'When Stuff Is Free, We’re More Likely to Buy'

from the oh-really? dept

Scott Wetterling was the first of a bunch of you to send in one of the many stories about how when 7-Eleven offers free slurpees, their sales of slurpees goes up. They say this is "odd behavior," but I don't buy that all. Free has been a compelling part of getting people to buy stuff for ages, even if that involves buying what is free. We've certainly seen this in other fields as well, such as when Cory Smith took his free MP3s off of his website... and immediately saw his iTunes sales plummet. People berate the use of free because they don't understand how it works. And, then, when it does work, they describe the behavior as "odd." Perhaps it's not odd at all once you realize how it works.

Filed Under: economics, free, purchases

The Dear Hunter: Recognizing The Importance Of Adding Value, Connecting With Fans

from the nicely-done dept

Joe Fleming points us to a clip of an appearance by the successful indie rock band, The Dear Hunter (a project of Casey Crescenzo) on Attack of the Show. It's worth watching the whole thing, but if you skip ahead to around the 7 minute mark, Kevin Pereira asks Casey about the future of the music business, and Crescenzo points out a key point that some of us have been saying for years: the future isn't in selling music, but in adding value, and making things worth buying:

Pereira: You seem to be doing something right. So what is so wrong or broken with the music industry right now?

Crescenzo: I would say the main thing is that no one's ever going to buy music just for the sake of buying music anymore. There's no reason to just buy....

Periera: I was unaware you could still buy music. That's awesome. So do you go to a store? How does this work?

Crescenzo: ... I don't know. Craigslist. No, I think it's a matter of people realizing that you're never going to sell... it's never going to be the thing where you have a ton of bands selling a million records. And, instead of concentrating just on sales or on selling something, you have to make something worthwhile.

What a concept! Make something worthwhile. The interview goes on and they talk about the fact that Crescenzo traveled across the country to get to the interview by car and had emailed a fan list telling them about this and offering to play house concerts (for free) at various stops along the way. Of course, as we've discussed, house concerts are becoming more and more popular. They're a great way for artists, who are comfortable doing them (and, no, we're not saying they're for everyone), to really connect with fans. And while Crescenzo decided not to charge, we've been hearing about more and more artists making pretty good money doing house concerts for reasonable fees.

I know some critics have brushed aside the house concert phenomenon as only making sense for artists, who can't do otherwise (a statement that's clearly untrue for many who have embraced house concerts), here's a case of a very well known, very successful act realizing how useful house concerts can be as well.

Filed Under: casey crescenzo, dear hunter, selling music, value

Kevin Smith Shows The Importance Of Building A Brand As A Part Of CwF+RtB

from the smoderrific dept

For quite some time, we've used Kevin Smith as an interesting example of someone who seems to really grasp the whole CwF+RtB (Connect with Fans + Reason to Buy) concept that we focus on in explaining how to create success models (not just "business" models) these days. And while some may tire of hearing about the same person over and over again, as with Trent Reznor, Smith seems to keep doing more and more interesting experiments that really fit in with the general concept, and from which there's plenty to learn.

From early on Smith has embraced his fans, like very few others out there. He had set up a very active message board well over a decade ago, and has always been incredibly open with his fans. Of course, it's not just about talking to your fans, but doing interesting things with them (and, at the same time, opening up opportunities for those fans to support you in a variety of ways -- not just monetarily). We've talked about how he's branched out way beyond being a "filmmaker" to being an overall entertainer with a bunch of podcasts that presented lots of opportunities to practice CwF+RtB, called the Smodcast Network. A few months ago, he took it even further by starting his own internet radio, called Smodcast Internet Radio -- or SIR.

And, the latest is that he's teamed up with Topspin -- a company we've obviously talked about a lot, though mostly in the music space -- and totally relaunched his site that shows off a variety of CwF+RtB elements. You can see the whole thing at Smodcast.com. There's a premium "subscription" offering that provides additional benefits for true fans, though all the basic content is still available for free. There are ways to get tickets to live shows and other events. There's greater interaction on the website, allowing greater connections both between Smith and the various other folks involved with Smodcast/SIR, as well as between community members themselves. Separately, it also does a nice job showing off the fact that Topspin's platform works for way more than just music.

