The Town of Odyssey

You're literally paying $180 a year just to get access to listen to exclusive episodes and most likely not getting the ability to save them, so it's not as though you're paying almost $200 and you at least get to keep them. At the end of the year, all you have to show for your money's worth are twelve issues of Clubhouse Magazine.

But if they put up the episodes at the end of the year on iTunes, I'm sure even fewer people would be willing to pay all that money when they could just get them at say, $20 for all twelve.

you're billed at the beginning of each month so it would make sense that you could cancel after 1 month

jennifertwt wrote:

Marvin D. wrote:Is there not the possibility of people just pirating the episodes. .?

I am sure someone will somewhere along the way.

I am also sure that somebody will choose to do so at some point, but that does not make it an ethical choice. I don't like the idea of not being able to access episodes without joining the club, which for me would make no sense, since most of my listening is done via my car's CD player during my commute to work, and I already own every single album. I could afford $180 a year, but to pay that just to hear 12 episodes doesn't seem like a wise choice. That being said, not liking the way that FOTF decides to distribute their product does not in any way give permission to obtain it unethically. If that means that I miss some episodes, I won't be thrilled about it, but I would be more unhappy with my own choices if I decided to find a pirated copy. I honestly can think of few worse things to try to justify than, "I stole from a non-profit organization because I wanted to hear more about God's love and holiness." My hope is that the episodes will be made available legally apart from the club later on.

While this model does not work for me, as well as many others on the ToO, I am sure that FOTF is doing this with the best of intentions and I hope that many families are blessed through the club.

The Top Crusader wrote:I forget, did we determine if you can even pay monthly or is it just a yearly thing paid upfront? I can imagine if its monthly someone will be willing to pay for 30 days to use an audio ripper to mine everything worthwhile out of there and give it to the masses. >_> So I assume its a full year paid upfront.

I was assuming monthly with a yearly contract, like cable, but I am not really sure. Otherwise, people could just join a month here and there. Or, you could just join every December and do what you suggested, which defeats the purpose of brinigng in regular revenue.

-- 30 Oct 2013 07:27 am --

I am merely pointing out that if AIO does not make the eps available in another form, eventually, someone will pirate. It is a part of the bad business choice. If people like it, they will want to own it, not just pay for "access" which means one must be at one´s computer..........families do not exactly "gather around the computer" the way they gathered around the radio. It seems that most of us listen "on the go" in one way or another. I was listening to Halloween OTR on the computer at work and thought "hm...this could be a place for the club in my life", but I still won´t do it. Our jobs are only temporary at this point and I am not sure I would get $15 worth of listening out of it. I could go the extra mile and take my mp4 with my already loaded AIO playlists to work with me and run it off the computer...........I know, "old fashioned".

I'm not saying that it's necesarily all right to go about pirating episodes, merely that it's bound to happen if things don't change. It's not a very good choice, and I highly doubt it's going to work out for them in the long run. .if even in the short run.

It costs the same amount of money to create the episodes for radio (not physical packaging, but production costs) as it does for the club. Therefore, the only advantage to such exclusivity is as a hook for joining the club. I do not see Clubhouse magazine as a big draw either. I would rather pay for my own subscription. I could do that when I had a job. Same thing with the OAC eps, if they were on iTunes, I could buy them whether or not I had heard them first if I had money. If you don´t have money, then you just have to wait like we do to buy the physical albums. I cannot believe that the club will not have a year contract somehow involved, and for people with limited finances or precarious situations like ours, it just is not a wise choice in these tough economic times.

I agree completely. I do not understand why they are charging for twelve episodes. They emailed me back once, but nothing on last few emails. I would like to see emails and letters.

Remember when they got rid of officer Harley because of negative letters? There was not that many. But Dr. Dobson said 1 negative letter equaled 20 positive letters. I wonder if Focus still takes that into account.

Jimmy Barclay Fan wrote:I do not understand why they are charging for twelve episodes.

For club members that is not just what they are paying $15 a month for. They are paying for much more content. However, For most of us, all we care about is getting to hear the 12 exclusive episodes. So it would be like paying $15 a month (or $180 a year) for 12 episodes. Also, they probably feel like they have to do something (like this club) because they are just not meeting their required funds. *shrugs*

I'm sure they would make this kind of thing free to the public if they could afford it.

Like AE said earlier though, I'd like to see the numbers as AIO might be the one of the only ministries that gives Focus a profit. It could be this club was thought up not to cover AIO's financial shortfalls, but Focus'.

They could make a ton of money by releasing the OAC eps as downloads only through ITunes and then as a packaged physical album at the end of the year.

