VaclavSV

How many of you are signing up at $4/month?

http://www.pistonheads.com/news/defa...?storyId=30564

Bardman

I enjoy his videos, but there is definitely a repetiveness to them, and calling them reviews is quite generous (I'd call them more an on the spot opinion rather than an indepth review of the strengths and weaknesses of the cars).

There is a huge jump between free content and something people have to pay for (in terms of getting people to open their wallets), I would think his content would need to become a lot more professional if he wants people to pay for it.

Guilty

I enjoy his videos but I wouldn't call them reviews... more like "impressions". They're not too technical.

natman316

i wonder why there hasnt been uploads from him in a while...thanks for posting this.

enjoy his videos but im not sure if i would pay to watch them.

p30amg08

Ya no thanks. ..

Shows u what happens when u get bought out....

alexmtl

I can't believe you guys are so negative about this. I like Chris Harris. And I want him to make money out of his car reviews. I'd pay 4$ a months if there's a decent amount of reviews per month.

vmx128

I can see why this is happening. Even though he makes some amazing videos, they really don't get enough views to generate decent ad revenue. He would need millions of views on each video, and multiple such videos a month to generate enough revenue to support this endeavor. Unfortunately, a lot of teeny bopper crap videos generate million of views on YouTube, but quality content like Chris' videos don't always reach million or more views.

I would happily pay $4 a month if they produce enough quality content.

Starky_

I doubt he's getting more money from this, if anything NBC/DRIVE is making the most. If he had his own dedicated channel, I would be more than glad to pay a small amount monthly for his videos to support him.

Illegal Machine

http://drive.jalopnik.com/ask-drive-...nel-1613336682

I saw this on Jalopnik. They try and dismiss it as "Only $3.99 a month"....but when you consider that's half the cost of Netflix, it puts it in perspective.

Matt Farah's stuff is great, and so is Big Muscle. I love Chris Harris. It's all entertaining....for free. Is it worth seeing a chunk of change come out of my bank account each month for it? Ehhhhhh....

They tout that it'll give them the opportunity to release more "long form" videos, but don't really define what that means. Is long form a 30 min episode? Or is an 8 minute review "long form" compared to Youtube's 3-4 min reviews?

I wish them the best. The pressure to not throw out some stinker episodes will go WAY WAY WAY up when you've got people paying each month.

In my opinion, you'll see comparable quality on Mototrend's youtube videos, and EVO as well. Not quite worth it.

350Zed

Sorry Chris... I'm a huge fan, but if you can't figure out how to monetize your videos on YouTube, as many others have, that's your fault. Don't expect me to pay.

BLKROKT

I like Chris. He drove my 996TT at an event in the UK a few years ago (and liked it a lot). Seemed like a good dude, and I enjoy his commentary. His video on the P1 drive at Yas Marina is epic. Not paying 4 bucks a month though, sorry. Sell advertising man.

C65AMG

Sorry Chris Harris I rather spend the money on a subscription for a good automotive magazine.

-Marlin-

F him!

Nothing worth paying for there unless you want to hear someone ask brain dead questions of engineers and say repeatedly "It's a new thing".... about every damn car. Yeah, no shi+

I remember when he asked the head of Mclaren about the electric motor/gas hybrid design of the P1. You can tell how stupid someone is by the questions they ask. He gave it away. He says "well, if the electric motor doesn't work then the car won't start" as if he discovered an inherent flaw in the design. The head of Mclaren looked at him like he was retarded and said that it's no different then a regular car because we have batteries and starters to turn the crank. There's not a single car guy that didn't see that coming.

The audacity of this guy to charge money for his opinion rises to the level of Rob Dahm telling me what it's like to own a Lamborghini. Do these people have any clue of how big of a douche they are to the rest of the world?

rory breaker

Kind of like ****. Plenty for free, who pays?

VaclavSV

Haha

izzy63

But can u drift like him tho

-Marlin-

With practice and the keys to high end cars...sure.

