Launching "The Vault" + 30 Songs in 30 Days
It's happening. I've been teasing it for a while, and since this year marks the 5 Year Anniversary of "7 Songs in 7 Days," it seemed like the perfect time to go all in...
Here are the most important things you need to know:
1. I'll be writing and sharing a new original song with you every day this month (30 Songs in 30 Days)
2. We'll be moving from what has been our Patreon-membership over to my own site (which, while I apologize for the inconvenience, will end up being better, I promise!)
3. Sign up for any annual membership at the new member area ("The Vault") or subscribe at the $7 monthly tier or higher (even for one month) before the end of September, and get a limited edition rainbow plated key pin to add to your collection.
To read more details about how it will work, why I'm doing this, and what you need to do next, read on...
About 30 Songs in 30 Days:
If you've been here since at least July of 2020, you've probably experienced a "7 Songs in 7 Days" week.
Way back in my early days here at Patreon, I promised a song demo each week. There was a bit of time where I didn't publish anything (Patrons back then pledged an amount-per-creation rather than an amount-per-month).
In order to get back in gear, I challenged myself to "make up for" the lost time by writing a song every day for 7 days. This began an annual challenge in which I write a daily song for a week each summer, which also serves as a "pledge drive" for the membership each year. It also takes what I'm able to deliver to Patrons from 12 minimum songs per year to almost 20, which I like.
This is year 5, and despite everyone telling me I SHOULDN'T do this to myself, the thought of trying is just way too compelling, and I can't *not.* But you all know by now how much of a masochist I am.
Each year the challenge has morphed and iterated, and gotten better and more exciting. The second year we added artwork, this past year we added collectors edition pins and live stream events like trivia nights. To celebrate the 5th year, we're still going to do a bunch of those things... we're just going to do more songs.
That being said, this will be tough. I've written lots of songs in one month before, but probably not 30. I have a few friends that do a daily song every year in October, and by the end of September they start to look a little queasy. 🤣
To help maintain my sanity and health, here are some rules and allowances for the daily songs:
1. While I try my best to deliver high-quality audio for each month's original song to you, I will be mostly submitting phone demos for this year's challenge. If I have the time or energy on a given day, I will do a proper recording.
2. Some of the songs may be very short, or may be just sketches.
3. Some of the songs may not contain user-submitted prompts.
4. If something bad happens (like I get crazy sick again, or some crucial piece of my tech stops working - these things have happened during challenges and sprints like this before), then I pledge to get all 30 Songs in before the end of September. In other words, if something happens and I miss a day, I will try to make up for that one on another day. Obviously if something really _really_ bad happens, we'll have to reassess at that point.
How 30 Songs in 30 Days Will Work:
I would still love for you to submit prompts. Because I don't want to end up with obvious "throwaways" that I probably won't use or play, I am giving myself the executive power to veto prompts (so feel free to submit get creative and enter a bunch).
I haven't historically done this, but I'd like to make things a little easier on myself moving forward. Please remember that prompts should only be 2-5 words long, not sentences or concepts. Some past great ones include: murder of crows, bright stars and black holes, alone at midnight, long time friend
I'm hanging onto prompts that will work in this new context that were previously submitted, but will be purging all the others. So if you want to make sure you have one in the stack, don't forget to submit!
From September 1-30, I'll be writing and delivering a song to you each day on the new platform, which I've been calling "The Vault." I've actually wanted to do the move for several years now (at least 3), but just have never made the time to move the needle on it.
I'll explain a little more about the logistics of the move below, but for our purposes here, you can expect your interaction with the content to be pretty close to how we've been doing it.
If you make the changeover to the new platform, you'll receive an email notifying you that the content has been delivered, which you can then follow-through to to engage with it, just like before.
If you do not make the changeover to the new platform, I'll be posting links weekly to a special hub where you can still access the songs, but you may not be able to engage with the content and the new platform fully, and you won't get notifications for each daily song. Again, I'll explain a little more below.
ABOUT "THE VAULT"
Since the beginning of my journey at Patreon, I've been a little frustrated by and about its many limitations. Some of which I won't concern you with here because they have more to do with my workflow or being able to promote it effectively, but what has bothered me the most is the user-end UI.
