% paid $10 and a few (2%) offered more than $10 (which usually worked out to be $15). So the majority of those who paid offered $5 or more which seems to be in line the price of most downloads. The next most popular pricing point seemed to be $2-$3 (23%) and 14% paid $1. Interestingly, the vast majority (98%) entered a whole dollar amount and no one paid less than $1.

Where Are These People?

Although we are based in Indianapolis, Nuvo’s print edition is focused on Indianapolis, and the money collected is going to a local charity, we had more money coming from outside the state (and the country) than I expected. About a third of the people who paid live in Indiana and 18% of the people who offered money live outside the US.

I plan to offer more subjective thoughts later, but those are the numbers.

A Very Standard Christmas Party

A Very Standard Christmas Party – December 19th

Tomorrow