POLL: To pay or not to pay... that is the question.

TL,DR: Do you want your usual patreon pledge to apply when I publicly release a TTRPG track that was originally a paid commission?

Hey folks,

The growth on the Patreon recently has been incredible, and I'm making the gradual shift to working pretty much full time on TTRPG music. Thank you all so so much for that, these past few months have been the most rewarding of my musical career so far.

With growth comes more visibility within the TTRPG scene. I've had a few different folks from outside of the Patreon contact me for paid commissions. Some of these are folks who want some cool music for their campaign. Others are for more commercial ventures, such as paid adventures and kickstarters stuff.

I'm committed to releasing my music out there for everyone to listen to, and as often as I can I'll ensure that the tracks I write for these commissions will be publicly released like everything else I do, with the usual bonuses for Patreon supporters such as mp3 downloads and looping versions.

But this has raised a bit of an ethical question. Should I click the 'Charge For This Post' button when I'm publicly releasing tracks that have been written as part of a paid commissioned?

The upside of this is, of course, I get paid twice (once from the person commissioning, once from Patreon). That means I can invest even more time and resources back into TTRPG music, and it may also free me up to work with folks on cool projects that have a lower budget, because I'll always know that even if the commission rate is a little lower than the amount I would charge for a traditional composition client, I'll have the guarantee of money from Patreon as well.

The downside is that I can imagine it might make some folks feel a little used, to be essentially paying for something that has "already been paid for" by whoever originally commissioned the track. The last thing I want to do is alienate you folks who have already helped me so much to keep writing TTRPG music.

For those of you who have set a monthly cap which caps out after 1 or 2 tracks per month, this won't be as relevant, as I imagine I'll always be releasing at least 3-4 regular TTRPG tracks per month anyway, on top of any commissioned tracks. Though feel free to vote for whatever option you feel most strongly about even if your cap is set quite low.

(Also, these paid commissions are not to be confused with the Track Suggestions I get from Bard-tier patreon supporters)

Thanks folks!