But I think one of the really key points is brought out in a blog post about this by Bob Moczydlowsky (bobmoz, to most folks) at Topspin about this offering:

But look past the offers and focus on the strategy: This site is more than podcasts and a fan club. Notice the brand name atop it all: SModCo. This is step one of a filmmaker-comedian-podcaster-talk-radio-host getting his house in order for the new day rising. Notice Kevin’s Twitter following. Look at the footer on the site.

I think this is an important point that often gets lost in all of these discussions. We've talked about the importance of actually understanding the deeper strategies rather than just focusing on the superficial cargo cult side of things. People who brush aside Smith's efforts as "it's just a podcast" or "he's just sitting around and talking" are missing the larger picture. They're seeing the surface, but missing the depth. This isn't just a guy talking. There's a larger strategy (one that is improvisational, but coming together nicely) here, and it's built around a brand -- a brand that is 100% focused on connecting with fans while still giving them plenty of reasons to support him. As Smith is fond of saying, this is about being where the puck is going to be, not where it's been. If you're not paying attention (or if you don't think this is a big deal), you're missing something big.

Filed Under: branding, business models, cwf + rtb, kevin smith, podcasts, smodcast
Companies: topspin

Connecting With Fans: Paul Simon Invites Fan On Stage To Play Song After She Yells That She Learned Guitar To It

from the a-nice-way-to-connect dept

Carl J points us to a story from a couple months back, of how singer Paul Simon found a neat way to connect with fans (well, one fan in particular). As you can see in the YouTube video, Simon invited one fan on-stage to play a song. If you listen very closely, at the very beginning of the video, with the crowd cheering, you can hear a female voice yell out: "I learned to play guitar on this song!" Simon hears it, goes over to the mic, and repeats the statement back as a question. When the woman yells yes, he waves her up on stage, and tells her to come on up. He then gives her the guitar, and tells her to play. The look on her face is priceless. She looks like she's going to have a heart attack. But then she goes through with it, and the band joins in, and the crowd loves it. Apparently, this all happened at a show in Toronto.

As we've discussed, one of the key "scarcities" out there that musicians can really use to connect with fans is authenticity. And the thing about this video is that it's such a genuine and authentic moment. Obviously, he connected with that one fan... but he also connected with everyone else in the building, judging from the cheers they gave. Furthermore, the video already has a few hundred thousand views, again allowing Simon to connect with more fans who are impressed by his decision here. It may seem like a simple thing. And, in fact, it is a simple thing. But no one said connecting with fans needed to be complicated at all. You just have to do it. And Paul Simon did in this case.

Filed Under: connecting with fans, paul simon

Imogen Heap: Connecting With Fans By Having Them Help Her Create New Album

from the very-cool dept

Whenever I talk about the whole Connect with Fans + Reason to Buy (CwF+RtB) concept, one person that lots of people kept telling me I had to pay attention to was Imogen Heap. Unfortunately, I didn't attend MIDEM this year, so I missed out on seeing her speak at the event. But I did hear about her announcement of plans to crowdsource her next album, soliciting all sorts of help from her fans (with whom she had already built a deep connection via her music, of course, and her very active use of Twitter). The idea is that every three months, she'll work on a new song, asking for various contributions from her fans, which she would then weave into the final offering.

I hadn't kept up on how that project was going, but Zoe Keating (another musician doing some really fascinating things), directed our attention to a wonderful blog post from Ian Shepherd describing his experience helping Imogen create one of the songs from this new album. He notes that he's a huge, huge fan already, and when she asked fans to contribute images and "5-word moments of clarity" to a special "interactive cloud" on her website, he did so. What he didn't realize was that she was then going to invite some of the people who contributed cool stuff to appear as extras in the video for the song. It came as a complete surprise, but he went, and it sounds like it was a fantastic experience for all involved:

So, the video is shot, now, and being edited as I type; I’ve met and made friends with the other five people whose “moments” were chosen; I’ve chatted to Kelly about production techniques and I’ve heard a sneak preview of heapsong2 in progress. I can say that it sounded as lovely as anything Imogen has written so far to me, and that the 3D audio aspect is going to be extraordinary – and that Nick and Imogen have a mammoth task ahead of them to get the song finished in time for it’s planned release on July 6th, in less than a week’s time.

I can also say that Imogen is exactly as charming, quirky and inspirational as she appears in her songs, interviews and webcasts – and crucially, that her interest in her fans and their impact on her music is absolutely genuine.

Think about it – in reality we five “bubble people” were effectively unpaid extras – but very willingly so. We all took time off work to be part of the video shoot – or college in France, in Izzy’s case. Santina actually booked her flights from the USA and a week’s leave with only two days notice, before she even knew she was finally going to be picked !

Shepard notes that this sort of level of connection seems to come naturally to Imogen. Beyond just Twitter, she clearly embraces opportunities to interact with fans at shows and in other ways as well.

Separately, Shepherd properly points out that this kind of connection can work for people at all levels (something we keep saying, but people keep insisting isn't true). Imogen is definitely a big name, with a big following, but others are doing similar things on a smaller scale and it's working great:

I’m sure some people will be muttering at this point that we can’t all be Imogen Heap – after all, she started out on her one-and-half-million-followers-strong social media adventure with a hit album and several TV synchronisation successes already safely under her belt. That’s a pretty convincing head start, right ?

Well, yes – but I see plenty of much smaller artists successfully making a similar approach work for them every day in my Twitter stream – like Zoe Keating, or Hope & Social, or Matt Stevens, or Steve Lawson, or Kate Havnevik, or Laura Kidd…

You can do this stuff, too. Anyone can do it – all it takes is time, energy, imagination, connection – and a little musical ability, of course. Laura is great evidence of this – as she’s said herself, she didn’t have any fans before her first album – but her second has already been 50% funded by the fans that first album found for her – in advance.

And, while we keep hearing recording industry execs complaining about how the industry is "dying," every day we hear more and more stories of musicians building huge, loyal audiences (who are happy to pay for scarce value) by connecting with their fans.

Filed Under: connecting with fans, ian shepherd, imogen heap

Kevin Smith Continues To Innovate: Offering VOD Before Theatrical Release... But Also Offering Incentives To Go To The Theater

from the and-that's-how-it's-done dept

We've been following, with great interest, entertainer Kevin Smith's business model improvisations for quite some time now, including some of his podcasting and speaking efforts (beyond just being a filmmaker). We've also been interested in his attempt to go around the "traditional" movie marketing and distribution schemes with his latest flick, Red State. While many attacked or panned his plans to tour directly with the movie and then self-release it in theaters, that plan has made the movie profitable, even before the theatrical release. And, in the land of Hollywood accounting, where most movies -- even the most "successful" are never "profitable," that's quite a feat.

The latest in this plan is that Smith has done a deal with Lionsgate for Video-on-Demand and DVD/Blu-ray distribution. From the beginning, he'd made it clear that he wanted to partner on those things, so this isn't a huge surprise. Where it does get interesting is that the VOD plan will hit the market on Labor Day this September. That's noteworthy, because the theatrical release doesn't happen until October, over a month after the VOD release. And... as we've noted, theater owners are so clueless about what it is they really offer the public, that they're absolutely spooked by any kind of non-theatrical release that doesn't happen many months after the theatrical release, insisting that they just can't compete.

So I would imagine that some theater owners who don't bother to actually understand what's going on will freak out about this as well (and potentially refuse to show Red State). However, as per usual, and very much in keeping with Smith's standard way of operating, he's put together a plan that gives people even more value for going to catch the flick in the theaters. Sure, you'll be able to watch the movie at home via VOD, but he's making sure that the theater experience includes a ton of scarce value as well:

Like let’s say Red State is showing at your local multiplex. But then right after the movie ends, a live, interactive Q&A with the filmmaker starts, beamed into the theater via satellite. Even if you’re not there in the room, you’re Tweeting questions from your theater and getting responses from the guy on the big screen. And then, after three hours of movie and interactive Q&A? Boom: LIVE PODCAST! That’s four hours of once-in-a-lifetime entertainment for less than $20: a movie, a show, then another show.

Oh, look at that. Not only is he connecting with fans, but he's giving them a real, scarce reason to buy. He's adding additional value to the theatrical performance so that people have more reasons to go out to that, even if they can access the VOD version at home. And, he seems pretty aware of how clueless the big theater chains are about these things, as he walks them through the basics here, step by step:

Now, before some old dick like ol’ cranky Mr. “GET OFF HOLLYWOOD’S LAWN!” tries to make a beef with me and theatrical exhibitors in their ongoing war with the studios over the shrinking theatrical window and premium VOD’s role in decreasing box office revenue, let me remind REGAL and AMC, CINEPLEX or any other theater chain that I’m not the enemy. Please don’t lump me in with people trying to take money out of your pockets, Exhibitors. This is a (not-so) new way to make money and fill your empty buildings when there isn’t a Transformer to save you. On a fucking Monday night, no less.

Want fresh eyes and asses in your theaters? Try a one-night-only screening of a movie, a Q&A, and a live podcast: all for under $20 a ticket. The positive feedback you’ll receive from your paying customers alone will be worth it, but the concessions loot you’ll rake in that night will make you richer than the pharaohs (my people like to eat snacks). And if I can make this work? That means anybody can make this work. And that means more people coming to your theaters. Jump into digital bed with us: there’s not enough money going around anymore to quibble over restrictions that shouldn’t apply to a specialized film in the first place. I can sell these events out and make you money without spending money to do so – all while giving a normally slow night a massive shot in the arm. If not, no worries: there are lots of Mom & Pop single-screens out there who’ll welcome us warmly as well.

Of course, this is no different than what many of us have been saying for years, but Smith can back it up with paying customers, so maybe (just maybe?) one of those theater owners will take notice.

Filed Under: business model, funding, investment, kevin smith, profitability, red state, vod
Companies: lionsgate

Jeff Bezos On Innovation: Stubborn On Vision; Flexible On Details

from the nicely-done dept

For years, I've been fascinated by Jeff Bezos' ability to make big risky decisions for Amazon and stand up to intense investor pressure to go in a different direction. While everything may seem rosy at Amazon these days, for years, it was amazing to see just how much investor animosity there was towards some of Bezos' moves. For years -- quite by design -- the company focused on growth and expansion over profitability, earning complaints from investors. Then Amazon focused on expanding its free shipping program, which drew the ire of investors who thought it was costing the company too much. But Amazon stuck with these efforts and became the dominant player in the field. More recently, it's done things that left some investors scratching their heads, such as the whole Amazon Web Services effort, and even the early Kindle effort -- and yet both have proven to be quite successful.

Geekwire notes that at the latest Amazon shareholder meeting, Bezos got almost the exact opposite question from those he used to get concerning these sorts of things, from Evan Jacobs, questioning if Amazon wasn't taking enough risks. Bezos' answer is fantastic for anyone who thinks about innovation these days, and wants to make big bets, rather than go for the quick flip:

In a way, that is like the nicest compliment I’ve ever gotten. First of all, I think we have gotten pretty lucky recently. You should anticipate a certain amount of failure. Our two big initiatives, AWS and Kindle — two big, clean-sheet initiatives — have worked out very well. Ninety-plus percent of the innovation at Amazon is incremental and critical and much less risky. We know how to open new product categories. We know how to open new geographies. That doesn’t mean that these things are guaranteed to work, but we have a lot of expertise and a lot of knowledge. We know how to open new fulfillment centers, whether to open one, where to locate it, how big to make it. All of these things based on our operating history are things that we can analyze quantitatively rather than to have to make intuitive judgments.

When you look at something like, go back in time when we started working on Kindle almost seven years ago…. There you just have to place a bet. If you place enough of those bets, and if you place them early enough, none of them are ever betting the company. By the time you are betting the company, it means you haven’t invented for too long.

If you invent frequently and are willing to fail, then you never get to that point where you really need to bet the whole company. AWS also started about six or seven years ago. We are planting more seeds right now, and it is too early to talk about them, but we are going to continue to plant seeds. And I can guarantee you that everything we do will not work. And, I am never concerned about that…. We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details…. We don’t give up on things easily. Our third-party seller business is an example of that. It took us three tries to get the third-party seller business to work. We didn’t give up.

But. if you get to a point where you look at it and you say look, we are continuing invest a lot of money in this, and it’s not working and we have a bunch of other good businesses, and this is a hypothetical scenario, and we are going to give up on this. On the day you decide to give up on it, what happens? Your operating margins go up because you stopped investing in something that wasn’t working. Is that really such a bad day?

So, my mind never lets me get in a place where I think we can’t afford to take these bets, because the bad case never seems that bad to me. And, I think to have that point of view, requires a corporate culture that does a few things. I don’t think every company can do that, can take that point of view. A big piece of the story we tell ourselves about who we are, is that we are willing to invent. We are willing to think long-term. We start with the customer and work backwards. And, very importantly, we are willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time.

I believe if you don’t have that set of things in your corporate culture, then you can’t do large-scale invention. You can do incremental invention, which is critically important for any company. But it is very difficult — if you are not willing to be misunderstood. People will misunderstand you.

