ally77 said on July 7, 2003 15:10:

Simple answer if your not happy with your Roxette membership then don’t renew it!!!

juneafternoon said on July 7, 2003 21:12:

Yea, Judith.
It’s LP.
I was blown away to see all the extras that come with the membership.
What surprised me was that Roxette was a #1 band too. (As we all know)
LP has never neglected the fans. They are extremely great business guys. They are aware that right now there are like millions of nerds (like us, have to admit) surfing the net. They are aware of the market. They see that the more they offer, the more fans will buy and better things will come.
What I’m critic about and that applies to all the fans:
Why the hell doesn’t the fanclub or EMI copy good ideas like the LPFanclub instead of bad ones like banning Napster?
I hate the fact that the OIRFC has photosets only.
I’m not 12 anymore. And if you try to help selling Roxette stuff like shoulderbags, calendars, hats, and so on...you must pay EMI? What’s that????
Oh, by the way, I don’t have a membership with the OIRFC...and I don’t think anyone should.
I think it’s hard enough for me to have to accept the fact that Roxette won’t be around for another 10 years (maybe not even 7). And on top of that I have to deal with some unsupportive Fanclub?
I said it once, and say it again: EMI sux.
I love Roxette with all my soul...I wish the fanclub would feel the same.
Which brings me to another question:
HOW (TO YOUR POINT OF VIEW) IS THE BEST WAY TO SUPPORT ROX???
(Please consider that MTV, OIRFC, EMI and radio stations doesn’t care)
Please don’t get mad at me.
I’m not the one to blame.
Sorry, guys....but LP ROX!!!
(Or at least the membership does)

Jud (moderator) said on July 7, 2003 21:58:

NOTE: LONG post! :)

Ok, Linkin Park: you are talking about a band that is having its best times now, that has 100% support from their company, Warner, and who have tonz of fans all around. So I am sure that they have more than 5000 or even 10000 members in their fanclub.

This what you have posted looks like my dream fanclub for me, meaning I would love to see such a fanclub for Roxette, and I have had these ideas many times in the past, actually I have a project laying around somewhere, but they never came true. The keys are: money, time + support.

Time: Many of these official fanclubs have somebody working full time in it, this means getting a salary and having the “xxx fanclub president” as a normal job. This also means the person(s) works 8 hrs or more a day for this fanclub. So it is not like a hobby for them, they don’t run the fanclub in their spare time. Others get family members to run the fanclub (ie. Bon Jovi’s mum ;)).

Support + money: most of these great official fanclubs have lots of support from their record companies + artists. Take as example LP. They are “IN” now, Warner has spent millions on their promotion, and promotion includes the fanclub, because they know that there is nothing better than having a happy fanbase to spread the word about the band. So such fanclubs get a lot of help from the record company, in shape of money, merchandise, etc etc. AND this band is special: they are there THANKS to their fanbase.

and step by step:

/NEW Special Edition CD with unreleased and live tracks
/NEW exclusive t-shirt design
/Exclusive key chain
/Exclusive stickers
/Exclusive guitar pick
/Personal Membership card
/Exclusive 8X10 band photo

>>> this costs money and of course, the more members you have, the greater deals for tshirts, printing stickers... you can get. When you have like 5000 or 10000 members, a tshirt can cost 1$. We still have 19$ to go. Another thing, these fanclubs ARE a busines, there is a busines plan behind it, meaning they do not this just for the joy, but for the money in this means. It also means the band has “donated” these tracks.

/Introductory letter from the band

>>> this depends more on the management/ record company/ band’s involvement with the Fanclub. For what I have experienced with Rox.. you really have to beg to get some support from above (and especially talking about Spanish EMI).

On the other side, Marie + Per have sent out faxes/messages to the fans from time to time, maybe this makes up a bit for the “introductory letter” the members don’t get. Actually I think this wouldn’t be so difficult to get from P&M :)

/Annual newsletter

>>> you get the magazines.. 4 of them, yeah I know, a membership entitles you to 4 reviews, and they can be sent .. whenever. In any case, there is people *working* behind such fanclubs, so I guess it doesn’t take more than 2 days to collect the news from a year + put it in a newsletter to be sent 1x a year ;)

/Access to the members only website

>>> what is in this members only site actually? What does it offer?

