Concerns with FloatPlane Pricing

[redoxDucks]

Hi guys,

I, like so many others are really excited for the launch of floatplane.com. I was a paying member of vessel.com and was devastated when it went away. The community there was SOO much better than the toxic Youtube community. Even though most of them were paying subscribers, they didn't act entitled or rude. Comments were on topic and genuinely engaging and entertaining.

Plus the ad free part was great too.

A week later, as soon as LMG announced floatplane club I went over to the store to subscribe. Turned out the only method of joining is to use PayPal which I couldn't use as I don't live in North America or Europe. I'm from India and while we do have PayPal, the way the government rules and banking systems here are setup here, make using it basically impossible. I've tried about 20 or so times to subscribe using a variety of 'tricks' and contacted PayPal but nothing has worked. That's why I'm very excited for floatplane and being able to pay by credit / debit cards as I can FINALLY join and be a 'pilot' or whatever it will be called on the new platform. I've missed a year of this awesomeness.

Only one thing makes me a little salty. Both Linus and Bitwit Kyle mentioned that the cost of subscription on the new platform is going to increase right from launch and those who are already subscribed through the LTT forum were going be 'grandfathered in' with the current fee of US$ 2.99. I do not want to sound rude or dismissive of the amazing work that Luke, the artist formerly known as CatBoiler and everyone else has put into floatplane... However, it feels like us international members are being punished, and in a way 'taxed' for no fault of our own. To add to it Vessel had a flat fee for accessing all content while it seems that we need to subscribe individually to each content creator on floatplane(makes complete sense, BTW), which is going to get expensive really fast for all those who wish to subscribe to LTT, BitWit and all our favourite creators who will eventually join floatplane! It would be much appreciated if we were also allowed to join the cool kids without a surcharge.

 

PS: If any of the above info is incorrect, I sincerely apologise.

 

TL;DR

The subscription price hike on floatplane sucks for us international members who couldn't subscribe on the LTT forum for US$ 2.99 via PayPal

[Chalkie]

I was not 100% sure by what they meant when they were saying about the FP price changes, as for what prices will be, how it works ect only time will tell and we can only speculate. As for payment issues in your country I totally understand your frustration but at the present time LMG doesn't have the ability to take credit/debit cards and rely solely on PayPal which will be hurting their income as they are paying extortionate fees to PayPal for the privilege. I would rather pay by card or some form of automatic direct debit/standing order option.

 

 

[RileyTheFox]

3 minutes ago, redoxDucks said:

Hi guys,

I, like so many others are really excited for the launch of floatplane.com. I was a paying member of vessel.com and was devastated when it went away. The community there was SOO much better than the toxic Youtube community. Even though most of them were paying subscribers, they didn't act entitled or rude. Comments were on topic and genuinely engaging and entertaining.

Plus the ad free part was great too.

A week later, as soon as LMG announced floatplane club I went over to the store to subscribe. Turned out the only method of joining is to use PayPal which I couldn't use as I don't live in North America or Europe. I'm from India and while we do have PayPal, the way the government rules and banking systems here are setup here, make using it basically impossible. I've tried about 20 or so times to subscribe using a variety of 'tricks' and contacted PayPal but nothing has worked. That's why I'm very excited for floatplane and being able to pay by credit / debit cards as I can FINALLY join and be a 'pilot' or whatever it will be called on the new platform. I've missed a year of this awesomeness.

Only one thing makes me a little salty. Both Linus and Bitwit Kyle mentioned that the cost of subscription on the new platform is going to increase right from launch and those who are already subscribed through the LTT forum were going be 'grandfathered in' with the current fee of US$ 2.99. I do not want to sound rude or dismissive of the amazing work that Luke, the artist formerly known as CatBoiler and everyone else has put into floatplane... However, it feels like us international members are being punished, and in a way 'taxed' for no fault of our own. To add to it Vessel had a flat fee for accessing all content while it seems that we need to subscribe individually to each content creator on floatplane(makes complete sense, BTW), which is going to get expensive really fast for all those who wish to subscribe to LTT, BitWit and all our favourite creators who will eventually join floatplane! It would be much appreciated if we were also allowed to join the cool kids without a surcharge.

 

PS: If any of the above info is incorrect, I sincerely apologise.