It's so silly to me that there isn't a central "hub" for you to view content at a glance, which is why I've taken to posting a "database" for you at the beginning of each month. It's not extensive because creating an extensive one would be incredibly time consuming and tedious... but wouldn't it be great if you could easily stream all the songs on some afternoon while you're cleaning the house? Or download all the cover songs at once to add to your collection?
I've also wanted to include a section of "archives" somewhere for Patrons, or, now, "Keyholders," where you could check out some of my very earliest, embarrassing, and cringeworthy recordings, or progress recordings of me working out songs which you now know the finished versions of.
For these and so many other reasons, we're going to make the switch now.
While I have so many ideas for making this new membership area comprehensive and easy to use, you should know out of the gate that, particularly in this first month, it will be pretty comparable to what we've been doing here at Patreon while I build out the rest of the assets. In my fantasies I wanted everything to be exactly perfect right when you first log in, but truthfully, it will need to be iterated upon before it becomes what I envision it will eventually be.
Right now, The Vault will be a lot like what our Patreon membership currently is, but will be a little easier for you to use, and a little easier for me to administrate.
For the first couple of days, your "Vault" Home Page might look a little lean, it'll probably take me a little bit to get everything set up in there.
Also, even if you discontinue your Patreon membership today, you'll still have access to everything here until September 30.
WHAT'S CHANGING:
Content Delivery:
If you are not interested in moving over to the new platform, you don't have to. BUT there will be less interaction here on Patreon (simply because administrating both is going to be a nightmare for me and I'm going to need to simplify).
For the next few days, I will post the 30s30d content to both sites, but will phase out the daily Patreon posts probably by the end of this week or the beginning of next week.
Moving forward, if you don't move over to The Vault, I will post a monthly blog-style post to Patreon that will fill you in on the content that was delivered that month, with an exclusive link and password which you can use to check out the content (over at The Vault) in a limited capacity. There will no longer be individual content posts, database posts, or rewards posts posted to Patreon. To access higher-tier rewards like charts and lyric worksheets, you'll need to move over to The Vault.
Content Deliverables:
Because there is going to be so much stuff from all the past 6 years up in The Vault, I will not longer be offering monthly Wild Cards. That's not to say you won't still receive bonus items, but again, in the name of simplifying my life, I'd like to take the one thing off my plate for now. I have LOTS of ideas for more content to deliver you in The Vault in the future, but in order to get there, need to cut down a touch on my workload in that department.
Tier Pricing:
While **your** current tier-price will be honored and "grandfathered in," tier pricing will go up for all new incoming members. There's a LOT of content on here that is now going to be even easier to access and download, and I feel that after 6 years, it's probably fair. A lot of my friends who are new to Patreon and have successful memberships don't even have a $1 tier (their tiers start at $3 or $5). I know a lot of you have said I provide a lot of value here, so I'm ready to take this step and hope you'll support me in that!
The basic tiers are going to be about the same. In the lowest tier (Supporter), you'll be able to see all the posts, download items individually, and stream all audio. In the next higher tier (Listener), you'll be able to do mass downloads of covers, original songs, and cover songs, and the old bonus Wild Card deliverables. That's the only significant difference at the moment. The higher tiers will all maintain their respective rewards.
Annual Memberships:
There are also now annual memberships available! So whether a new person joins, or you sign up this month at your Patreon Legacy amount, anyone who opts into an annual membership can/will save 20% on their membership by subscribing for a year (as opposed to the monthly tier-rate).
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I know this is a BIG change, and honestly, for me, moving the membership over is a risk. We might lose some folks and the rates/processing fees (for me) will be higher (but not for you). However, I want this membership to be TOTALLY AWESOME and a really cool experience for you. I also want to be able to offer you MORE stuff without creating hours and hours of extra work for myself. So this is the next step towards that...
Please feel free to email me at lex@lexlandmusic.com or shoot me a DM in Patreon if you have ANY questions or concerns. I would also love to know what things you would like to see in here now that we won't have the same limitations.
Monthly subscriptions will renew on the 25th of each month (and prorate depending on when you joined).
Annual subscriptions will renew recurrently based on the day you joined.
rewards access:
