As you're reading this, Austin B Media has officially turned three years old. So, as I did when I celebrated my second anniversary last year, my first anniversary, and my six-month anniversary, it's time to announce what's next for me and Austin B Media.

You can check out the video version above. The written version of the Phase Four announcements can be read below.

Music Contributors

Right now, I only allow pitches for general entertainment, streaming, TV, video games, technology, movies, podcasts, and videos.

Due to the overwhelming response from contributors Beta-Critic and Christian Salazar's reviews, I'll expand contribution pitches to other parts of entertainment like music. From the very start of Austin B Media three years ago, my goal has been to cover the whole picture of entertainment. Expanding contributors to music will help to fulfill the original vision.

Returning Patron Exclusives

In my first post of 2023, I removed monthly hangouts and Behind the Curtain from the benefits that Patrons would receive. All of these benefits will return immediately, as well as monthly Q&As, monthly bonus episodes of The Austin B Media Podcast, and I'll resume movie & TV commentaries starting with Chile '76 and The Cow Who Sang A Song Into the Future.

New Patron Exclusives

On top of these returning Patron exclusives, I'm also introducing some new Patron exclusives that I've spent about a month developing but have wanted to include for quite some time.

Focusing on what will be available to all Patrons, I'll be starting a podcast dedicated to discussing the juiciest of spoilers from movies, TV shows, and even games called Spoiler Warning. The pilot will be discussing Scream VI, followed by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and its companion book, Battle Scars, this weekend, Knock at the Cabin on May 9th, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on May 17th, John Wick: Chapter 4 on May 23rd, the first three episodes of Platonic on May 24th, and Ted Lasso season 3 on May 31st.

Another new Patron exclusive available to all Patrons will be monthly feedback surveys focused on how satisfied you are with my Patreon. Non-Patrons will get a similar survey every three months.

Shifting to $5 Patrons, they'll get even more of a voice with access to a weekly Request a Review poll, as well as helping me pick headlines for reviews.

$10 Patrons will receive their choice of a monthly thank you in the form of a video, recording, or email. Patrons at this level will also receive the option to opt out of this benefit at any time. This is not replacing Patron shoutouts in any way. All this benefit is a way to get a more direct thank you for your support.

$15 Patrons get the added benefit of watching me record The Austin B Media Podcast live, which will return this week. Livestreams will be hosted on YouTube, and the link will be messaged to $15 Patrons as soon as each live recording is scheduled. After the live recording, all Patrons will receive the video and audio recordings.

For $20 Patrons and above, I haven't forgotten about you! I was working on a super cool benefit allowing you all to go further behind the scenes, but it's not ready yet. Once it's ready, I'll publish an update detailing it.

To recap:

• All Patrons - Monthly Hangouts, Spoiler Warning episodes, and monthly Patron feedback surveys

• $5 Patrons - Monthly bonus episode of The Austin B Media Podcast, Request a Review weekly polls, and Headline Help polls

• $10 Patrons - Monthly Q&As, Behind the Curtain episodes, and monthly thank you

• $15 Patrons - Movie & TV commentaries and access to live recordings of The Austin B Media Podcast

Patron Exclusives Page

While I'm sure my monthly benefits trackers are helpful, it's not the easiest way to keep track of Patreon benefits. To help with this, I'll have a Patreon Exclusives page on my website that will be organized by Patreon tier and benefit going live in the coming days. If you follow Easy Allies or Pretty Much It or anyone with a similar Patreon exclusives page on their website, it's just like that.

Patron Early Access Adjustments

Recently, it came to my attention that how I utilized Patreon's Early Access feature, specifically for news articles, was not what you wanted. To reflect this, any article that does not strictly involve my opinion will no longer utilize this feature.

On a similar note, I'll also be testing out a shorter Early Access period of six hours or less during periods where timely coverage is required, like a film festival, review embargoes, and other very specific situations. In these situations, this reduction in Early Access will be clearly communicated.

Goals

I’ve covered this in a previous post, so I’ll link that post here and list the goals below.

Patreon Goals

$100

Review costs covered

Once I reach this goal, my monthly review costs will be covered.

$276

Hosting costs covered

Once I reach this goal, my website costs will be covered for the year.

$480

Podcast editor costs covered

Once I reach this goal, I can hire a podcast editor.

$2,440

My salary covered

Once I reach this goal, I'll be able to officially call this my career, as I'll reach the annual living wage requirement pre-taxes for where I live.

$2,800

Site redesign costs covered

Once I reach this goal, I can hire someone to redesign my website professionally.

$3,500

Contributor fund costs covered

Once I reach this goal, I'll be able to pay my contributors for their contributions to Austin B Media. The $700 fund will be distributed amongst all contributors upon completion of an article or video.

If the $700 is spent and a contributor delivers an article or video, the contributor will be paid once the monthly payout hits the correlating bank account. Any unspent money from the contributor fund will carry over.

$4,782

Article editor costs covered

Once I reach this goal, I can hire an article editor.

GoFundMe Goals

$90

Acoustic treatment purchase

Once I reach this goal, I can purchase acoustic treatment for my office.

$125

Green screen purchase

Once I reach this goal, I can purchase a green screen for my office.

$150

Chair purchase

Once I reach this goal, I can purchase a chair for my office.

$200

Capture card purchase

Once I reach this goal, I'll be able to purchase a capture card to record movie commentaries, record gameplay for video game reviews, and other things you need a video capture card for.

$310

Monitor purchase

Once I reach this goal, I can purchase a replacement monitor for my laptop.

These goals are live now in my Patreon About section and will be soon on my GoFundMe page.

Retiring Merch (for Now)

Despite my best efforts, my experiments with offering branded merch did not succeed. So, instead of keeping everything up, I will remove the option to purchase said merch immediately.

Until next time!