{"id":1393,"date":"2010-02-16T08:51:12","date_gmt":"2010-02-16T16:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2010\/02\/kinda_like_netflix_only_for_li\/"},"modified":"2010-02-16T08:51:12","modified_gmt":"2010-02-16T16:51:12","slug":"kinda_like_netflix_only_for_li","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/kinda_like_netflix_only_for_li.php","title":{"rendered":"Kinda like Netflix, only for live theater"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An increasing range of entertainment these days is available through a monthly all-access payment rather than a per-use or per-unit cost. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.netflix.com\/\">Netflix<\/a> offers unlimited on-line movies and DVDs for one monthly payment. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rhapsody.com\/\">Rhapsody<\/a> offers access to a jukebox in the clouds for a monthly fee, as well. Now Seattle&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.acttheatre.org\/\">ACT Theater<\/a> is playing with the same idea for live theater, and it seems to be catching on.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/kuow.org\/program.php?id=19396\">ACT&#8217;s &#8216;monthly membership&#8217;<\/a> costs audiences $25 per month, but offers unlimited access to the theater&#8217;s performances. Says ACT Executive Director Carlo Scandiuzzi:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Like a gym membership. What it does, it appeals to a younger<br \/>\nconstituency that wants flexibility, doesn&#8217;t want to be tied to let&#8217;s<br \/>\nsay, I have to be here every other month. It frees them, they can call<br \/>\nthe day before, see a play, a dance, whatever.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The program already has 350 members, the goal is for 1000 by the end of the year. And as a side benefit, the initiative makes a benefit out of available seats in their venue rather than a lost opportunity. Kinda cool.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>UPDATE: Several folks have pointed me to <a href=\"http:\/\/chrisashworth.org\/blog\/2009\/10\/14\/toward-a-new-funding-model-for-theater\/\">Chris Ashworth&#8217;s exploration of the membership model for theater<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/lessthan100k.wordpress.com\/2009\/10\/15\/netflix-youtube-time-money\/\">Scott Walters&#8217; riff on Chris&#8217; idea<\/a>. Both worth a reading and a ponder. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An increasing range of entertainment these days is available through a monthly all-access payment rather than a per-use or per-unit cost. Netflix offers unlimited on-line movies and DVDs for one monthly payment. Rhapsody offers access to a jukebox in the clouds for a monthly fee, as well. Now Seattle&#8217;s ACT Theater is playing with the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}