Beginning Responsibility: Taking Care of Things

[JohnDoranNY]

So is Beginning Responsibility: Taking Care of Things going to be made available to all users after January 15th or its only available to Friends Subscribers?  If the latter, I must admit to being kind of highly offended.  I have spent thousands to support RiffTrax Kickstarters  (as well as MST3K's Kickstarters) without question. I buy nearly every new RiffTrax as they come out.  I've been, IMHO a very loyal supporter.  Its a bit offensive to be basically told I don't spend enough to support you guys and need to now subscribe to 'Friends' also, or I will no longer have access to some RiffTrax content.  I think you may be doing an injustice to some of your most loyal supporters (as I am sure I am not the only one) and you run the risk of losing our support in the future.

[eegah]

I read this as Friends subscribers get early free access to this short, but everyone else will be able to buy it on January 15. As someone who buys everything they put out and helps fund every kickstarter, I'm ok with this. It's a bit annoying, but at least I don't have to double-pay for anything, like when they put exclusive shorts on dvds full of shorts that I had already paid for.

[torgosPizza]

So is Beginning Responsibility: Taking Care of Things going to be made available to all users after January 15th or its only available to Friends Subscribers?  If the latter, I must admit to being kind of highly offended.  I have spent thousands to support RiffTrax Kickstarters  (as well as MST3K's Kickstarters) without question. I buy nearly every new RiffTrax as they come out.  I've been, IMHO a very loyal supporter.  Its a bit offensive to be basically told I don't spend enough to support you guys and need to now subscribe to 'Friends' also, or I will no longer have access to some RiffTrax content.  I think you may be doing an injustice to some of your most loyal supporters (as I am sure I am not the only one) and you run the risk of losing our support in the future.

As Eegah stated above, this isn't something that will be only available to Friends subscribers forever. As of January 15th it'll be available to purchase. (If we do this again, the "exclusivity period" may be shorter - like, one week instead of one month. This is simply an experiment.)

And this should not be taken as a slight against our long-time, loyal customers like you. It's true that without your support, we wouldn't still be here.

However, the streaming landscape has changed from where it was even just a few years ago. Our Friends subscribers tell us that there isn't enough "new" content up there, but we also can't exactly give away the newest content for such a low price; so, we had to find a way to offer something different and unique to differentiate the Friends service from what you might get elsewhere - since we're on Tubi, Pluto, Amazon Prime, Twitch, etc. It's a way of enticing subscribers, and we deliberately chose a 10-minute, $0.99 short for this reason. We felt that it was a small way for us to give Friends something as another "benefit" of being a subscriber.

Long-time supporters of ours have always been at the top of our minds, which is why we go through great lengths every time we work on a new streaming app to make sure there is a "Library" feature there, so you can easily access all the content you've purchased. Did you know that every app development company we work with is always surprised that we have 15 years of content (and customers) whose access we require be included in the app? They always want to gear these apps JUST for subscription-based content, but we do our best to make sure that our long-time supporters are built into the equation as well, since the Library is such a vital component to what we do.

Since you like to buy everything - that's great, and we highly appreciate it! - Friends may not be for you. But the reality these days, is that a large portion of our customers are "casual" viewers and simply won't - or can't - afford to buy everything the moment that it's released.

We truly owe you a debt of gratitude for your support, but that support doesn't exclude others from also being deserving of benefits, especially since the world is all about subscription streaming services now. I understand how this might feel like we've slighted you somehow, but I assure you, that was not our intention.

[JohnDoranNY]

Thank you for your response. Yes, streaming services are the current big wave.  Everyone wants subscription services, so they have a guaranteed income every month.  I don't blame RiffTrax for wanting to dip a toe into these waters. I wish them luck with it. I simply hope that RiffTrax won't become a subscription service only.  I can't see you having Kickstarter events/live events as you do now for a subscription only service. Perhaps I am wrong?  Then again, MST3K seems to have gone that way... they had a Kickstarter for the next new season. Those of us who pledged enough money received rewards like our names in credits (which I always seem to do that level or higher).  We also get digital copies of the new shows, and subscription to their cineplex type app that others will have to pay a subscription I am guessing to access (those not Kickstarter backers), making it a hybrid of Kickstarters' and Subscribers to keep the series alive.  The Mads are Back has gone in another direction with a livestream each month selling tickets for $12 per seat and allowing download of the live stream the day after.  I like having all the shows on my local network (MST3K original and new, Film Crew, Cinematic Titanic, RiffTrax and The Mads are Back), so I purchase everything.  I especially like this for holidays, like Xmas, I create a playlist of all the Christmas themed 'riffs' and just let it run (just minutes short of two full days of Riffs!).

I can only hope that people like me, who have been loyal fans since 1989 and the first real season of MST3K, and every endeavor since then, will still have access to all the magnificent content... regardless of subscribing monthly or purchasing episodes directly upon release.