Cancel Auto-renew or membership completely?

Bu$chlager

PJNB said:

BUSH-lager said:

I think many have been questioning the benefits since they dropped seniority seating.  If you've been a long standing member, the pros of being a member have been declining for years and this is the latest blow.  I switched to Digital for 2018 and will renew again this month for Digital again, but with very half-hearted enthusiasm,

I remember for years setting myself reminders, marking my calendar and legitimately stressing over the fear of my membership possibly lapsing.  No longer the case.

There still is seniority seating though unless you mean the reserved floor seating to GA switch. 

I was referring to access to tickets.  I know if I am lucky enough to get 10C reserved that I am seated by seniority, but based on where I live (NY) it's been very difficult to get those seats.  I understand why they changed it and I've come to terms with it, but I miss the old days where I wasn't always getting shut out.

Anyway, that was just my personal example of when the 10C decline began for me.  My point was that combined with reduced touring, the poorly run 45 RPM program and now it's demise are all just part of a downward trend.  I don't feel like it's been particularly beneficial to be a member as it was in years past.

For the past 10 years or so, if you didn't win a ticket lottery, other than the vinyl single, what did you really get for being in the analog club?  Some magazines.  Digital bootleg codes.  Luggage tags.  Patches.  T-Shirts.  Opportunities to buy merchandise.

These aren't nothing, just for me pales in comparison to when I first joined.  They toured far more often and the 10C secured more tickets and I looked forward to the 45.  So now I'm left with the list above and the lottery game.  It's a bummer.

Natashapearljamfan

brewdog123 said:

my membership renews on January 7.....no idea what im going to do

Me too!

brewdog123

Natashapearljamfan said:

brewdog123 said:

my membership renews on January 7.....no idea what im going to do

Me too!

hell yeah
so....what are you going to do?

Natashapearljamfan

I don't know, I was hoping I would hear something before renewal time. 
We still have a few days, hopefully we hear what's going on before we have to pay. 

HesCalledDyer

My renewal is the 17th.  Changed to digital last year, sticking with it this year.  For an additional $15 I'll buy a bootleg and come out one lazy, crap design t-shirt less (that doesn't even say Pearl Jam on it) and $5 ahead for the year.

Zod

Thirty Bills Unpaid said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

Zod said:

Unless they announce something new and interesting to put in the analog package, I'll be downgrading to digital.  Luckily mine renews in October so I'll have plenty of time to see how it all turns out.

I've always had to travel to see PJ.  3.5 hours to Vancouver or 5ish to Seattle.  Luckily between the two there's something in the area every couple of years.   I'll keep my 10c membership for the tickets, but the analog perks w/o fan club single don't really interest me.

I don't think you should complain about having to travel 5 hours for a show... 90% of all acts visiting Sweden go to Stockholm, which takes 5-6 hours to drive I guess and 3.5hours by train. 

When someone comes to Gothenburg though, 10 minute tram ride.

I don't think he was complaining. I think he was just describing his personal circumstances.

Thanks for defending me   I totally wasn't complaining.  I've spent most of my life living on this Island and completely used to travelling for bigger concerts.  If anything I feel pretty lucky having 2 places within 5 hours that PJ plays at with regularity.   Best places are probably the Pacific northwest and northern midwest/eastern USA to be a PJ fan.  As long as your willing to travel a little

drummerboy_73

BUSH-lager said:

I think many have been questioning the benefits since they dropped seniority seating.  If you've been a long standing member, the pros of being a member have been declining for years and this is the latest blow.  I switched to Digital for 2018 and will renew again this month for Digital again, but with very half-hearted enthusiasm,

I remember for years setting myself reminders, marking my calendar and legitimately stressing over the fear of my membership possibly lapsing.  No longer the case.

Exactly. My auto-renew is due in May, but I've turned it off, and after being a member since '95, am ready to let it go. Last show I was able to go to was L.A. in 2013, which was my kids' first PJ concert, and unfortunately, probably my last. I got GA tickets through 10C, but before that, the last time that membership had really done anything for me was 8th row tickets to the 10th Anniversary show here in Las Vegas in 2000. Reserved seats from then on, got progressively worse - fan club seniority didn't really mean much once they opened up tickets to as many shows as you wanted, and then granting tickets via lottery, rather than fan club tickets to one show per tour. Didn't make sense to me, especially with less shows and smaller tours as time went on. I really enjoyed the fan club vinyl, but those have steadily gotten worse, and now with its elimination, no point in continuing on for me. The rest of exclusive "stuff" doesn't matter much to me. It's just stuff - for me, it's always been the music first, and since that seems to be dwindling as well, I'll buy the albums at my local record store when they come out, and if they ever do manage to play in my city again, I might shoot for general public sale tickets, but if not - at least I know I saw them in their prime.