Any time you do something big, that’s disruptive — Kindle, AWS — there will be critics. And there will be at least two kinds of critics. There will be well-meaning critics who genuinely misunderstand what you are doing or genuinely have a different opinion. And there will be the self-interested critics that have a vested interest in not liking what you are doing and they will have reason to misunderstand. And you have to be willing to ignore both types of critics. You listen to them, because you want to see, always testing, is it possible they are right?

But if you hold back and you say, ‘No, we believe in this vision,’ then you just stay heads down, stay focused and you build out your vision.

That idea of willing to be misunderstood for a long time really has been the key to Amazon's success, and Bezos' ability to stand up to investors who regularly called for changes in strategy and to focus on the long-term has really paid off. In this age when "pivot" has become a buzzword in the startup community (there's even a whole conference on the subject), where companies completely shift strategies on whims, perhaps there's something to be said for seeing the long term game plan better than others, and sticking to it. Obviously, this doesn't mean being totally pigheaded if an idea isn't working, but Bezos' point is to be flexible on the details, but stay true to the ultimate vision you believe in. That's really, really tough for a lot of entrepreneurs to do, but it's a really important lesson to learn.

Filed Under: details, innovation, jeff bezos, risks, vision
Companies: amazon

Band Lets Fans Create Customized Album... And Help Sell It (Allowing The Fans To Make Money Too)

from the neat-ideas dept

We're always interested in unique ideas by artists and content creators to both connect with fans and give those fans a reason to buy, and Lefsetz has the latest on how the Kaiser Chiefs, a quite successful UK-based band, is releasing its latest album. You can read the details, from the band's lead singer, at Lefsetz' site, but there are two key things that the band is doing with this digital (and it's only digital) release:

• Let fans create a "custom" album with custom artwork. The band is effectively releasing 20 songs, and users get to pick which 10 they want, and put them in any order they want -- and then they get a custom piece of album artwork, based on the choices. The website is fun to play around with as well.
• Then, once you've bought the album, you also get a "fan page" for the unique album that you created, and if you drive others to that page and they buy the copy of the album that you created, you get £1 (the full album costs £7.50).

There are some other little features as well, but those are the two big ones. It's definitely an interesting idea, and I'll be curious to see how it goes. I have mixed feelings on the 10 tracks out of 20 idea. In an era where fans are often much more interested in a few tracks, I could see that making sense, but for super fans, who want to be completists, now it feels like they have to buy 2 albums. Maybe that's okay for the super fans, but I could see some getting annoyed.

As for the money idea, it's definitely a cool idea to test out, but it'll be interesting to see if they provide any data down the road on how well it goes. It reminds me a bit of the similar pyramid scheme that some were discussing a few months back as a way of fighting off infringement. I do wonder, honestly, how much use this really gets. First of all, fans are fans because they like the music, and it almost seems to shift the relationship a bit if you tell them they can earn money promoting you. Still, I'm sure some will, and hopefully they'll make plenty of money in their role as a fan curator.

I know that I mentioned a few things about this experiment that sounds negative, but on the whole I'm all for experimentation and seeing what works and doesn't work. Emotionally, I like both parts of the plan as it seems like a fun experiment. I really do hope it does well, and hopefully the band agrees to share some of the results.

Filed Under: connect with fans, customization, experiments, kaiser chiefs

Lady Gaga Says $0.99 Albums Make Sense, Especially For Digital

from the understanding-how-this-works dept

You may have heard that Amazon did a deal recently with Lady Gaga, in which it offered up her entire new album for $0.99. While Amazon did have some technical difficulties in making this work, it resulted in some mindless criticism, in places, that Gaga was "devaluing" her own work. We hear this argument all the time, when it comes to free music, as well -- where people suggest that giving away music "devalues" the music. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference between price and value. Just because something is cheap, it doesn't mean that the value is diminished.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, where Lady Gaga is asked directly about this issue, she almost seems offended, and notes that, especially when it comes to digital, pricing an album at $0.99 is perfectly reasonable, since it helps spread the music. After being asked if she thought her album was "worth" more than $0.99, she emphatically replied:

"No. I absolutely do not, especially for MP3s and digital music. It’s invisible. it’s in space. If anything, I applaud a company like Amazon for equating the value of digital versus the physical copy, and giving the opportunity to everyone to buy music."

This isn't too surprising, given Gaga's previously stated views on her use of free to get her music out there, as well as her encouragement of people to download unauthorized copies. However, it's nice to see her make this point again.

Now, to be fair, she also notes that Amazon covered "the difference" with these albums as part of a promotion -- meaning that she (well, her label) got more than $0.99, but that's a separate issue than the whole question of the "perception" from giving away the music at such a low price.

Later in the interview, she makes another point that we've been making for a while, which is that record labels certainly make sense for some people, but the exciting thing today is that you don't "need" the label any more. She points out that she certainly needs her label, which is great, but that many artists don't need to go that route, saying, "not everybody needs a record label" any more. She also points out that the really valuable thing she's done is build a really strong connection with her fans, and it's that kind of authentic connection that makes her audience so valuable. These are all points that plenty of us have been making for years, and it's great to see such a prominent musician making the same points.

Filed Under: business models, economics, free, lady gaga, music

Guy Asks For Software Crack, Creator Provides Free App Instead

from the how-to-react-to-piracy dept

I'm a big fan of two things: vulgarity and people who treat others well.  If you share similar passions, then this story is for you.  While it's understandable for content creators to react negatively to those that "pirate" their work, Techdirt has highlighted instance after instance showing those that have chosen to react in a way that is more beneficial to everyone.  It's kind of sad that, when people behaving kindly to one another (even after someone has tried to infringe on their copyright), it becomes something we have to point to, but consider the reaction of Chris Baker, creator of the F***ing Word Of The Day iPhone application, as shown on the The Next Web blog.

Basically, the story boils down to this.  A person on the Xsellize iPhone app message board put out a thread request for someone to crack Chris' app, without further explanation.  Chris showed up immediately and responded to the poster:

Hello! I'm the creator of the ******* Word of the Day website and more particularly the F-ing Word of the Day App. First of all, this is a huge compliment! As a person who pirates content, I've always placed the moment people are pirating MY goods as the exact time of my arrival, as it were. So congratu-*******-lations to me. With that said, I'd like to just offer that while I'm employed with a decent salary in the city of New York, I am by no means rich...I write all the sentences myself and find the words to use myself and I do this in my own personal time and essentially for free. Sure, I learn a few words too, but I was already a pretty well-read guy, and could have done without the site.

What's my point in all this? Go ahead and pirate the app. It cost me 1500 bucks to have programmed. It's not even a month's rent for me. But if you think the site is cool, and you want to pay for one eighth of a Stella Artois for me, hook me up with 99 cents. The rapture will be here soon, I could use the drink.

It's just... perfect.  Communicate with the potential customer, let them know you'd appreciate their actual patronage, mention that pirating isn't a big deal but it'd be cool to purchase in an agreeable way, and wrap it up with a joke.  About the only thing off here is a willingness to drink Stella Artois, a name which translates to english as "sewer water". 

And the reaction from the original poster?  He thanked Chris for responding and then clarified why he was looking for a crack.  It turns out that he has no credit cards or banking cards with which he could make the purchase from the app store.  But he said he was so enamored with Chris' response that he rescinded his request for the crack and promised to figure out how to purchase the app, even if his situation meant it would cost him a few extra bucks to do so.  But Chris wasn't done:

Sir, you've warmed the cockles of my heart. I believe Apple allows you to gift apps to people, and I'm feeling charitable so if you want to email me your address or whatever in the hell they require to complete such a transaction, I will buy the app for you. I only ask that you give the ******* thing a good rating.  I hope this comment thread goes down as one of the more unexpected things that happens to you online. I like the unexpected. And I like making people happy, even when something stupid like learning vocabulary is involved.

Sigh, bliss!  And take a look at some of the reaction further down in the thread.  It looks like Chris' acting like a human being has garnered him a few more fans and paying customers:

-This thread makes me want to buy the app just to honor such an awesome attitude. If only more developers would have this positive and constructive humbleness towards the consumer, things would go better.

-Chris, I just bought your app for the support!

-I am not a fan of vulgarity, and I would not normally buy or use your app, clever as it is. But your mission is admirable and your heart is gold and I just bought a copy of your app simply to reward you. I'll now delete it, because my kids use my phone and wow, but you know, you're awesome.

-Chris, as a result of this thread I want to offer my body to you.  You make me feel like more of a woman than I have ever felt before.  I have toys and dirty videos.  Please contact me.

Okay, okay, I made that last one up.  But the point is, if you treat people like they're people and not the $.99 they might otherwise represent, you will reap the benefits.  Bravo, Chris.

Filed Under: chris baker, connecting with fans, cracks