My Dear Patrons,
My two-year anniversary on Patreon is here and changes are afoot. I will tell you all about them. Permit me, though, a little background first.
My original intention here on Patreon was to blog and vlog once, perhaps twice a week, and in doing so build a body of patron-only posts and a patron base. Despite the fact that the Patreon model is based on delivering tiered content and benefits based on the level of patron contribution, I chose to democratize my site by making all posted materials available to all patrons, whether they were contributing at the $2 level or the $100 level.
Thanks to our friendly, neighborhood pandemic, the manner in which I make a living – lecturing, teaching, and performing – has, for the foreseeable future, gone the way of dial-up. Given the nature of my work, applying for unemployment is not an option. Thus – as those of you who have been with me for a while are aware – I am now posting four to six times a week, depending. Patreon has become my primary occupation, in which I’m presently investing roughly 30 hours a week. It is necessary, then, that I take this site to the next level by offering still more content, an additional tier and, at the same time, by making the content available based on the level of patron contribution.
Here, then, are the new benefit tiers effective September 7, 2020.
$2.00: Fans. This tier will offer Music History Monday, Dr. Bob Prescribes (Tuesdays), and Preview of Coming Distractions (every other Wednesday).
(FYI: as of September 7, the blog version of Music History Monday will no longer appear in its entirety on my website; it will only be available here on Patreon.)
$5.00: Buds. All of the above plus Saturday posts, which run the gamut from personal videos to advance access to podcasts and blogs prepared for other organizations; Thursday posts, which presently include WordScores, a variety of blogs (“Composers’ Birth Houses”, for example), and posts built around my own compositions; and the Wednesday posts as the opportunity presents itself.
$10.00: Super Buds. All of the above, plus access to a new feature, which I intend to call “The Dr. is IN.” (This designation is most obnoxious, but I nevertheless am enamored of it. You see, I still haven’t recovered from a comment made by my shrunken, raisin-like Great Aunt Rosie when I received my Ph.D. in 1984. My mother jokingly told her that she couldn’t call me “Bobby” anymore, that she had to call me “Dr. Greenberg.” Rosie’s response: “What kind of Doctah? Can he write a prescription?”)
Anyway, once a month, starting on September 25, we will convene on Zoom for a conversation, q&a, cocktails, thumb wrestling, finger-shadows, whatever; I’ll figure out a fun format and we’ll have a good time with it. I’m figuring to run these things on Fridays at 5pm Pacific time; folks on the east coast will join in at 8pm. As for my beloved Viennese patrons, of which I have no small number, you’re going to have to stay up late (or get up very early)!
Should the Zoom meetings prove to be not particularly popular, and/or the majority of $10 and up patrons show a preference for something else, I will convert this feature to a “Patron Forum” vlog, to be posted on Fridays, in which I will answer two or three particularly interesting questions posed in writing earlier in the week.
$25.00: Principals. All of the above. Additionally, I intend to serialize my course “Mozart in Vienna” which I self-produced in 2016, making it available in both video and audio (podcast) formats, after which I will serialize my book, The Composer is Always Right, which was written in 2007 and 2008. This book, which was commissioned by Oxford University Press but never published for reasons to be discussed (reasons that have nothing to do with its content and everything to do with institutional dishonestly on the part of OUP; I will fill your ears when the time comes!) took me 19 months to write. I still consider it to be among my very best work. These serialized pieces will be posted on Sundays, beginning Sunday, September 13.
$50.00: Family. This is a new tier. It will include all of the above, plus a personally autographed score to be sent every year on my Patreon anniversary, September 1. This year we will begin with Dude ‘Tudes, published by Fallen Leaf Press.
$100: all of the above, plus dinner with me at my casa as often as you like (once this craziness is over) and comp tickets to any and all of my lectures/concerts with San Francisco Performances and the Mondavi Center at the University of California, Davis. Did I mention my undying gratitude for your spectacular generosity? Yes: my undying gratitude for your spectacular generosity.
Of course, I will continue to read and respond to your comments and answer your questions no matter the tier, and when applicable I will turn certain questions and answers into posts of their own.
I would remind you all that my Patreon site remains a work-in-progress; new ideas will come up; old ideas will go by the boards. So stay with me if you can; let’s build this site together. As you should all know, I treasure your feedback, your anecdotes, your opinions and your questions. Keep them all coming.
Love,
B