Speaker 1: And now Audio Theater Central. Hello, welcome to Audio Theater Central.
This is the show that explores family friend the audio
drama through news, reviews and interviews. I'm your host, JD. Sutter.
This is episode two ten, and this is not a
typical episode, but there is some breaking news about Adventures
and Odyssey, some huge changes that I felt I needed
to get out to you asap. So if this is
your first time here and you saw the title of
the episode and it pulled you in, thank you for
being here. But just know this is not the regular
format for the show. Come back next time. This is
a bonus episode that is releasing in between our regularly
scheduled programming, So come back next time for a regular
formatted episode or check out something in the archive. But
in any case, thank you for being here. So, as
I said, there are some major changes coming to Adventures
Odyssey that I wanted to share with you, so let's
jump into it right away. We interrupt this program to
bring you a special report and in other news tonight,
a brief look at the headlines. Now, they want exciting,
fast piece news that's relevant and entertaining like this, so
if I may you is a likely dated among us
reference here, I just needed to call an emergency meeting.
Does anyone play that game anymore? I don't know anyway,
no one has been killed, but there has been a death,
just not a person. I'll explain in a moment. So
I recently had a meeting with some of the Adventures
Odyssey team in which they shared with me and a
few other content creators some huge upcoming changes that are
coming to the show. And I want to say, at
the very outset of this, they made it very clear
and I one hundred perc and believe them that they
did not make these decisions hastily. It has been under
consideration and being discussed by their team for a very
long time. So let's talk about what's changing, what's going
to be staying the same, and what these changes mean
for the AIO team, for fans and for other creators.
Adventures and Odyssey is they're the big dog in this
industry in family friendly audio drama, and so changes that
they make have potential to affect the rest of us
in the space who are creating content as well. So
I want to address these announcements with the perspective of
being a fan of the show and also a content
creator in this space, and I don't mean just as
the AIO fan community. I'm talking about as an audio
drama producer as well. So what's changed. Well, I mentioned
there's been a death, and that is the death of
the compact disc, and by that I mean one of
the big announcements from the team was that they are
no longer going to be producing CD albums of the
show post album eighty, so albums seventy nine and eighty
will be the last albums to be released on CD.
And their reasons for that are understandable. It's just not
financially feasible for them anymore. They have been seeing a
decline in purchases of CD albums for quite some time,
and they've been tracking the data and it has just
gone down and down and down to the point where
they are actually even losing money on having the CDs made.
Because think about it, the costs of the materials that
go into making a CD are the physical discs, the cases,
the artwork and the paper they goal on the inserts,
and the printing. So the costs of all those things
have also been increasing at the same time as their
sales have been declining, and so it's just gotten to
the point where it's just not feasible for them financially anymore.
And I understand that. I totally get that though as
a collector, you know, it is sad to see those
go away, but I understand their reasons for it. But
that is not the only thing. Another thing changing is
the death of the digital download. Yes, it's a little
bit hyperbolic to use the term, but I just mean
to say that. Also post Album eighty, you will no
longer be able to purchase albums as a digital download,
So albums seventy nine and eighty are the last that
will be available for purchase on CD or digital download. Also,
the whole idea, the concept of albums of episodes or
volumes as I remember Brock Eastman always used to call them,
those are going to be going away as well. The
distinction between albums and club season episodes is going to
be going away. The club The Adventures Dtsey Club will
be the primary outlet for the show going forward. So
not only is album eighty going to be the last
album available on CD or download, it's going to be
technically the last album period, because everything going forward will
just be episodes available in the club. What this is
doing is giving the team a more fluid release schedule,
and it could potentially allow them to do multi part
episodes more frequently. There will be no more set schedule
of two six episode sets of episodes twice a year,
plus one episode at the beginning of each month as
a club exclusive. There aren't going to be you know,
club exclusive episodes and then album episodes. That distinction once again,
that distinction between types of episodes is going away. They're
all just going to be episodes of the show. So, yes,
that's a lot of stuff that's changing, and some of
the things I understand, some I'm not super thrilled about,
and we're going to talk about that in a bit,
But first let's talk about what's staying the same. So
the radio broadcast will continue as normal. As I said
a moment ago, the club will be the primary outlet,
but not the only because the radio broadcast will still
continue and the broadcast calendar done many many months in advance.
So the broadcast calendar for the rest of this year,
I believe, or at least several months, is already out there.
And I should also have said at the beginning these
changes are not going to be taking effect immediately. There's
going to be a little runway before this actually goes
into effect, because if you haven't stayed on top of
the release schedule. Right now, we're in the middle of
album seventy eight, so seventy nine and eighty are still
to come with the you know, the traditional release schedule
that we've had for several years now. But this will
be coming eventually, and so at that point will episodes
post album eighty enter into radio rotation. We don't know yet.
From what I understand, it is not on the schedule
at this time because as I said, those episodes are
skied scheduled out way in advance. That could change at
some point in the future, but at this point we
don't know. And as to whether or not previously exclusive
club season episodes will ever make it into the radio rotation,
there are no plans to do that as of right now,
but that could change at some point in the future.