 

TL;DR

The subscription price hike on floatplane sucks for us international members who couldn't subscribe on the LTT forum for US$ 2.99 via PayPal

Currently, 2.99 for each creator is really cheap. When they get a load of other creators on board, I'd expect them to make an 'Access all channels'. For a higher price than an individual creator, but less than if you purchased them separately. The PayPal thing is just you being out of luck. They had to make it so they baked a purchased sub-forum and payment system on here in the first place. I believe who they use for payments only accepts PayPal at the moment. Luke recently hired someone to manage all the payment side of things for when thefloatplane.com is up and running.

 

I don't think I'll ever get Floatplane tbh. If YouTube fails and then they have to do Floatplane permanently, I'd buy it then. Although YouTube has a few more years of joking around with its creators before anything happens. 

[William Payne]

I think there will be some growing pains. It is always tough to go from either a free service or low cost service and then add or increase pricing. There will be both positives and negatives to that. 

[Alariel]

As I understand it Vessels flat fee to access everything was a big reason why it closed down, so I can kinda see why Floatplane would do differently.

[Raketosten]

18 minutes ago, Alariel said:

As I understand it Vessels flat fee to access everything was a big reason why it closed down, so I can kinda see why Floatplane would do differently.

No matter what way you turn, your arse will always be pointing backwards, unless you are one of those individuals with a front facing one ofc.

 

      Vessel: too cheap = revenue issues

Floatplane: too expensive = revenue issues

 

No content creator wants their eggs in one basket. Tho should it turn out that the plan for the future is to be charging $4-5 PER CHANNEL per month, this thing is already running on fumes.

[redoxDucks]

1 hour ago, Alariel said:

As I understand it Vessels flat fee to access everything was a big reason why it closed down, so I can kinda see why Floatplane would do differently.

I actually agree with LMG's reasoning for the individual subs as mentioned in the most recent WAN show... The issue I mentioned in the original post is that some of us will only be able to subscribe at a higher cost. I was hoping for an early bird US$ 2.99 deal per channel for a month or so that we too can join up at that price.

[SiverJohn17]

10 minutes ago, redoxDucks said:

I actually agree with LMG's reasoning for the individual subs as mentioned in the most recent WAN show... The issue I mentioned in the original post is that some of us will only be able to subscribe at a higher cost. I was hoping for an early bird US$ 2.99 deal per channel for a month or so that we too can join up at that price.

I'm assuming LMG (Floatplane?), if they do a price increase right out of the box will have a sunset clause for those that have the better rate at some point. Or taking into account your troubles will have something like the first week of people get the lower values. Linus/Luke don't seem the type to be unreasonable and I am sure they are very aware of this issue (their bitching about the payment system heavily implies that).

[Alariel]

16 minutes ago, redoxDucks said:

I actually agree with LMG's reasoning for the individual subs as mentioned in the most recent WAN show... The issue I mentioned in the original post is that some of us will only be able to subscribe at a higher cost. I was hoping for an early bird US$ 2.99 deal per channel for a month or so that we too can join up at that price.

Yeah, Paypal doesn't work for me either, unless I want to pay 50 dollars for a 3 dollar subscription. But I'm gonna wait and see what the prices actually end up being, I don't think anyone has actually said yet.

[redoxDucks]

Just now, SiverJohn17 said:

I'm assuming LMG (Floatplane?), if they do a price increase right out of the box will have a sunset clause for those that have the better rate at some point. Or taking into account your troubles will have something like the first week of people get the lower values. Linus/Luke don't seem the type to be unreasonable and I am sure they are very aware of this issue (their bitching about the payment system heavily implies that).

I sincerely hope so... Nevertheless, decided to share my concerns hoping that someone connected with the project will add it to their internal discussions if they haven't already

[LogicalDrm]

My understanding is that payment issues are solved before price goes up. So there will be period where you can get original price before they raise it and so aren't capped because of crappy payment system.

[Princess Luna]

The subscription is getting more expensive than the 2,99$? y'all know it'd be nice to explain what is going on fully to those who don't watch wan show are aware of what's going on.

 

I'm not interest on these regardless... I wished that the forum contribution, bronze level, was 2,99 or maybe even cheaper, 5 whole dollars is pushy, wishes to support the forum but 5 dollars is a bit much, don't get why not make a tip jar, would be free money coming in as the amount of people with the gold and silver contributions is extremely narrow any ways...

[LogicalDrm]

5 hours ago, Princess Cadence said:

The subscription is getting more expensive than the 2,99$? y'all know it'd be nice to explain what is going on fully to those who don't watch wan show are aware of what's going on.

