Paying for downloads vs subscribing and release schedules

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#1

I’m trying to work out if it’s more cost effective for to resubscribe to Masters In Mechanics or just want until I see interviews that I want to see and buy them and download them.

It seems there is one new interview released every month - which is great!

The problem is that when you sign up for a 6 month membership, with one month free, and there are interviews with some players you aren’t interested in, you have IMO essentially wasted a month of your subscription because there is no new material available that you want to see.

This is why I think it would be nice to have some sort of an upcoming release schedule so maybe someone in the same position as myself could work out if it’s worth subscribing for the 7 months or just paying for what you want to see.

For example - if you put up a release schedule for the next 6 months and there are 3 interviews with acoustic players, that’s something I personally would not be interested in, thus I wouldn’t have got any access to new material of interest to me for 3 months. In my case I would have been better off paying just a few extra £s and downloading the interviews I want.

On the other hand, if there was 5 interviews coming up I want to see then I would be sure to resubscribe.

I know it’s impossible to keep to a schedule, but surely there must be some kind of a time frame for these releases.

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#2

I don’t think it would be fair to expect Troy and the team to announce all interviews that they are planning over the next 6 to 12 months, as they can’t guarantee that they would be made. It would kinda be false advertising if someone like yourself signed up for 6 months expecting 4 releases of you players of interest for them to pull out or something. My instinct is that those interviewed give up their time to be part of it and that they may not be arranged that far ahead of time, they are unlikely to be under any form of formal/contractual arrangement. Thats my 2 cents anyway - I could be totally wrong!

Also, I wouldn’t be too quick to avoid players that you would usually be interested in. Personally, the acoustic interviews so far have been a real eye-opener technique-wise and I’m a rock/metal guy!

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#3

I get what you’re saying, I’m just throwing my thoughts out there to see if there was anyone in the same boat.

I mean interviews that have happened and that they are working on and editing.

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#4

I hear ya, I feel that the subscription is good value, especially now with all the material accessible in one place (when I started subscribing it was all through Gumroad).

I’m also surprised how many times I rewatch all the different interviews.

Maybe think about what your goals are - Where is you technique currently? Is there enough material already produced in CTC that will move you toward your goal? Considering how much has already been covered, what are you looking for in the interviews?

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#5

Don’t forget, they will have a business model designed to keep people interested and deliver consistently. They might put people off if the forthcoming interviews and quite to their tastes.

#6

I’m just working on getting my picking smoother and faster. I pretty much know where I’m coming from picking wise.

Any interviews I want to see in the future will be out of curiosity to see how those players use their technique and to see Troy’s analysis on it.

#7

Hey, good question, I’ll share a few thoughts on this. I suspect this is something people will have varying opinions on, all valid, so keep in mind this is just my perspective!

We don’t have a strict release schedule, and we’re pretty much always working on several things at once. We try to give updates every so often in a general sense of “here’s what we’re working on”, but we don’t / can’t always know exactly the order in which we’ll have new stuff out, or when. We just go as fast as we reasonably can :slight_smile:

I think we’ve mentioned all these in various places but as a quick summary, things currently in the pipeline include: new Andy Wood material (finishing up now), Oz Noy, Mika Tyyskä, Science of Speed, Pickslanting Primer updates, Frank Gambale, and Brendon Small.

Back when we started Masters in Mechanics as a subscription, we aimed to get one new major thing out roughly every month or so. One of our goals with the new platform is to get away from that a bit and have more flexibility with putting out a mix of things — bigger releases like new interviews, smaller things e.g. short tutorial videos, live broadcasts, and so on.

Personally when it comes to subscriptions (ours or others) I think less in terms of assigning specific value to specific new material, and more in terms of whether it feels like there’s enough good stuff overall. For example if I subscribe to Netflix or HBO my reasoning boils down to “they have a bunch of good shows, and seem to be add new ones pretty regularly, and some good movies too…seems worth keeping active.” Some months I watch more than others, but it averages out to something reasonable.

I do also think there’s value in Cracking the Code apart from just the new videos — we hope the community here on the forum is something people get a lot out of, for example. That’s something we’ve chosen to make available to everyone, but I think it adds to the overall value of Cracking the Code membership.

