The Town of Odyssey

Whoa. This is huge. Looking at the posts on the other thread, I just realized that with the OAC, you can only listen online! Okay, so I already knew that, but I didn't realize the implications. Now, the only way kids can listen in their bedrooms is if they have internet... IN THEIR ROOM! Growing up, I was not allowed to have internet in my room, and I thoroughly believe it was for good reason. I did not need that kind of temptation. With that, 90% of the Odyssey eps I listened to were in my room. And the other 10% were listening in the car or at the dinner table with my family over the radio. If not the radio, then we brought the CD's in the car for long trips. How can families without data plans bring online episodes on long car rides using the club? And what about MP3/Ipod Nano/CD players for the kids on the bus?

According to Jimmy Barclay Fan's email, the club is supposed to be the cheaper alternative to kids having access to all episodes. But why have access to all episodes if you can't really listen to them in most places? $900 for 5 years of content in limited places, or $1500 for everything in all places that can be enjoyed for years, maybe even passed on to the next generation.

And let's look at the realities behind those number.

5 years of OAC= $900.
But let's be realistic and say I'm a parent with two kids spaced two years apart. Now I should pay for 6 years.
That's $1080.
And what if I have three kids each three years apart. That's at least 10 years!
$1800
Me personally: I've been collecting for 12 years. If I had kept using the club rather than purchasing albums, I've now payed
$2160. And still, I do not own a single episode that I can pass on to my children.

Now let's look at hard copies.
At most- $25 per album, 57 albums= $1425. We'll give them the other $75 leeway to buy lost episodes.
But if you are a smart shopper, use Amazon, and you pay around $19 an album (usually it'll cost closer to $17), 57 albums.
That's $1083.

If we're keeping track, that's the same as paying for the club for 6 years. 6 years is how long my own family would have had to buy the club, and that would only cover while we were in the target range. Furthermore, that's saying that kids should just quit listening when they turn 13.

I'm not sure how I missed this earlier, but to me, this is a big deal. A good deal for Focus. A bad deal for family.

Great points Dallas! I've been listening to AIO for 20 years so if they had this club back then I would have paid $3600.00 so far and not own a single episode. If I stop I have nothing. I'm a lifetime AIO fan but have zero interest in most of the stuff they offer in this club.

Dallas R. wrote:A good deal for Focus. A bad deal for family.

Loved your post, but wanted to address this. I'm not sure it's a good deal for Focus. The vast, vast majority of fans appear to be against it, even moreso among the die hards who have been listening for anything over a decade. These folks won't join the club, and now Focus gets one album worth of money less from these people.

I can't imagine many parents getting on board with this, it's just one more bill with no return (which was illustrated very well in your post). Here kids, enjoy the many albums you already have. This has been illustrated in the comments section of the social shout out, where the people who were excited usually included in their post some form of "gee I hope my parents let me!!1!"

I get what they're trying to do, but common sense tells me they actually might loose money on this in the long run.

edit--And in response to what Jimmy posted, I'm getting tired that whenever someone from Focus responds to us it's always "We appreciate and understand your concerns, but you must not understand what the club is. Here, let me educate you."

Already educated, thank you, and that's why I'm irritated.

jennifertwt wrote:

Bren wrote:I can sorta see his point concerning contracts and how that would cause an issue.

I don´t understand this part either. Contracts with whom? the writers? the actors? how do residuals work with AIO? If the actors continue to be paid based on sales, then public distribution would definitely be the way to go. If they are getting a percentage of the club "sales", they may be disappointed.

I was wondering what that meant as well, and I could only think of vendors, those that sell the content. But that still doesn't make sense. I don't remember how he worded it, but it made me believe that there was an obligation to provide that content through certain channels only. Actors are paid session fees for the recording time but no residuals, so that can't be the issue. Writers, sound engineers, and others I think are mostly staff, so they would earn hourly wages or a regular salary not dependent on sales. To my knowledge, AIO is self-funding, although this may be outdated information. Costs to produce the show come from sales of AIO products, not from elsewhere in FOTF funds. This issue of contracts and episodes releases has to be a decision based on external factors.

Reddo wrote:it will work in Europe, or at least that's what I've been told.

in that case, it is a big plus to ex patriots and military families. Getting the albums here is possible, but not easy. You cannot just go down to your local christian bookstore and pick them up. I order from a UK source to save shipping. I still hope the Harley files will be on iTunes as well.................but I fear at this point, a slim hope. It is unfair to fans who have waiting so long...........

-- 21 Oct 2013 09:24 am --

WindowWasher wrote:Great points Dallas! I've been listening to AIO for 20 years so if they had this club back then I would have paid $3600.00 so far and not own a single episode. If I stop I have nothing. I'm a lifetime AIO fan but have zero interest in most of the stuff they offer in this club.

You also forgot Ebay and the running into the odd sale or using coupons at the local Christian bookstore. And the advantage to hard copies is you can upload them to your own computer and then distribute them to mulitple devices. I do not have kids, but if I did, I would only let them have the most basic devices whose content I uploaded myself..........so you if you have 3 kids with multiple low grade mp3 players, you can upload the album playlists just like I do and give them something to listen to either in bed (I have insomnia) or private listening when they should not be distracting others.