Jonathan wrote:Like AE said earlier though, I'd like to see the numbers as AIO might be the one of the only ministries that gives Focus a profit. It could be this club was thought up not to cover AIO's financial shortfalls, but Focus'.

That's what I am thinking as well.

snubs wrote:

Jonathan wrote:Like AE said earlier though, I'd like to see the numbers as AIO might be the one of the only ministries that gives Focus a profit. It could be this club was thought up not to cover AIO's financial shortfalls, but Focus'.

That's what I am thinking as well.

Same here.

I have been thinking a lot and am pretty sure I will be joining the club now.

Jimmy Barclay Fan wrote:I have been thinking a lot and am pretty sure I will be joining the club now.

Great! then you can also tell us about the OAC eps. At least title and main points.

Yea I can do that. Maybe even update at aiowiki info.

I am curious if this website is legit real and emailed Focus,

https://www.oaclub.org/club#login

Is this Address real and legit for the club ?? I wanted to make sure first. Thanks,

Jimmy Barclay Fan wrote:Yea I can do that. Maybe even update at aiowiki info.

American Eagle wrote:

The Kings Daughter wrote:I'm totally out of the loop. What exactly is OAC?

The Odyssey Adventure Club.

Basic facts:
1) You can stream almost any episode in Odyssey history if you're a club member
2) An album per year will be exclusive to the club, so only members will know what is going on in Odyssey
3) It costs $15 a month, so $180 per year
4) An unknown amount of the money will go to towards missions, there will be some behind-the-scenes stuff, and I guess Clubhouse Magazine is included

Ah, okay, danke! Although I'm disappointed. :/ If it's not on the radio, it can't minister to kids as much I don't think. And I know several families who will miss out because of money issues. We probably won't be able to afford it. That's saddening.
Are they just not making enough, or..?

Jimmy Barclay Fan wrote:Yea I can do that. Maybe even update at aiowiki info.

I am curious if this website is legit real and emailed Focus,

https://www.oaclub.org/club#login

Is this Address real and legit for the club ?? I wanted to make sure first. Thanks,

Yes, that is the correct address, odysseyadventureclub.org also works

Remember that people pay $15 a month for Netflix. Most families also pay $30-$50 a month for cable. They may have TiVo or DVR to temporarily record shows, but in general, they don't get to keep anything when the subscription runs out.

$15 a month for access to wholesome entertainment is not a bad price for most families.

Also, keep in mind the target for this Club is families with children who are 8 to 12 who don't already have a significant collection of AIO episodes. Again, this is a reasonable price for entertainment for a family.

You are all looking at this OAC from the perspective of long-time fans and collectors. Sure, from that perspective it doesn't make sense. The only things we want to collect from this are the exclusive episodes and the limited episodes (such as the Harley episodes), and those don't seem to be worth the price. If you look at it from the perspective of the target audience--a family with young children looking for an entertainment option for your children, you may have heard of AIO or even heard a few epidisodes, but you don't own any episodes. $15 a month to provide wholesome entertainment for your children is really a pretty good deal.

Having said all that, the Adventure Club is not ideal for me. I would suggest an alternative where the new and exclusive episodes are available for purchase. Or, an additional benefit of being a club member is to download one episode per month so you have a collection at the end of your subscription.

But that's just it, I'm not only looking at it through the perspective of a long time fan. Of course from that perspective this is a royal bummer. But we don't matter nearly as much as the target range. I understand that. However, if you look back at my many previous posts, you'll see that I make several cases for why this club is not a great idea from the perspective of an 8-12 year old.

First still has to be the price. Families would do much better to spend $15 a month to buy 12 new albums each year and then have the entire collection in 5 years. I understand, giving money to Focus= good idea. But my personal belief is that a tithe should be given willingly with no benefit to the donor. My worry with putting a tithe toward the OAC as the podcast seems to recommend is that it could very easily be given with wrong motivations.

And the real, total problem that I will not/cannot get past, no matter how nicely they word the benefits of the club in the podcasts is the word exclusive. I guarantee my family would not have bought this subscription for me when I was in the 8-12 year range. Now, just because I'm poor, I don't get to be as cool as other kids who listen to Odyssey. This to me is the root of the problem. It doesn't matter what families should do, or what they should spend their money on. What matters is what they will spend it on.

Bottom Line: If families are willing to spend the price on good entertainment, good for them. I like the idea of the club as a place where new fans can hear any episode. Nevertheless, I will never accept the club as a good ministry decision for as long as these episodes ostracize young listeners.