Totally fine with us if people cancel / resubscribe whenever. If budget’s tight that may be the best way to go, particularly if you’ve already watched through our whole library of existing stuff. I know some people prefer owning downloads (regardless of how it works out with total cost vs. subscribing) and that’s cool too! I know there’s no one right answer here.

Thanks for the thoughts on this! Always open to suggestions for how we can improve in communicating what we’re working on, and making sure subscribers feel like we’re delivering plenty of good stuff.

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#8

Ive been thinking about this as well. To be honest I don’t see myself continuing paying the subscription for too long. That will definitely depend on how much the new material speaks to me iver the next couple months. That being said, I have zero regrets with it so far and I like the idea of supporting Troy and team for as long as I can in appreciation for the amazing work so far.

I think if there were some more resources I would probably stick with the subscription. I realize CTC is fairly new though and so my expectations are limited.

Maybe a wish list would be helpful? I’m sure CTC wants to keep their subscribers as long as possible so it might be worthwhile to start some feedback queries?

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#9

Thanks Brendan for the info. For a few months after Christmas the budget is always tight :rofl::rofl:

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#10

Thanks!

Anything particular you have in mind / things it feels like we’re missing? Or just generally like to see more stuff more often? Good idea to collect some more structured feedback here, too :slight_smile:

#11

I’m not sure if this has already been posted here on the forum and if so maybe somebody could provide a link.
I have watched the 12 part you tube series of CtC. And I’ve seen a bunch of the interviews etc. now that I’ve joined the forum I see that many people have subscribed to the service.

What exactly is a subscriber getting that isn’t on YouTube?
Even though I’ve watched the YT CTC series and I basically understand the concepts, I still feel like I’m not sure where to start with practicing the concepts Troy has covered…is there a specific step by step program that is part of a paid membership?
Thanks…I may have some follow up depending on the responses!!! Lolk

#12

Subscribers get access to the interviews, although you can pay to download whatever interviews you, Pickslanting Primer and Cracking the Code Channels with has stuff like Talking the Code on there.

There is a load of stuff on the site and I would recommend it if you haven’t subscribed before.

There is no step by step program. I guess the easiest thing would be to post a video on here and wait for someone to chime in with an analysis of your technique and then you could watch whatever videos or episodes were most relevant to the difficulties you are having.

#13

I’m pretty sure I’m not the regular member in that case, I rarely find time to practice and actually spend most time in analysis and engineering, which is surprisingly great fun :slight_smile:
So I’m kindof happy with all free stuff we get.
On the other hand, it leaves a bad taste to get that profit without paying anything - I know they put a lot of effort in.
So actually I’m thinking about buying a TShirt, maybe i’ll subscribe for a month in summer holidays when there’s time to watch a att that stuff.
Best fitting to me woudl be the abilty to buy strings or picks with some benefit for CtC, I would do that and feel good.
So, @Brendan just a suggestion if you could do corporations with stores, that you benefit when they sell with CtC as referer, that’d be great!

#14

I would recommend giving it a go for a month to see how you like it. You can binge watch the material and see how you get on with it.

BTW, I’m not complaining @Brendan - just as my membership ended I’ve had these thoughts on my mind so I wanted to get them off my chest and out in to the open to see what everyone else thought. I will continue to support the team.

#15

Short answer: 25+ complete interviews, Pickslanting Primer, three seminars. Total of dozens of hours of video and over 1,000 musical examples with interactive Soundslice notation. Occasional members-only livestreams. We tried to give a good summary here: Join Cracking the Code! – Cracking the Code (Let us know if anything is unclear, happy to answer any further questions!)

Not something we’ve looked into much but cool idea! Though with a small team / limited time for us I think it’s easier to just sell our stuff directly.

Thanks @aliendough and no worries I didn’t read it as a complaint! Appreciate these questions, helps us learn how we can improve what we do and how we present it…plus I like talking about this stuff :slight_smile:

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#16

Well I’m probably not the typical player but right now there’s several resources that I’m looking for to help me practice more effectively. This is not necessarily a wish list for CTC, I’m just listing things that I am specifically looking for.

