We're simplifying our pricing

Hello patrons! 

At the end of January, we announced that we'd be trialing a weekly release schedule for the podcast. Now that we're at the end of February, we've gotten great reception about this schedule, and we've seen considerably more interest and new listeners as a result. 

As such, we'll continue releasing the podcast on a weekly schedule from here on out. And in order to sustain this schedule, we're simplifying the pricing structure that we use here on Patreon. 

Back when we got started, we didn't even have a podcast yet; we were just making occasional videos on YouTube, and the pricing structure was designed with that model in mind. We've made some small tweaks since then but preserved the pricing structure. Up until now, we've had three tiers: 

• Candide ($3/mo) grants access to the full-length versions of all podcast episodes available on the public feed
• Grand Inquisitor ($5/mo) grants access to additional bonus content, plus we'll credit you on our website and shout you out on the podcast in the first episode after your subscription
• Pangloss ($10/mo) grants extra acknowledgement, including a special credit tier on our website and a shout-out in every episode of the podcast

While this has worked pretty well so far, we've run into two major issues:

• We're continuing to iterate on what we release to the podcast feed vs. what we gate exclusively to our Grand Inquisitor+ patrons. As such, it is sometimes unclear to our patrons what is and is not included in the Candide subscription.
• Producing a high quality, two hour podcast on a weekly basis takes considerably more time than we had originally budgeted against in our initial pricing structure.

So, in order to streamline patron benefits and guarantee a sustainable revenue stream for our work, we will simply be offering two patron tiers to new subscribers, effective March 1:

• Grand Inquisitor ($5/mo) grants access to all of our content, including the podcast back library and all audio/video bonuses and previews. Plus, we'll credit you on our website and shout you out on the podcast in the first episode after you initially subscribe or when you upgrade from the Candide tier.
• Pangloss ($10/mo) grants extra acknowledgement, including a special credit tier on our website, a shout-out in every episode of the podcast and a small annual gift to commemorate your membership.

Please note that this change only affects new memberships. If you're already subscribed at the Candide tier, you can upgrade your membership to Grand Inquisitor at any time, or stay at the Candide level for as long as you want and continue to enjoy the access you currently have. There are no plans to eliminate the Candide tier for existing patrons; we intend to preserve it at its current price with its current benefits for the foreseeable future. 

tl;dr: We're eliminating the $3 tier for new subscribers, effective in March. If you're already subscribed at that tier, you can stay there with your existing benefits for as long as you want, or upgrade to the higher tier to unlock all of our content and get a shout-out on the podcast. However, once you upgrade, you will not be able to downgrade again.

Thank you for your time, and let us know if you have any questions about these changes.

Love,
The Worst of All Possible Brians, A.J.s, and Joshes