Wintersun vastaa Patreon-sivua koskevaan kritiikkiin: ”Puheet kerjäämisestä ja hyväksikäytöstä ovat täyttä valetta”

Kotimainen metalliyhtye Wintersun perusti kevään aikana Patreon-sivun. Patreon on alusta, joka tarjoaa mahdollisuuden tukea sisällöntuottajia, kuten artisteja ja yhtyeitä, rahallisesti. Tukijoille tarjotaan vastineeksi sisältöä, jota ei muilta kanavilta löydy. Wintersun julkaisee Patreon-sivullaan muun muassa livevideoita, laitteiston esittelyitä, behind the scenes -materiaalia sekä kitara- ja bassovideoita. Yhtye tekee sivulla myös Wintersun Podcastia.

Kaikki eivät ole katsoneet sivun avaamista hyvällä, vaan yhtye on saanut paljon kritiikkiä asiaan liittyen. Yhtye on jo aiemmin joutunut perustelemaan sivun avaamista sosiaalisessa mediassa. Wintersun on viime aikoina kohdannut muun muassa syytöksiä rahan kerjäämisestä ja fanien hyväksikäyttämisestä. Yhtye muistuttaa, että tukeminen Patreon-sivun kautta on täysin vapaaehtoista ja pitää puheita kerjäämisestä ja hyväksikäyttämisestä ilkeinä ja tuulesta tempaistuina. Vapaaehtoisella kuukausittaisella 10 euron maksulla yhtyeen tukija saa huomattavan määrän sisältöä vastineeksi. Wintersunin Facebook-sivulla on nyt julkaistu pitkä päivitys asiaan liittyen:

WINTERSUN IS BEGGING FOR MONEY AND TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THEIR FANS!!!

Hmm… So there’s some people saying that we are begging for money and are somehow taking advantage of our fans and apparently these people are VERY ANGRY and VERY DISAPPOINTED in us. All this because we launched a Patreon page where we are releasing live videos, behind-the-scenes videos, gear videos, guitar & bass playing videos etc.

When Pantera, Skid Row, Metallica and many bands released live video or ”home video” DVDs and VHSs back in the day, where they also ”begging for money”? And is every band ”begging for money” and ”taking advantage of their fans” when they are selling a product?

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Mainos päättyy

In a year our Patreon will have tons of videos! Way more content than in a DVD and you can watch it all with just one time payment of 10 bucks! How many Starbucks coffees is that? Point is you get to watch and enjoy shitload of content with only few bucks! Those DVDs bands sold cost way more back in the day and you got way less for your money.

The effort we are putting in to produce and release all these videos cost us lot of time and money. We can’t work for free. If we would work for free, there would be no Wintersun. Just like there is no Coca-Cola or Apple if no one buys their products.

We are also doing a Wintersun Podcast where our Patrons can ask us questions. We have a forum for our fans where we interact with our fans directly and discuss and share lots of various stuff. If you don’t find all this valuable to you personally, that’s totally fine.

But this ”begging and taking advantage” narrative is totally false. Frankly it is quite malicious.

Artikkeli jatkuu mainoksen jälkeen

Mainos päättyy

Patreon is 100% voluntary. You can choose to subscribe and support the band every month to see the material immediately when it is released, in this case you’ll support the band the most and you’ll be part of the community.

You can also choose to subscribe for only 1 month here and there whenever you feel like watching Wintersun stuff (and you’ll be able to watch everything released since to that day and at the end of that month you signed up). Or you don’t have to subscribe at all, it is voluntary.

All our albums are free on YouTube (although not with the best sound quality, but still…) and we have offered plenty of free content during the years and will continue to do that as well. So there’s no need for anger.

If you want to support us we appreciate it truly and if you like our music you should support us, because it helps us to do more cool stuff with Wintersun! We put our money back into Wintersun and you put money back into Wintersun when you buy our products, whether it’s albums, merch, show tickets or Patreon. And at the same time you can watch really cool and fun content from us. It’s a win-win situation!

Artikkeli jatkuu mainoksen jälkeen

Mainos päättyy

So how is this taking advantage of our fans or begging for money? It is not. We are offering a product just like we did with the crowdfunding. And even though our very successful crowdfunding thanks to you guys, we are not rich or anything like that. There was of course lot of expenses and taxes to pay. We are still grinding away everyday just like everyone else. So we are not rolling in money like Scrooge McDuck. And we don’t even care about that. What we care about is getting all this unrecorded music that we have out to you guys before we die! Music is our life. That is what we love to do and this is our mission!

Hope you have a great day