As many of you know, late last year Metal Archives hit the 100,000 bands milestone. Back in 2002, when the site was founded, I doubt anyone thought we would ever reach this mark. Unfortunately, these achievements come at a price - a very literal one. As the site grows bigger, requiring more and more server space, and traffic increases, requiring more and more bandwidth, the associated costs have increased as well. Back in 2002 it was no big deal to run the site for free - but now, 13 years later, the costs run hundreds a month, even after factoring in the revenue from referals and the donations of a generous few. The owners and staff aren't interested in profits, or we wouldn't have gotten this far, but when it comes to taking money out of our own pockets there's a limit. This means that unfortunately, it's just not feasible to run the site for free anymore - at least, not without making some changes.

However, as we have always tried to be open with you, our fellow metalheads, we will try to be as frank with you as possible during this transition period. The question is, how can the site best support itself? Short of selling the site entirely - and some very lucrative offers have been made - the most obvious answer is through selling adspace. There's really no way around it. Going forward, we will be introducing some unobtrusive banner ads, which won't obstruct anything important but will bring some much-needed revenue to offset costs. Don't worry, no popups!

Still, we know a lot of people hate ads, and Metal Archives has always tried to be ad-free, so in the spirit of that we will also be introducing a few compromises that we hope will keep people happy. These will come in the form of a subscription service. Before we get into the details, we would like to stress that all the basic features of Metal Archives will and always will be available for free - no paywall, now or ever! What these subscriptions will do, however, is provide an easy way for members to help support a site that provides services we all use, while also providing some conveniences they might appreciate.

Firstly, to conserve bandwidth, all non-subscribers will be limited to 15 band page views per day. This should be plenty for most people to get the information they need, while cutting down on pointless (and costly) aimless browsing. All subscription tiers meanwhile will allow for unlimited* browsing, and provide the option to hide the upcoming banner ads. All reports, reviews, and bands submitted by subscribers will be highlighted in their respective queues. Finally, all subscribers will have access to a members-only forum!

Now, on to the tiers! All prices given in USD.

Silver tier: Metal Soldier - $1.99/month
This is the basic package that provides the member services described above. A forum badge is also included, allowing you to show off your contribution!

Gold tier: Metal General - $6.66/month
This tier comes with all the basic perks, along with giving subcribers the ability to edit site info as if they had Veteran status. In addition, their reviews will be accepted automatically. As before, a special forum badge is also included, to display to the masses your love for metal!

Platinum tier: Metal Dictator - $66.60/month
This tier is reserved only for hardcore metalheads only! Along with everything the previous tiers get, this tier also gives honorary moderator status. This means you get an email address using this domain (yournamehere@metal-archives.com), as well as having access to the moderation queues just like a real moderator! Finally, you'll have access to the moderator-only staff forum, giving you a chance to weigh in on all Metal Archives decisions. Does one of your favorite bands deserve to be on the Archives? This is your chance to get them in!

Bands and labels
We are also working out the details of a sponsorship system that will allow full access to edit your own data, as well as priority placement in search results, among other things. Starting at only $16.66/month!

Keep in mind that all of this is pending review and may be subject to change before it goes live. None of this is set in stone, and we're also interested in getting your feedback directly! Come discuss with us using this thread.

Because I'm rich and have excess amounts of cash everywhere, hell there's a crinkled one hundred dollar bill at my foot that I haven't bothered to pick up covered in mealworm dust and mantis turds. I am likely going to get the highest tier.

And then promptly argue for the inclusion of SO MANY BANDS... Especially Kittie! Maybe Ill Nino and Rage Against The Machine too! Led Zeppelin finally having a spot on the archives? Why not Jimi Hendrix too! If the dollar can allow it, the dollar can be spent to allow it, and I have the dollar. A lot of the dollar.

I'll even troll you guys and argue for Sister Hazel or Goo Goo Dolls. But those two are totally JK JK LOL yaknowwhatimean?

MA can only grow stronger with our contributions. It is only natural that we hand them our money. May I suggest an additional pricing tier ($666.66 dollars) that includes access to a sauna? #MA_420Blazin360NoScopez

I execute a ton of site edits and handle much of the report queue, so let me attempt to clarify. We have a lot of bands flagging reports asking for direct control of their pages here. This has led to something of an impasse of editorial morality, and this is a great opportunity for us to appease both sides of the coin, and streamline where the contributions are coming from. We have been having issues with flagrant vandalism as well, and nearly all of our regular contributors will surely pay for (at least) silver tier access. This will help filter most of the sloppier edits through the report queue, which in this case means that seasoned users will be the ones actually performing the edits. This will serve as a failsafe on all fronts and help deal with the server costs as well.

