As I expressed earlier this week, it’s been a bit tough lately dealing with a Google algorithm that seems intent on surfacing AI slop and prioritizing it over our great original reporting. You, dear readers, answered the call and we’ve seen a huge uptick in membership in all categories except one: Cloth Monthly. I think I know why, so we’re fixing it. Cloth Monthly is now just $5 if you click this link.
One of the exciting aspects of doing a membership program like this is learning as you go. While we did look at our competitive set and took advice and inspiration from others, some of this was just guessing. We didn’t even have “Cloth” level when we launched, and we had to think long and hard about pricing it. There’s a transaction fee we pay every time someone renews, so we pay the fee 12 times for a monthly member versus once for an annual member. That, and for planning purposes, we’ve made the annual plans cheaper.
When we launched Cloth Annual, it was $70. And Cloth Monthly was $7. We ended up lowering the Cloth Annual price to $50, but we kept the monthly price because of the fees. This made sense at the time, but during this last drive, a couple of you pointed out that the price delta didn’t work for them. So we lowered it. You can also click the button below to order.
If you’re a current Cloth Monthly member, thank you! When your plan renews, it’ll be $2 cheaper. If you’ve been holding out from becoming a member because you thought $7 was too much, well, we’ve solved the problem!
As a reminder, for $5, you get special access in our Discord, member emails, an invite behind the paywall, and a chance to win swag we randomly give out. Full details on what you get at every level can be found here.
Thanks to everyone for the helpful feedback and just for helping create the greatest car community on the web.
I presume that cloth membership works for people outside the USA as well? Not just the Vinyl & Velour foreign legion.
And can anyone from the UK answer if there are overseas transactions fees paid on the monthly or annual memberships?
Joined! Thanks for being such an authentic, curious group of folks. Also thanks for going down to $5 – the psychological gap between $7 and $5 is irrationally massive.
FIXED!
Trick or treat. I’m in.
Hey Matt, Velour member here and I just got my new shirt, pin, and license plate frame. Weird is good!
WEIRD IS GREAT!
Alright, I did it. I’m a member now. I couldn’t pass this up
I finally pulled the trigger after being here more or less since y’all launched, it’s well worth the cost to keep content like this on the internet!
Matt… there’s some people still holding out hope for the $3.50/mo “burlap” tier.
$2 Duct taped seats tier…
AI will kill all real content, and we’re soon to be in a feeback loop with no original thought. I hope Im wrong.
They’ll figure out a way to make it “adequate” for most people to use, otherwise they wouldn’t stay trapped in that system. They’ll probably have the AI (probably aided by “deals” with real publishers to use their content more-or-less directly) filter out/replace the bad AI content, “solving” the problems they created and securing control of more information and control over people’s attention.
“We” won’t be stuck in it, though. At least not for automotive news. The value of humanity and making choices as consumers interacting with creator-controlled platforms instead of private-equity-looted corporate sites is being proven.
Hey Matt. Just as an aside,will you bring back the podcast again? I really enjoyed it,and if you make it a members only thing it could help increase the subscriptions probably.
I finally became an official member. I appreciate what you folks do, and if I can be one more tiny part of fighting back against the enshittification of the Internet, it’ll be worth it.
Is there an easy way to tell what membership level we are?
Along the top right, click on “Account”. Then on “Subscriptions”
Finally pulled the trigger on membership at $50/year for cloth, but I was sad to see the podcast has been discontinued for more than a year ????
Tell me about it. I’ve been stocking up on booze to make sure I appear at my most unbroadcastable, and they haven’t even asked me to do it!
An outrage I tell you. All that booze just sitting there.
I would listen to this AdrianCast.
I’m also in the group that has upped their membership tier this past week. It’s been on the list of things to do for a while, just need a bump to push over that edge.
Thank you for what you write, and the community you’ve built here.