/Ability to purchase PRESALE tickets to band’s shows before anyone else, and get the BEST available seats

>>> Fans could buy tickets for some of the shows in Sweden for RS tour at the Fanshop and they were allowed to get in the venues before any other who had bought ticket somewhere else, so members got the first rows of the 3 venues. This also depends on the tour promoter (EMA in Rox case) and their willingness to cooperate with the FC.
The venues Rox has been playing at didn’t have best seats or similar to buy, it was either arena first row standing or sitting quite far away.. So I guess these pre-sale tickets / best available seats you talk about apply to US theatres / venues where everybody is sitting from the first row till the last one. IF this would be the case with ROx/ PG/ GT/ MF, I am sure the FC would get the best tix for (some of) the shows, actually, as i said before, the fans had the chance to get in the venues before anybody else and run to get the first rows, so + - it was the same.

/Chances to meet the band at exclusive meet & greets and shows

>>> THIS was done during the RS tour and might happen again in the future :)

You seem to have forgotten about Pers release party :)

/Your OWN e-mail address [name@band’s-name.com]

>>> who would want a rox.nl address? ;)

/Rare audio and video clips

>>> who wants to pay for this when you have great Roxbytes (and others) offering it for free? ;)
In any case, such audio / video sharing has to be applied some copyright rights, which the Rox FC should get free of charge from EMI. On the other side, you have roxette.se which should offer these “exclusive” clips...

/Access to participate in the messageboard and chatroom

>>> oh well, why to limit to a “closed board”? I am more than happy with the open runto.roxette.org/forum, roxetteforum.com and www2.dailyroxette.com/smalltalk :D

/Immediate access to a 15% off discount on all merchandise online

>>> as I said before, when you have 10.000 members, you can afford such offers. So the more members a fanclub has, the higher chance for it to offer discounts and free stuff. It also depends on the conditions you get from the distributor (EMI in this case), how much support you get from record company etc.

/Access to exclusive merchandise

>>> this IS a fact with the fanclub, actually the only way to get exclusive merchandise is either via FC or ebay.com/.de or some others who get it for free from EMI and then sell it for astronomic prices. So there is access to exclusive merchandise.

/Chances to meet the band, enter contests and get presales on tickets.

>> you mentioned that before, but anyway, the FC has set up m&g, contest (remember the party with PG in Halmstad just like 1 month ago?) ... for members only.

/The band themselves post messages and videos/songs within the site!!!

>>> oh well, this doesn’t depend on the fanclub but the bands willingness to be in touch with the fans. So if Per wants to join a chat every month for members only, he is welcome to do so, but first he has to WANT to do so... :S
There’s another band that works fantasticly with the fans: Eskobar. One of the band members has set up a website where he (and the other 2 band members) posts replies to the forum, news, information etc. They do that because they want to.

See what happened with the “ask Per” section in Roxette’s official site!

EMI / Dimberg/P&M have helped the fanclub a lot and they are most of the time - when it is possible - willing to give away meet& greets, tickets etc. but I guess that’s not enough if you want to have a fantastic great amazing fanclub with lots of free stuff when you sign up etc.

So as always, it all depends on the band’s success & money the record company wants to invest in the band’s promotion.

Roxette-atic said on July 8, 2003 09:06:

I remember that UK fanclub. As you said, it was PURE crap. They never sent me any of the stuff that I payed for. The ONLY thing I got was a pink paper with a Per interview where I heard about the song “Vulnerable” for the first time.

Vixzter said on July 8, 2003 14:03:

I used to get the gazette things from that UK FC.......but whichever company ran it totaly screwed ppls coz they sold tickets for the CBB tour and then went bust and didn’t distribute them.

I don’t know where the UK FC thing started, it said official but I’m pretty sure it never was.....if anyone wants I can take pics of the gazettes and put them online, haven’t got a scanner otherwise I’d scan them.

Denstandigaresan said on July 8, 2003 14:43:

I have a scanner... and all the old UK fanclub mags... :)
Yep, I was screwed also! LOL! I renewed the week they went bust! DOH!
Never got my photos etc, but got my sticker and patch... which I was happy with. :) And I also have my penpal request on the back of one of them. :) Ok... now i’m going mad. I had my penpal request on a something roxette... but i’ve looked and it’s not this?! LOL! I’m going mad! Hehehe! Does anyone remember anything else going around back then?! Hehehe! :D

Vixzter said on July 8, 2003 16:29:

@Nox 1983: thats a matter of opinion.

Denstandigaresan said on July 8, 2003 19:50:

Ally, I think that is where I first knew of you. :)
My friend Andrew wrote to you from either that or an fb, because he was shocked to see another british fan!

RobS said on July 9, 2003 09:05:

Was the fanclub around during joyride/cbb times?I’m sure that if it was then EMI would definetely have supported it seeing as rox were very big back then.

I’d be quite interested to see what happens with the LP fanclub in ten years time - if they’re still giving out free cd’s and t-shirts etc.

I’m just happy that Rox are still around after all this time creating great music, even without alot of support from there record company (esp in OZ).