Patreon

About a week ago, Carlito from Madhouse Live (yes, I’m blaming all of this on him) introduced me to a website called Patreon.  Patreon works a little like Kickstarter, but on a much smaller scale.  It allows users who enjoy content they find on the interwebs to fund the content, so that content gets better and happens more frequently.  So of course, I immediately set up a Patreon account for PLA, in hopes of tricking people into using it and getting filthy rich.  As of this writing, PLA is making approximately $250 per month with Patreon, all thanks to the amazing listeners who enjoy PLA’s stuff.  Thanks, you guys!

What I’m hoping to accomplish with Patreon is to create a buttload more content for the PLA than I currently do.  By receiving more money from Patreon, I’m able to scale back on my paid employment a bit.  And by scaling back on that, I have more time to create live shows, podcasts, prank call albums, weird telephone playgrounds, games that aren’t much fun, t-shirts, and just all the other weird miscellaneous crap that I’ve been doing in my free time for the past 20 years or so.

Imagine how out-of-control this whole PLA thing could get if I had too much free time to do all this stuff.  Instead of putting just an hour a day into PLA like I currently do, what if I were putting 2 hours into it?  Or 4?  Or 8?  Given enough money and free time, I’m nearly certain that Phone Losers of America could become a sovereign nation and declare war against the United States.  Or at the very least, some fun new projects will come out of it.  And maybe more live shows, more videos, and a little more of everything else that happens here at PLA HQ.   You all know me pretty well and you can probably imagine the kinds of things that would be likely to happen if money were involved or if my personal time were less restricted.

One of the best parts about Patreon is that it’s forcing me to do PLA things.  We’ve already hit 2 milestones on the Patreon page, which means I am obligated to buy some professional DJ drops for the Snow Plow Show and for Carlito’s new prank show network, and I have to put out a new PLA prank call album.  I’ve already gotten started on the album and it’ll probably be available by this time next month.  The next milestone will force me to create another phone song and if things go well enough, you’ll end up seeing a new episode of Telephone Falls and we’ll end up with a PLA album on vinyl.  Because, you know, giant chunks of plastic 10 times bigger than your iPhone are convenient!

I enjoy the hell out of all the wacky content I’m able to put out there in my free time, and it makes me super happy that you people enjoy the things I make and I will always keep doing it whether this Patreon thing works out or not.  But if I’m able to make some decent money from Patreon, I will immediately begin working less hours at my real job and I will put 100% of that extra time into doing more shows, making more videos, more merchandise and just more everything.  And not only more, but maybe I can start dropping a little more money into these projects to make them better.  I will do as much stuff as I possibly can with the money and free time that your contributions and Patreon is able to give me.

So go donate the minimum. As it is now, $1 per month is getting you 4 live shows/podcasts a month and about 4 prank singles on the YouTube channel. And maybe 1 original phone-related song per year and a half-assed attempt at an animated show. $12 per year isn’t too bad of a price for all that, right?  And if you donate more, you get monthly care packages and other fun things from the PLA.  Visit patreon.com/phonelosers to view the various reward levels and decide if you’d like to become a part of this.

Thank you, to everyone that’s supported PLA, both with Patreon and in other ways.  I’m excited to see if this pyramid scheme where this whole thing takes us!

 

 

If you think Patreon is just way too mainstream for someone like you, I’ve set up a donation page where you can donate directly or with those weird new-age hipster Bitcoin things that you people won’t quit talking about.  I will reward non-Patreon donations with the same things that Patreon users get.  (Speaking of that, if you’ve donated to PLA in the past year, send me an email if you’d like to collect any of those rewards listed on the Patreon page for the amount that you sent in.)