The other thing that I never really got is that after they did the box sets for the first three records, everyone kept asking about the No Code, Yield, and other anniversary boxsets, and the response from the band always steered towards "it was nice looking back, but we really want to look at the future" and "we don't want to just be a nostalgic band", yet everything since, from the merch, to setlists, is so steeped in the past, and there's been no sense of excitement or anything new coming for a long time. I often wonder if there are differing opinions in the band about that, or if they're all sort of in that same mindset collectively, but the result seems to be much less MUSIC and a lot more STUFF to sell lately. Let me be clear- I don;t blame the band for taking advantage of any level of comfort they achieved. I just wish they'd be clear about what their intentions are, especially when they're asking for our membership dues, with little information, and not even delivering products we paid for YEARS ago. For those reasons, it's just not a hard debate anymore.

jeffbr

I cancelled auto-renew. Will wait and see what new benefit may be announced for Analog, but at this point my decision in October will be renew as Digital or just let it expire. Luckily I have 10 months to see what 10c is up to. I don't see being Analog again at this point.

Spiritual_Chaos

So what reason is it for me not going digital? I care zero about the tshirt... The DEEP magazine then? Thats it for the 50 bucks?

drakeheuer14

I’m kind of looking forward to the changes they bring. All I ask is they don’t drag their feet and they put a little bit of effort into whatever is next. Excited though. 

Smellyman

Try living in Asia.  Australia is the closest they come.

brianlux

It really does amaze me that we've gotten this notice of change in membership status in such a vague manner.  Gotta wonder what's up with who ever is piloting this ship.  The word "mismanagement" comes to mind.  If this were an NFL team, I'm guessing there would be yet one more head coach fired.

23scidoo

I'm confused..

MedozK

If every member went digital and 10C lost half their revenue... you think they would take notice? Lol, only way businesses take things seriously is when you start messing with their bottom line. 

Spiritual_Chaos

MedozK said:

If every member went digital and 10C lost half their revenue... you think they would take notice? Lol, only way businesses take things seriously is when you start messing with their bottom line. 

Other things should matter for a fanclub to the worlds greatest band though, than financial loss.

kce8

This is soo sad. 

prl

MedozK said:

If every member went digital and 10C lost half their revenue... you think they would take notice? Lol, only way businesses take things seriously is when you start messing with their bottom line. 

The only way that would happen was if fans stopped buying everything they put out, whatever it might be. When you have 5 different posters for a show and people are still buying ALL of them, or recent posters selling for $700+ on eBay like the one from Rome (remember that posters like Portugal 96 would go for 600 and that seemed like a lot?) then it becomes obvious that losing analog memberships to digital (saving money on production, shipping, replacing lost or undelivered items) is not an issue.

Kel Varnsen

prl said:

MedozK said:

If every member went digital and 10C lost half their revenue... you think they would take notice? Lol, only way businesses take things seriously is when you start messing with their bottom line. 

The only way that would happen was if fans stopped buying everything they put out, whatever it might be. When you have 5 different posters for a show and people are still buying ALL of them, or recent posters selling for $700+ on eBay like the one from Rome (remember that posters like Portugal 96 would go for 600 and that seemed like a lot?) then it becomes obvious that losing analog memberships to digital (saving money on production, shipping, replacing lost or undelivered items) is not an issue.

Plus as I mentioned in another thread the actual list of 10 club members is of huge value to the vlub/the band. Because it is a list of the names, locations and spending habits of their hugest fans. For things like tour planning or even launching new merch that has value. So even if everyone switched to digital they would still have that list.

smile6680

My wife and I have been debating on renewing membership or not.  Seems to have become a tax on the fans to be able to keep their seniority in the fan club. It also seems like the majority of ten club members pay this fee only for the chance at decent tickets. The lack of touring and poor music venues(stadiums) are making it hard to justify the fee. 

Zod

MedozK said:

If every member went digital and 10C lost half their revenue... you think they would take notice? Lol, only way businesses take things seriously is when you start messing with their bottom line. 

Actually... I'm not sure they make that much off my extra $30 for Analog.  I live in Canada.  They have to mail me tshirt and then a newsletter/single package.   I have to assume it at least costs them $10 to mail me each item.  So $20 of that $30 goes shipping which leaves about $10 for creating the tshirt/single/newsletter.

I think it's the first $20 that's gravy for them.   I don't think they keep much from the extra $20/$30 from Analog.