We don't know, but they have no plans to do
that as of now. And also staying the same, the
radio broadcast episodes will still be posted on the Adventures
of Odyssey website to stream for free, just as they
have been, so that will continue. Also, the Elsewhere and
Odyssey comics will continue as normal, and there is already
a second volume of those comic strips being planned as
a print product, so that is not going away. The
comics will continue as well the ones posted on the
iiosocial channel. The adventures not to say books will continue.
Those are not going away either. There are also plans
for more official AIO merch options. They have lots of
plans for that to come. I know there were some
hiccups with recent merch drops. They are working on ironing
all of that out and they plan to put a
big focus on that going forward as well. So all
of that stuff is staying the same, and potentially there
will be more focus on these other products as well
as they move into this new season of producing the show.
What's also staying the same is there still will be
twenty four episodes a year, with the possibility of more
than that in the future as they adjust to this new,
more flexible schedule, but it will not be the same
cadence as like I said, you know, a six episode
set in the first half the year and another six
episodes in the second half, with one new one on
the beginning of every single month. That is going to
be shifting, so at some point you may get three
episodes in a single month because they wanted to do
a three parter. Now, I believe the plan is to
still drop those out weekly if they ever do more
than one in a month, so they won't just drop
them all like a full chunk of episodes generally speaking,
though they made it clear that a lot of the
specifics on this kind of stuff could still change, but
this is going to be a much more fluid, flexible
release schedule. So we'll still be getting the twenty four
episodes a year, but just at a slightly different release schedule.
There will still be content coming every single month, but
it won't look like it has in the last several
years now. One thing that is also not changing is
the existing albums that are out there will not be
taken down from retailers. So if they're you know, any
of these places Christian book distributors or Amazon or wherever
that might have CD albums in their inventory, they're not
going to be pulling those down. Any albums that they
have available on the Focus web store, those are not
going to be taken down, but there will be no
new CD inventory made of those existing albums, even the
ones up through album eighty. Once they're gone, they are gone.
And the same remains for the digital versions, the digital
versions of albums that aren't existing now. There aren't plans
at this moment to take those down, but post album
eighty that option will be going away. At least that's
the plan for now. So that's what's staying the same.
So what does all of this mean for the AIO team,
for us as fans, and for other audio drama producers
in this space. Well, what it means for the team
is this is allowing for a much more flexible release
time and freedom to do longer story arcs in a
quicker time frame post album eighty, and there may still
be collections of episodes that are grouped together in the future.
They're still working on the way all of that's going
to look inside the Club. Even though there won't be
official numbered albums going forward, they may still have collections
of episodes that are grouped together in there. But the
clunkiness of the release schedule between club and radio and
CD and download has caused story arcs to stretch out
way too long. And there's been we know there's been
if you've been following the show closely for the last
several years, you know that the time between when a
story arc gets started and it wraps up is just very,
very long. It gets stretched out because of the way
the release schedule was working and trying to maintain the
difference between club episodes and album episodes. And they worked
really hard to make sure that release of the Olivia
arc got sped up, and they were able to make
it work in that case, but they had to make
some changes to make that happen. And you know, you've
probably noticed that some events in the main episodes don't
always mesh with the timeline in the club episodes. And
so I completely understand the reasons for moving away from
this complicated schedule, and I'm excited about the story potential
that this change is going to open up. That all
makes sense to me, and I'm excited about what that
means for the show in terms of content, and I think,
honestly it's a good move. Now. As I said earlier,
as a collector, I am sad to see the CD
albums go away, but I understand the reasons for it.
It makes sense. But as a big proponent of owning
media and not having to rent access to it. I've
talked about that on the show before. I am not
a fan of the decision to discontinue digital downloads now.
I understand that they're not going to be grouping albums together,
but even if there was a way to offer albums
for purchase digital download only at some point in the future,
so at the end of the year, there's a twenty
four episode quote album or collection that you could purchase
the downloads of, so that members of the club are
still getting the benefit of being in there getting all
of that content way ahead of time. But at some
point in the future those episodes are available to purchase.
Unlike the CDs, there's no inventory to maintain, there's no
extra cost to produce a physical product, so I don't
understand the reason to kill off that distribution. ARM and
I did bring that up in the meeting and they
received it and they said we are still open to feedback,
but as of right now, there are no plans to
continue to offer a digital product now. As a creator
and industry critic, I have to say that I would
urge producers to not head in this direction just yet. Now,
if you decide to stop making CDs. I get that.
I understand having done CDs myself in the past. I
understand the logistics and all of the issues that come
with having to have an inventory. There are ways around
that with print on demand services for those of us
who might be doing much smaller volume, but the digital
option I really think should stick around for most producers. Again,
I mentioned the whole concept of owning your content. That
is a big thing. There's been a resurgence and interest
in that in recent in recent years, and especially in
the last several months. I'm hearing and seeing a lot
of people talking about that online, not just in the
audio drama community, but media in general. Books, you know,
ebooks and music CDs and owning albums versus paying to
stream them from Spotify or whatever it might be. There
is a resurgence of interest in physical media in particular,
but also just in the whole concept of owning your content.