I don't think drifting is something difficult to learn, given the opportunity to work on it.

izzy63

Ya I doubt it

jrcart

Chris who???? Yep, that's what everyone will be saying in 12 months time when he is a social media has been. Whomever thought this up is a flaming idiot. Sell, a must view avertising spot at the front end of the video, sell some product placement in the videos. People are not going to pony up $4.00 to watch a stupid video. It's not even the measly $4.00, it's the principle and the fact that I dont want to take the time to enter in my CC info to watch a ten minute video. This is what they call professional suicide my friends.

zibby43

Hold up here for a second.

Are you telling me you will work for free?

No disrespect but I mean come on, the guy has to eat.

The production quality of the videos is outstanding. He's not just some hack with one GoPro.

My 2 cents.

jrcart

No disrespect but how old are you? It is evident that you do not keep up on current business trends. Business does not get done like that these days, especially when you are talking about internet or social media related business. Nobody wants to work for free but subscription stuff is so last decade or even 1990's. How much did you pay to join this site? How does MB World operate for free for it's users? Sponsors and advertisments, that's how! Open up the App store on that iPhone sitting in your pocket, over 90% of all iPhone and Android/Google Play Apps are FREE to users. Did the App builders do it out of the kindness of their hearts??, no, they generate revenue from advertisers, sponsors, links and upsells. How much did you pay for your Facebook profile? Poor Mark Zuckerberg, how is that poor guy going to survive with millions of people using his site for free???? How does Pandora Radio operate without charging a red cent for their basic service? Advertisements, that's how! News Flash, that's how things are done these days regarding social media and whomever the genius is that deciced that they should charge $4.00 a month to watch Chris Harris videos will soon be in line at some local unemployement office and Chris Harris will not be too far behind I'm guessing. Mark my words, Chris Harris will be done in a year or they will be free to view again.

Illegal Machine

It's not just for Chris Harris' videos. It's $3.99 a month (or $40 for the year) for the /Drive+ network. So you get Matt Farah's stuff, Big Muscle, etc. They said they're going to do "long form", TV quality programs on the /Drive+ (paid version).

The /Drive network will still be there for free, you just won't get the "long form" TV quality videos on there.

I've yet to have "long form" defined by anyone.

jrcart

Even still, not many people will pay for something today that was free yesterday. How many of you would pay $50.00 a year to use MB World if they decided they were going to start charging users? ...and like I said earlier it's not even about the money for me or most of us on this site for that matter, hell I made $50 in the time it took me to type this post, it's principal and convienience.

zibby43

None taken.

But to answer your question, I run my own business. I'm also an attorney.

I don't think you can directly compare MBWorld's structure, or Pandora's, to Drive's. For example, Pandora has over 200 million registered subscribers. Pandora collects much more advertising money than Drive.

Furthermore, with respect to MBWorld's structure, what is the overhead to keep the servers up and running? They don't pay the moderators, I know that. Do you think MBWorld's overhead is greater than Drive's?

The Chris Harris/Drive F40/F50 video cost $15,170 to shoot. To date, it has grossed $8,090.

The P1 review? Total revenue thus far (despite millions of views) is $15,506.

Not trying to sound like a jerk but it is evident to me that you did not read what I said carefully (either that or you took my "Would you work for free?" quip literally; thought that was quite obviously hyperbole). Why do I say this? Because I never argued that Chris Harris/Drive could not make a profit with the previously existing structure.

The question is not actual profit but the margin after production costs. Why are we blaming him for wanting to make MORE money?

Don't we all want to make more money and be rewarded commensurately for the quality of our work?

I'm not going to all of a sudden say I am willing to take a 1/6 contingency fee instead of the traditional 1/3 because I would still in the black after switching to the 1/6.

Illegal Machine

They did a Q&A with the /Drive guys and I said the same thing. Matt Farah was like "It's ONLY 3.99!".

My point was that's HALF THE COST of Netflix. And I get a hell of a lot more out of Netflix than 4 7 minute videos each month.