  1. I’m looking for a decent backing track creator similar to ireal or band in a box that is geared more towards rock blues and metal
  2. I’m looking for a good source for cliche riffs in blues and jazz styles. Yes there’s a ton of stuff on YouTube but it takes a lot of time to actually weed through the crap. Why Cliche? I believe cliche riffs are a good way to start a conversation, then you can build on that vocabulary with more advanced stuff. I have been analyzing my own playing and realize I need a bigger basic vocabulary.

Like I said, I’m not expecting you guys to do any of this stuff but that’s what I will be focusing on in the near future

Okay here’s an actual idea, what about a quick ten minute or so private Skype lesson once a month for subscribers? I see many people expressing that they don’t know where to start, it would be cool to be able to get an assessment of your playing and point in the right direction

#17

just two days ago I had to cancel my membership but not because of content but because I’m poor af haha I’ll definitely resubscribe asap, In my case I prefer the membership, but I agree with ‘‘the future content idea’’ and as was mentioned I also agree that an specific released date might not work. My suggestion (which is almost identical as some comments haha) is that if by any chance a chart, that shows the material that is being edited (interviews,etc), was developed, one cool characteristic might be to add how the progress is going, and if it’s soon to be finished and released (not showing the specific time though), by doing this a relief on new content might keep some of us interested on a membership or set some money apart for a interview purchase.

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#18

Ok, I’ve had a chance to browse the website. Let’s say I’d like to try a one month membership to get my feet wet. Does the subscription self-renew or do just go back and buy another month when I’m ready?

#19

Good suggestion! Probably not manageable for us to do like one-on-one lessons but I do think there’s a lot more we can do with live video e.g. Q&A help sessions for members, and agree doing this kind of thing more regularly would be great. We have a bunch of ideas for this, just have to find the time.

Cool, will think about the best way we might do something like this. Could be like a monthly “status update” post, or maybe a section on the site we update periodically…

It will renew automatically but it’s easy to cancel at any time. If you want to make sure it doesn’t auto-renew you can just cancel immediately after signing up, it will be marked as “pending cancel” and remain active til the month is up. And then you can always resubscribe anytime after if you so choose :slight_smile:

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#20

Here’s my story about this subject. Maybe it will be useful to you.

I found CTC on Youtube 6 months ago or so. I watched all of the videos and started applying the concepts and got immediate results. My picking speed and fluidity increased tremendously almost immediately and I continued to make gains. (I was a stringhopper, previously, and converted to rotational DWPS after watching the Youtube videos.) I felt like I made a breakthrough, but I also felt that I would likely continue to improve as I continued to practice, which really hadn’t happened in the previous 30 years. (For perspective, I am a former professional guitarist who could never figure out how the big shots played so fast.) Not to mention I was just having so much fun. I felt like a real guitarist again.

I was so impressed and grateful, that I was strongly considering sending @Troy a Benjamin in the mail. I figured I had already learned the secrets for free that I would happily have paid through the nose for, and I owed something to the guy who had more or less instantaneously unlocked the door to picking paradise.

Instead of anonymously sending Troy $100, I decided to buy the Seminar Bundle, figuring I’d get some licks and exercises out of it. I thought it was a bargain even if I didn’t learn any new secrets because I had already improved so much. I also started lurking here, reading the stories of other players, so eerily similar to mine.

Then Troy posted a two minute video with no talking, a visual demonstration of crosspicking. I tried it, and Holy Mother of God! It was a whole other level. No more swiping. No more worrying about how many notes per string I’m playing. Suddenly I’m not just faster, but free of the limitations of DWPS. My playing improved tremendously, all of a sudden, again. That’s two amazing breakthroughs for me in half a year.

I mean, I was just trying to pay off my debt for my DWPS breakthrough, and Troy and the crew delivered a crosspicking breakthrough to my doorstep out of the blue.

So now I owe Troy another hundred bucks.

Anyway, my suggestion is to stop now, before you get the overwhelming urge to send Troy all of your money.

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