When I woke up this morning I checked my emails like I always do and went on to read the weekly newsletter from Burda Style. You see, like 150,000 other people around the world I am a member. Like the majority of those people, I signed up because the patterns were mostly free and just like them I raved about this great free website to anyone that would listen.
I remember when I first signed up I thought to myself, I bet their business model is to get as many members as possible and then somehow start charging them (because I am a cynic you see). Well sure enough as of this morning, most of the free patterns are gone. I think thats the bit that annoys me (and many members the most). They haven't said, as of today we will be charging for new patterns, they have stuck price tags on patterns that yesterday were free.
Now if I want to use a pattern I have to pay about $7 Australian dollars on average. A Burda Mode magazine is $16 Aus dollars and I am pretty sure they have more than one pattern in them.
Burda Style's justification is that by charging for the patterns, they can keep the rest of the site free. They won't have to charge a membership fee and people will still have access to all the knowledge on the site. I'm not sure that anyone has told them, but in this internet age, knowledge is generally free. I have never read anything on their site that someone else hasn't blogged about, better, or more thoroughly elsewhere.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not so cheap that I mind paying for patterns. I do buy them. I understand the time it takes to professionally draft and fit a pattern. I understand they have to pay their staff. But I just can't help thinking that if they had taken the time to do proper advertising on their site to start with, instead of 10c per click Google ads, then their business would have been viable a long time ago.
My guess is that the Open Source bit will be the next thing to go. I think its fantastic that the patterns are copyright free at the moment, but I can't see that lasting long, if someone can pay for a pattern and then have every right to give it to as many people as possible for free. Maybe I misunderstand the terms though. I guess I will be digging through all the patterns I have got saved on my computer.
I haven't seen any other bloggers respond to this yet. Maybe no one used the site, or maybe time zones just haven't aligned yet. The people I really feel sorry for are all the students that used the site and truly can't afford to buy patterns.
I'm sure some people will disagree with my point of view and fully support Burda Style charging for previously free patterns. I appreciate comments either way. But as Sitemeter tells me that 95% of my blog visitors come to look at pictures of Appa, I am beginning to wonder if anyone other than my lovely sister actually reads my blog. That and I am not the most consistent poster, I don't exactly inspire reader loaylty!! :o)
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3 comments:
I received the email announcing this yesterday evening (it's Wednesday 9.00 am here now)and was surprised for the same reasons you describe. Though I never downloaded a pattern I think it would have been reasonable to start charging for new patterns and make it not too expensive.
I never downloaded a pattern in the first place because I don't want to print and glue the pattern pieces together, and then trace the pattern to use it. Definitely don't want to do that when I have to pay for that. Prefer tracing form the BWOF magazine in which the same styles can be found. Much more value for money, these magazines.
I always love the things you make from BWOF Sigrid. I am on a mission to try and find a copy of a magazine at the moment. I can't believe there are none on Ebay!
The Burda Style thing annoys me quite a bit too. I loved the idea of downloading a pattern that was kind of close to what I was looking for so I could change it and play with it with the convenience of having it NOW while my creative iron is hot for striking. I find $4 US to be rediculous for a pattern. Big 4 patterns are $1.99 on sale at Joann's... I'll stick with that if I've got to pay not only for the pattern, but for the paper and ink too!
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