Please don't dismiss this as a ruse, as nothing is changing today or even tomorrow. We are trying to ease into these changes and take account of where the userbase stands before it even has a chance of going live. Site traffic is always up on April 1st for obvious reasons.

LOL

The $666.66 premium service should include a date with a moderator of your choice. Trout fishing with failsafeman? Dinner with Diamhea? Cuddling up and watching an Opeth DVD with Tony? The choice is yours!

You know Acrobat, that's not a bad idea. Maybe to help offset costs we could also look into a kickstarter campaign like a certain Jari Mäenpää has done? Thank you for the feedback!

this is the most fascist, piece of shit forum policy I have ever gazed upon with my free-spirited norwegian eyes. fuck... I will need to drink a pint of mead and go outside to make snow-demons (snow angels are not black metal) just to rid myself of the disgust I feel for this "update". so fucking help me, I will find a way to incarnate this imbecilic idea into human flesh just to spit in it's/his/her face and slap the swastika tattoo out of the skin and cock-swipe the cuban cigar out of the mouth IF this is enforced

That's it metal-archives! Imma head over to spirit-of-metal, the only tr00 source for metal information.

i'm coming with you..... hold the door and fart on the way out

I have no idea if I'll get banned for this, but I will give my opinion anyway.

I would really prefer having ads (cof cof adblock cof cof [just kidding]) than getting limited into the site; why? giving more privileges to the members who has more purchasing power doesn't go with the metal spirit, I think metal is about knowledge, not about money; I know, I know... the site needs money to keep working, I'm not a frreloader, but come on, I am one of those who has tried a lot of times getting my rank up, and now (just an example) a rich kid will come without strive and will get administrative level? where is the fun in this?

Second, I am member of the site because it's an extremely useful tool to get into this world, I practicaly grew up as a metalhead here, and I remember some of the best afternoons of my life here, listening to music while I read the reviews (I do not get an album without checking it here first), if the site is going to charge me for that, I don't see why to come here if there are thousands of pages that offer the same.

I appreciate your job, I'll keep supporting metal-archives, and yes, I'll consider buying a paid membership (just if I see it is worthy), but talking seriously, I don't feel comfortable with this change, I feel it's too radical.

(I'm a marketing student, and I don't see it as a good idea).

Well I was kinda shocked when I accessed MA some minutes ago and the captcha window popped up with some completely illegible band logos (black metal of course...). Luckily I passed this test.

I just want to raise my concerns over the idea about literally BUYING veteran or even mod status as well as automatic review acceptance. I fear this would lead to a certain degree of dilution of the quality of information here at MA.

I guess anyone who loves this site because of it's great value of information on even the most unknown bands and wants it to keep running will be willing to pay something like 5 or 10 bucks per month thus helping to cover the running costs. If just 1000 people (like those who really love this site and love contributing to it like myself - I'm veteran too) would do that I think this already would be a great help.

So I recommend you should NOT add the possibility of buying ranks. If you can get some cash by adding ads to the site, alright. Those users who pay the mentioned fee can browse the site ad-free after logging in. This would be my suggestion for now.

Thanks \m/

Totally agree. Plus Korn, Slipknot and especially Limp Bizkit need to be added. Never got how people didn't think these bands were trv or kvlt

I guess, that PANTERA already bought lifetime membership for $666?

I was totally shocked this morning while trying to browse on metal-archives: I didn't manage to pass the capcha without cheating on the DOM tree of the webpage !
Seriously !
Because I don't like black metal bands I can't browse one of my favorite websites.
This new is a bit schocking for people who invested a lot of time contributing to this website (I didn't really contribute to be honest), as said before someone who pays got more rights than the one that contributes for 6 years?

I wholeheartedly support the decision, as this will finally allow me to argue for the inclusion of wrongly rejected music that is absolutely metal in spirit, like Wagner and Stravinsky. The music by these composers is 100% far more sonically massive than 4/5 of the bands on this site.

Hahaha you guys are brilliant

lol

Why not just have the ads there instead of limiting access to the site? Ads generate a lot of revenue, especially with popular sites like MA.

Such a timely announcement! I just won a lottery of $1M last night and I've been so worried how to spend this shit. May I suggest an even higher level ($6666.66/M) that would allow one to cram non-music materials here? I am a fanatic football fan; I wish to build an side project of all historical football matches.

Not as much as you think. Plus, this way dedicated users can choose their own level of access, instead of having ads impede everybody's browsing. As mentioned, this will assuage the quality of site edits, thus cutting down on staff workload (cleanup) and concurrently relieving the server costs.

