Hey there! It's @ddrfr33k and @chiren, and this is super unusual for us! We haven't had this many updates in...jeez...it's been a long time! But the feedback you guys provided in the first 24 hours of that post going live was incredible. We spent some time talking through it, and we have more details for you! The first big thing is that, yes, we are making the Premium Memberships thing we were talking about a thing. And it's coming a lot sooner than you think!
So, first things first. We're making three tiers of premium memberships. We don't really have names for them right now, so we're just calling them Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. All tiers will have a unique badge to show off just how awesome you are and how much we appreciate you supporting our site! This badge will appear in chat, and on your channel page when you're streaming. We want you guys to be proud of supporting us. We're probably going to run a contest for this, so those of you who are graphic designers? Keep your eyes peeled here!
You might be wondering what these different tiers offer, no? Well, wonder no more! (All prices are monthly)
Tier 1 - $5.99USD or 5 Gems:
- 30 days vod storage
- 3 channel specific chat emotes
- Channel Supporter badge (in chat) for viewers that subscribe to your channel
Tier 2 - $9.99USD:
- Includes all features from 5.99 tier
- 3 months vod storage
- 10 channel specific chat emotes
- VIP Viewer badge to give to your favorite viewer
Tier 3 - $24.99USD:
- Includes all features from 9.99 tier
- Exclusive discord channel for supporters. We discuss feature ideas and give them an opportunity to test new features
- Provide feedback to choose where Vimm goes next feature-wise
- 6 month VOD storage
- Tier 3 streamer section on the front page. This will either be a featured streamer border in the top 5 rotation, or a featured section with up to 5 or so streamers.
In addition, each tier receives gems when you purchase a membership with fiat:
- Tier 1: 4 Gems
- Tier 2: 7 Gems
- Tier 3: 25 Gems
Part of why we decided to only offer the tier 1 for Gems is that we wanted to provide some means of using your gems without putting Vimm in a financially untenable situation. The main reason why we're doing this is to raise funds for infrastructure costs. Currently, our bill just shot up $600USD/month with just the EU ingest and the VOD storage. This is but one way for us to keep the lights on. And with more people signing up for premium membership, we can add more ingest servers in, say, Asia or South America. We can hire more developers to create new features. And maybe even pay ourselves a little bit, too!
Now, all these gems flying around are going to need a use case, aren't they? Well, good news! We have some more options for you. We received a ton of user feedback from you guys, wanting us to add channel subscriptions. We talked about it, and figured that this would easy enough to implement shortly after the premium memberships get up and going. Here's what we're going with for Channel subscriptions:
Can be paid in HIVE or Gems
This is because we want to give viewers options on how they want to support their streamers. Giving people options is a good thing, no?We take a 40% cut of the subscription price
This is a significantly lower cut than what Twitch, Mixer, or Smashcast take. It means you get to keep more of your subscriptions!Channel owners can create tiered subscription packages
We kinda ran out of ideas as to what viewers would want in a subscription, but quickly came to the realization that most channels have their own perks! So we figured we would let you decide what you want to offer your viewers, be it subscriber only game nights, locking chat to subscribers only, or whatever your heart desires. You are in charge of your destiny!Streamer decides the price (minimum $5 worth)
This kinda falls in line with this. Some people might want to charge more than others. And that's fine! We're going to give you the flexibility to name your price. We set a minimum to make it worth everyone's while. That's really it!
I know some of you are going to ask about subscribing for fiat. We looked into this, and the financial costs of reporting that for tax purposes is more than we want to take on right now. Maybe later, though! That would be a great thing to offer.
So! We don't have a set date for when this will go live. That said, I'm going to make it a point to make sure to let you know when we're ready to flip the switch. Currently, our plan is to only offer the Tier 1 membership, and only for fiat at first. Our goal is to raise a bit of capital first, then roll out Tier 2 and 3, and add the Tier 1 for Gems. We look forward to implementing this, because your memberships will give us the resources to grow even more. There are so many things that we want to implement, but haven't yet. Our biggest roadblock is the lack of resources, and we'll get there eventually. We want to thank you for helping us get to this point, and we can't wait to see you grow alongside us!
Get in touch!
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Have you checked out Vimm University?
-- How to Handle Streamer Burnout --
-- All About The Steem Blockchain!--
-- Making a Good Post --
-- Branding Identity --
-- The Copyright Boogeyman --
-- An Introduction to Branding --
OMG OMG OMG OMG YES!!!!
Well I can say for sure that once tier 3 comes out I'm there no questions asked.
I love the idea of set your own price for channel subs and love the use cases for gems! This will hopefully get more people buying them on hive-engine.
Good luck with everything guys!
I just got back to HIVE after a long break and I’ll see how I can contribute.
I Guess payment of the Tiers will be monthly ? I ask because it's not clear from the Post.
A lower Subscription Price for viewer i would prefer maybee 3 dollar minimum .
Maybee you could also make a Partnership with some Emote Artists for Tier 2 or 3 . 10 Personal Chat emotes is a lot.
Most of the people streaming on Vimm do not have their own chat emotes yet ,because for whatever reason they have not yet partnered on other sites!
I have something like a one time 25% voucher for an emote artist(for a order of at least 2 emotes) in my mind!
Yes, that is a monthly price. Sorry, I'll update that.
As a long time supporter of Vimm I am very disappointed to hear this. I understand that you need a capital boost, but, to ask for your streamers to provide it seems wrong to me. The streamers are the reason that there is a Vimm. Likewise viewers are the reason that there are streamers. To charge your streamers to encourage viewers to watch them, ie. special badges. Is wrong. You should be providing all your streamers with these tools for free to build up viewership on Vimm before ever thinking of providing a premium subscription. I have no issue with giving supporters a special supporter badge.
To compare yourself to Twitch and Mixer is not even something that should be brought up let alone considered when it come to Vimm offering channel subscriptions. For one Twitch and Mixer are mainstream platforms that take and pay in fiat. Secondly they are both 1000s of times larger than Vimm. Top channel currently on Vimm has 4 viewers, Mixer over 4,000, and Twitch over 70k.
Since "Gems"are the currency of Vimm, how about something like Tier 1 = Ruby, Tier 2 = Emerald, Tier 3 = Diamond. Or whatever gems of choice us guys like.