Dave I have been recieving your emails for about three years and enjoyed recieving them ..finally had time to go to Karaoke so looked up your site and compared to how it used to be (user friendly) I just dont see really why you would pay a subscription for the way the site is now!! I dont seem to see what advantage there is ?? sorry to be negative but before you could find out where comps were and easily find venues and what night they were on ..now it just seems to much mucking around ..and now you pay for it !! Correct me if I'm wrong!!

REPLY from David
Thanks for your feedback, and that's precisely the point! In the past there were many people who enjoyed finding new karaoke venues, and the site has taken me nearly three years and a huge amount of work to build. So, after these nearly three years and realising how so many people use the site, it's time for those who really do use it to put their hands in their pockets and pull out a dollar, yes only a dollar, a week to support my work. It's no use comparing the site now how it was even a month ago - because the information changes several times a day, and it's the freshness of the information that makes the site so unique. There's also far more information about each gig than there ever was before, plus comments in the Gigs' Forums. If you look at some archived copy of W2S from a month ago, you'll have no idea about which piece of information is still current. And if you look at any hosts' website, you're unlikely to know when the info was ever current. That's what has always made W2S unique, and why so many people depend on it (including hosts). So, if you just like to browse W2S to read about what's going on it karaoke, and to receive the free News Emails, nothing has changed (exccept the information is fresher, and you can add your own comments and generally be part of the online karaoke community. But if you really do use the W2S listings, you'll need to subscribe to get the full information. Consider the options: - If W2S were to be paid for by advertisers, each one of the few Australian relevent advertisers would be paying thousands of dollars a year, and most space would be filled with advertising instead of information. - Venues are already providing karaoke entertainment without extra charge to patrons, and many are already struggling to justify the cost. It's quite simply that venues generally expect the hosts to do anhy advertising, and have zero interest in doing their own advertising (as you can see from how few even have signs about karaoke, and hence the need for the W2S listings). - Hosts are flat out getting enough money for their gigs without having to bear the advertising cost, and although several would pay (and will soon pay to make their gigs 'public'), Australia doesn't have enough hosts able to pay enough each to support W2S. - If advertisers ruled W2S, you would not be allowed to make any negative comment against them, any of their gig, and you would not know whether anything you read were editorial or advertising. - With so many people using W2S to find new venues and keep up on the latest gig info, it makes sense to have each one pay a small (US dollar a week) subscription and spread the cost. Really, the subscription is almost nothing compared with what most people spend on their entertainment each week - and will actually save them money in wasted trips, going to expensive venues, making wasted phone calls. So is W2S no longer as good? Of course, for non-subscribers it's now pretty tough because they no longer get all the basic gig info for free. But for Subscribers it's a heap better, and the price of Subscription is pretty damn cheap. Many thanks for your feedback, and I think that once you consider the options, that you'll agree that nearly three years' work building this resource deserves enough support to make running the website worthwhile.
Submitted by on 09-10-2005

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