Did Pearl Jam Enlist Fan Club To DMCA Fan Videos? Probably Not...

from the but,-still-is-odd dept

Kaden sent over this article from an OCWeekly reporter who had a short video he had shot of Pearl Jam performing live taken down from YouTube. What struck the reporter as most interesting was that the DMCA notice came from Ten Club, which is Pearl Jam's fan club. Oddly, we've even used Pearl Jam's Ten Club as a great example of how a band can give fans a reason to buy. In fact, Pearl Jam has actually been really good on issues like copyright. The band embraced the internet early on, has always worked hard at connecting with fans, used the Ten Club to give people extra reasons to buy, shunned DRM, and recognized early on that giving away free music can actually help a band make more money.

So, I'm a bit confused about this strategy of DMCAing short fan videos. However, despite the claims in the article and Ten Club's refusal to respond to the reporter's questions, I doubt that (as the article implies) that it's really "the fan club" itself that's issuing the DMCA notices. Instead, it looks like the corporation that's set up for Pearl Jam is called Pearl Jam Ten Club LLC and that covers both the band's business and the fan club. You can see the full name on various DMCA takedown notices at Chilling Effects. So while it's still a bit surprising that the band would run around chasing fan videos, rather than embracing them, at least it doesn't appear to have reached the point of deputizing fans to file takedowns for the band...

Filed Under: copyright, dmca, fan club, pearl jam, takedowns, youtube
Companies: pearl jam ten club

Roger Ebert Gives People A Reason To Buy

from the after-connecting-with-fans-for-so-long dept

Last month, we wrote about Esquire's incredibly moving profile of Roger Ebert as part of our discussion of a segment of that article concerning Disney taking down the video of the tribute show for Gene Siskel that Ebert did right after his longtime sparring partner passed away. If you liked the Esquire piece, you should also check out Will Leitch's touching personal story about Roger Ebert, which shows how incredibly nice Ebert had been to Leitch very early on in Leitch's career (and how Leitch screwed it up in a regretfully rebellious moment).

What comes through in both pieces is how utterly nice and decent Ebert seems to be. After the Leitch piece ran, Ebert tweeted to Leitch that "all is forgiven." For decades, tons of people have connected with Ebert through his old television show, and through his movie reviews, blogs and columns. More recently, he's been connecting in a big way via Twitter as well.

And now he's trying something different. He's giving his fans a reason to buy. While we often talk about the whole CwF+RtB business model in the context of replacing traditional models -- such as for music, books and movies, it can clearly work in other areas as well. Our own curiosity led us to try setting up our own CwF+RtB offering -- which was a fantastic success (and, yes, we know we need to replenish and offer more -- hold on, it's coming).

So we're always glad to see others jumping on the bandwagon and trying similar ideas as well. In Ebert's case, it's The Ebert Club, which is a yearly subscription that grants you additional access and benefits for a mere $5. A lot of what you get is available for free, but there are some good scarcities in there -- including private discussion threads and early access to special Ebertfest events including a special meet-and-greet with Ebert himself.

It sounds like they're looking to do more as well, so it will be interesting to see what comes of it. There aren't any tiers -- it's one price fits all -- though I could see room for a tiered offering down the road as well with additional benefits (private film screenings with just club members?). But what it's really showing is that this whole concept of connecting with fans and giving them a real (scarce) reason to buy goes beyond what you might expect -- and opens up all sorts of new possibilities elsewhere as well. And, considering that Leitch's "falling out" with Ebert was over Ebert being the king of "old media," this sort of venture seems very, very new media.

Filed Under: cwf+rtb, fan club, roger ebert, scarcities, subscription