 

I'm not interest on these regardless... I wished that the forum contribution, bronze level, was 2,99 or maybe even cheaper, 5 whole dollars is pushy, wishes to support the forum but 5 dollars is a bit much, don't get why not make a tip jar, would be free money coming in as the amount of people with the gold and silver contributions is extremely narrow any ways...

You could just watch WAN. Last show they talk only FP for about 30min from show start. The main reason of having current price point is because they are locked in with PayPal and its transaction fees. Tip jar would take same off those tips. But sure, if you want to give $0.4 to PayPal for every $1 you give to LMG. I'm not against it per say. But I also would like LMG actually getting majority of that money I give. Which is why I haven't bought merch (forum contributors are too expensive imo).

 

TLDR on payments: Current system with PayPal sucks. They have hired someone to improve it. Stripe is one method in consideration. Because of LMG being major owner of FPM (Floatplane Media), they have need to support it. Hence need to increase payments when site launches to cover costs. Whether its permanent or not, unsure. Linus has confirmed price will be more than $3 but not disclosed sum. 4K will be even more.

 

TLDR; Creating something without outside investors is expensive. They need moar moneys.

[William Payne]

I know everyone has different budgets and differences in what they can and can't afford. But realistically from a big picture perspective $5 a month for anything is cheaper then cheap. $5 per creator may get expensive depending on how many someone was to subscribe to. But I think we have to wait and see. That is if it went to $5 or something. 

 

The current $3 a month is really cheap to the point that I'm surprised they even went that low. 

 

 

[dizmo]

Yeah, kind of a tricky thing to manage really, especially for developing nations. While the $4US per subsription might not seem like much to someone in a developed nation, it can really add up when you're converting it from something like the INR or PHP. Unfortunately since their costs are in a more expensive currency it's hard to really offer lower pricing.

The $2.99 was before they were paying the extra people to manage the site. It was when it was in Beta. Think of it as a preorder bonus.

 

Have you tried getting a prepaid credit card to use with Paypal?

 

47 minutes ago, William Payne said:

I know everyone has different budgets and differences in what they can and can't afford. But realistically from a big picture perspective $5 a month for anything is cheaper then cheap. $5 per creator may get expensive depending on how many someone was to subscribe to. But I think we have to wait and see. 

Yeah, if you watch a lot of creators it'd get expensive. Realistically though there'd be a operating costs per user, and once you'd subscribed to say 4 content creators a month (eg 2 to break even, 2 profit), you could offer packages of more for a much lower price. Provided of course they're not going heavy after the profit aspect of the platform.

1 hour ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

You could just watch WAN. Last show they talk only FP for about 30min from show start. The main reason of having current price point is because they are locked in with PayPal and its transaction fees. Tip jar would take same off those tips. But sure, if you want to give $0.4 to PayPal for every $1 you give to LMG. I'm not against it per say. But I also would like LMG actually getting majority of that money I give. Which is why I haven't bought merch (forum contributors are too expensive imo).

-snip-

Not everyone has the time to spend an hour and a half in front of a PC screen watching the WAN show

To be fair, the take isn't that large from Paypal. You're pretty much right on the number, but it's for the first dollar, not every dollar. After the first it's something like 3.5%. Still not an amount you'd want to pay if you don't have to, but no where near 40%.

6 hours ago, Princess Cadence said:

The subscription is getting more expensive than the 2,99$? y'all know it'd be nice to explain what is going on fully to those who don't watch wan show are aware of what's going on.

 

I'm not interest on these regardless... I wished that the forum contribution, bronze level, was 2,99 or maybe even cheaper, 5 whole dollars is pushy, wishes to support the forum but 5 dollars is a bit much, don't get why not make a tip jar, would be free money coming in as the amount of people with the gold and silver contributions is extremely narrow any ways...

Maybe one they detach the Floatplane subscription from it we'll be able to have more bartering power to rise up and demand lower pricing

[sazrocks]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Not everyone has the time to spend an hour and a half in front of a PC screen watching the WAN show

Neither do I. I just listen to the audio while doing random things by myself or even mowing the lawn.

[SiverJohn17]

9 hours ago, redoxDucks said:

I sincerely hope so... Nevertheless, decided to share my concerns hoping that someone connected with the project will add it to their internal discussions if they haven't already

No, I respect that and worst case scenario it starts a discussion internally if they hadn't thought of it. Not a bad idea to get all bases.

[KhandakeF]

Vessel went down partly because of the fact that $2.99 for everything on that platform couldn't support the infrastructure costs needed to run something like that.