-- 21 Oct 2013 09:30 am --

WindowWasher wrote:Great points Dallas! I've been listening to AIO for 20 years so if they had this club back then I would have paid $3600.00 so far and not own a single episode. If I stop I have nothing. I'm a lifetime AIO fan but have zero interest in most of the stuff they offer in this club.

When I came to Europe, I was not very internet savvy. (Now I am an adhoc IT tech, go figure). So, thinking we might have kids, it was very important to complete and upgrade my collection (I had many albums on cassette) to pass on in one form or another. The club is in no way designed for preservation of this great material. There just has to be a better way. Having access to Family RAdio Theatre is definitely a plus, but not enough to offset the cost if it does not also allow downloading. If it did, I would be more inclined to consider it if we had stable income.

-- 21 Oct 2013 09:36 am --

WEll, I finally got curious enough to run my own numbers:

There are 1243 members on this list. The poll is running 71% against, so that is 882.53 members, let´s call it 883. Now let´s take those 883 members and multiply that by the club fee of $180. That is a staggering $158,940! per year they will not be getting from us, plus the lost revenue from another album............now multiply THAT by 5-10 years..........

just wow.

I really want to hear the officer Harley episodes again. I am hoping and even writing that they be a digital download like family potraits instead of just for the club.

Jimmy Barclay Fan wrote:I really want to hear the officer Harley episodes again. I am hoping and even writing that they be a digital download like family potraits instead of just for the club.

That is my prayer as well. It is only fair since they gave the teaser when Family Portraits was released. If they are only available to the club after that, I will really be angry.

I tried to be as honest as possible when selecting the vote for this. I'm angry at focus for spamming me with their homosexual hate speech just because I gave them an email address, but maybe for quality reasons I might sign up if I can do it for one month. Since I am gay, you can imagine I'm not very interested in paying focus money, but I love Odyssey been following it for years. I'll just wait til they release these to the public like I've read in 2015 or whenever.

A better way for them to do this is just have one album air on the radio, and have the other album only available if you buy it. Waaaay less expensive then the OAC. I wouldn't have a problem with that.

They should have released the Officer Harley episodes in an album a long time ago.

Joy wrote:A better way for them to do this is just have one album air on the radio, and have the other album only available if you buy it. Waaaay less expensive then the OAC. I wouldn't have a problem with that.

or if production costs is the issue, have one physical album and one download album. I agree it is not ideal, but better than the club.

-- 24 Oct 2013 06:08 am --

Laurie wrote:They should have released the Officer Harley episodes in an album a long time ago.

That I also totally agree with, though I can see a limited market for it. So, once agains, iTunes is a valid and less expensive option. Could be one of the only reasons I update my ancient 1st or 2nd generation iPod.

If they have a way to listen to all the episodes at any time without having to be online and can just listen, I would really consider joining. I am getting emails with info . I saw something about an app.

Jimmy Barclay Fan wrote:If they have a way to listen to all the episodes at any time without having to be online and can just listen, I would really consider joining. I am getting emails with info . I saw something about an app.

I signed up for the emails but have gotten nothing. The video did not play in my country so I was assuming they did not bother adding me to the list.

Nobody has gotten the first email yet.

I have.... I got it yesterday.

I got it as well. Made me wanna sign-up right away. I don't think the video works for anyone.

I got it also. They gave away the episode The Pilot part 1

I got it yesterday, nothing new in it, just had instructions on how to make a paper airplane that you can then mail to focus and they'll trow them off the roof to celebrate the pilot and the launch of the club.

if you want to read it here it is: https://connect.focusonthefamily.com/ap ... fc2aa0d6a2

I know a lot of people, even Jacob didn't get it

Jimmy Barclay Fan wrote:If they have a way to listen to all the episodes at any time without having to be online and can just listen, I would really consider joining. I am getting emails with info . I saw something about an app.

only 5 episodes can be save offline at a time

Y'know, we've been talking a lot about canon this week, and that last sentence suggests to me that the exclusive episodes do tie in to other stories.

Reddo wrote:I got it yesterday, nothing new in it, just had instructions on how to make a paper airplane that you can then mail to focus and they'll trow them off the roof to celebrate the pilot and the launch of the club.

if you want to read it here it is: https://connect.focusonthefamily.com/ap ... fc2aa0d6a2

I know a lot of people, even Jacob didn't get it

Jimmy Barclay Fan wrote:If they have a way to listen to all the episodes at any time without having to be online and can just listen, I would really consider joining. I am getting emails with info . I saw something about an app.

only 5 episodes can be save offline at a time

they should have at least made it 12 so you could save a whole album and then go onto the next when you are ready. That is what I am doing with the mp4 from my own collection. I do not think this club will head off pirating of the older eps if you cannot download and keep them as part of the club privileges. Now THAT would make it worth it for young families.