Played, but still fun to post:

That Captcha REEEEEEEEAAAAALLY needs to be worked on. It lets you in after two failed attempts, but it's really annoying in the process, considering the type of shit logos nobody can read it comes up with.

I also just woke up and only checked the date after I made the post. I just HAD TO tell everyone how annoying that captcha was.

Haha true!

Just letting you know the captcha is bugged. I got both right (Revenge and Morrigan). Or is it case sensitive? If so, my bad.
And if a paid membership is what it takes to get Europe (early) on here, then so be it.

Well if it's a joke I have to admit it's not a bad one... \m/

However this logo must be added to the captcha:

Nay, I disagree. Ads, if handled carelessly, will impede the browsing experience. However, relevant ads with limited google display network placement, will yield good revenue. Let us do a rough calculation:

Current traffic that MA receives per month is approximate 4 million (Source: http://www.similarweb.com/website/metal-archives.com)
With industry standard CPMs of around $3 - $4 (and I'm being conservative), you stand to earn at least $4000 per month and that is just from ONE banner. Might I suggest some other alternatives so that you can cover your server and operational costs:

1) Tie up with Blastbeat ad network: They've got connections with the best metal websites out there. For eg, Metalsucks and Metal Injection (which are the forefront of metal journalism)

2) Tie up with Hot Topic: I definitely see synergies between this esteemed apparel brand and MA. You could create an affiliate partnership with Hot Topic. Clearly, bands like Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Ghost etc are the most browsed bands on the archives. Why not use that information by cross-selling apparel like CoF tshirts and Ghost buttplugs.

I have more ideas but for that I charge a consulting fee of $696 per day (spent at client site).

Heh, I gave up after the first try and used Google instead.

Well, your decision as a paid member won't override the staff's. We shall have to form an alliance of paid users in order to bring the changes that we want to see.

I propose that you support my nomination of including romantic era composers on the site, and I will give Europe my vote in turn.

I might do that. I don't know about Wagner though. It's so cliche and mainstream. But if Stravinsky is allowed, then Shostakovitch should be too. He's fucking metal!

fucking band logos.

Hi,

You are much too easy on captcha policies. 3 out of 6 logos were actually readable and eventually you let me in, instead of banning the whole country for a week.
My babies will love 2 bucks lactose cut that I will need now to spend on this time waster EM.

I was expecting another mallcore band addition or removal of something kvlt, but know I saw this, it makes perfect sense.
And don't forget to put this on the captcha.

I understand that MA has become a very huge site and that it needs money, I don't live in an imaginary world where everything is free. But honestly, you guys should think in other ways to get money. Buying privileges is not a good idea, and frankly, it's anti-metal-spirit. Paying for automatic review publishing? making ranks about money? what the hell is that?.

So in the future, any kid with no idea about metal but with a lot of money, can act as a site moderator or publish crappy reviews? Sorry, but that's upper-class nonsense. Maybe I am a "hardcore metalhead" but I don't have $66.60/month to spend, don't you think?

I do my best to contribute to this site, and I just can't understand having my access limited in the future. I guess I have to apologize for being a metalhead from an ill-governed southern European country with more than 20% of unemployment rate, and not having money to buy veteran or mod status.

You are planning to introduce a social-class gap that is not reasonable, and that it's not fair.

Please, reconsider this guys. Don't make this site a bourgeois one.

is This actually serious? U guys are going to limit nonpaying users to 15 page views PER DAY? I understand allowing paying users their rightful privileges, but why throttle the rest of us? It is unfair and oppressive and Forces us to pay just to get rid of that limitation. Not to mention all of the mismamagement that bands will do once they have direct control of their pages.

U think Cleaning up edits now is bad, wait until you start letting bands have their way on their own pages. . .

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

Do you take Paypal?

PS. If it is a prank, (hope it is) then, you got me. In Spain we don't celebrate April Fools' Day, so you can't really blame me for taking this seriously.

If it is not a prank, I stick to what I said above.

Stay METAL.

Well I guess I'll cease listening to metal. Since this site is what dictactes my choices and new findings, I follow it closer than a pro paparazzi stalker. Without it I have no guidance, no purpose, no light and colour, I have nothing. And since I'm leaving I'll say this: I do hope that some good samaritan will pay and forcefully add great genius artists who should've been here from the beginning because they're so much better and heavier than shit like Mercyful Fags (great BastardHead review ) and faster than Black Faggath, like Disturbed and Asking Alexandria. Now you can't vomit the argument of being too tr00000 fvcking kvlt to accept those awesome bands... because money. Yeah... money isn't tr00 nor kvlt.

Brilliant captcha ah ah . I failed twice (although I thought I had it right the second time).

pfffffffff. april fools? if not. im outta here.. exactly the gay attitudes i hate