And I am a big proponent of that, and I
think making that option available to your audience as you're
trying to build a following for a show is a
good move. Now, Adventures in Odyssey is way past the
point of trying to build an audience, right They have
a huge audience already, they have an existing following. The
club has proved that they have loyal fans who are
willing to pay them every single month to have access
to the show. So they are an anomaly here. They're
in a very different place from most of the creators
in the space. And even though I think this is
a completely different sort of situation, I know that some
people might think about this, So I want to just
mention it and we can talk about it more in
more detail if you want, in a future episode. But
I believe window Seat is a different sort of situation.
As an aggregator, they're trying to do a different thing
than one producer having their own platform. It's a different thing,
and so you can't really equate Window Seat and the
AIO Club. But if you have questions about my thoughts
on that and how that varies or is similar, please
feel free to let me know and we can talk
about that now. There is an episode of the Official
Adventures of Odyssey podcast that just released today as well,
and there is an FAQ page on their website. Both
of them are linked in the show notes of this episode,
and it's going to go into detail and hopefully address
any major questions that you have about this, so you
can head over to Adventuresnodyssey dot com slash next Level
for that information, and of course the podcast in any
of the major podcast directories. But if you have feedback
for the team now again, they said they're very open,
and that has been one thing about this show and
the organization as a whole. They have always been receptive
to hearing what people think. Throughout the history of the show,
going back to the very early days, they have listened
to feedback from their audience. So if you want to
email them, you can send emails to questions at Adventures
Indodyssey dot com, or if you want to talk to somebody,
the regular focus on my Family phone number one eight
hundred A family is going to be open to accept
calls as well, but I think it would probably be
best to go read the faq, listen to the official podcast,
and then weigh in. I think I would say via email, though,
if you really feel like you must call, then you
can do that. But I think email is going to
be better so you can have time to put together
your thoughts and stuff. So again, I think the simplified
release system makes sense story wise. I think it's a
positive change in that regard. I just don't want to
see the option of being able to purchase and own
episodes to go away completely. That's the downside here in
my opinion. The rest of it, it makes sense, and
I understand stand the thinking behind it. So that's a
lot to take in. I understand. And even if you
do decide to reach out to them now, I don't
think you're going to have any chance of changing their
mind on the CDs. But if you feel strongly about that,
let them know about that as well. But there may
be if they hear from enough people who say they
would still like to be able to own the content,
then there is a possibility of digital downloads being revived
at some point. So that is a conversation that they
are willing to have now. Again, they did not rush
into this. This is something that they've considered very carefully.
And so even though some of these changes might seem
like negatives to us as fans, I think it's important
to keep in mind that they're trying to be responsible
with the resources that they have and to keep the
show going for the fans and to make something really cool.
So keep that in mind with any feedback that you share.
But again, if you do have feelings, you do have concerns,
be sure to let it be known. Now, let me
know your thoughts as well. I would love to hear
from you on what you're thinking regarding any of these changes.
I know that there is a shift in the way
media consumption is happening with younger people versus people of
my generation, and I know that some people this might
not affect them all that much at all. For me personally,
I've had issues with the club app and with the
club website over the years. The interface is nice, it's
nice enough, it looks cool, but it's not my preferred
way of consuming content. I much prefer to have my
media in my own media library, and so I rarely
ever listen to content in the club. I purchase every
single album as they come out, even though they're in
the club, I still purchase them on digital download, and
I put them in my own media library because that's
where I listen to my audio drama. That's where I
can build playlists of content and mix in Adventures Nantysey
episodes with other shows and just make my own playlists.
And so I don't want to make this episode all
about me and my desires and my wants and my wishes.
But I'm just explaining where I'm coming from. It's just
easier for me, and it's more convenient, and I enjoy
consuming content that way, and so losing that potential access
to episodes going forward is a downer for me personally.
So if you feel the same, be sure to let
them know. And I'm sure that if you don't feel
strongly about this change, they would be interested in hearing
your feedback on that as well. Remember that these are humans,
these are real people behind all of these decisions, and
so we need to carefully weigh any feedback that we
give and make sure that we're doing it for the
right reasons and are being kind with any feedback. So
that's all that I've got to share in this episode.
We'll be back with the normal episode very soon. But again,
this was just big information that we had to get
out to you and help make sure that you were
brought up to date on what's going on or what's
going to be coming down the road over the next
several months with Adventures in Odyssey. Well. As always, the
show notes are available on our website. Audiotheatercentral dot com
slash two one zero links to that faq page to
the podcast episode. All of that is available. If you
would like to send me your feedback on this, head
over to audiotheatercentral dot com slash contact. I would absolutely
love to hear from you and I will see you
next time. Thank you for listening. Audio Theater Central is
a production of Portland Family Media. Our theme music was
composed by Sam Avandanio. The show is produced and edited
by Yours Truly JD. Sutter, and our website is audiotheatercentral
dot com