Club MacStories Releases New Plans

Plans

A brief summary of the updated Club MacStories plans.

Club MacStories

• $5/month or $50/year
• MacStories Weekly newsletter
• MacStories Unplugged podcast
• Monthly Log newsletter
• Free downloads

Club MacStories +

• $10/month or $50/year
• Everything in Club MacStories
• More exclusive stories
• Discord community
• Web app with search and RSS
• Discounts and other goodies

Club Premier

• $12/month or $120/year
• Everything in Club MacStories and Club MacStories +
• AppStories+ podcast
• Full-text search for show notes

First off, I am currently a Club MacStories subscriber and really enjoy what that contains. MacStories has added two more tiers to purchase more content starting Monday, August 23rd.

I love the behind the scenes from sites that I visit. There are many creators that have realized this and have brought in more content, such as MKBHD starting a second YouTube channel - Studio - with a first video of an office tour. Something many people like myself have wanted for a long time. Another that comes to mind is RelayFM's recent subscription plans that give extra podcast content as well as access to a Discord (sounds familiar).

Should I subscribe?

The MacStories Weekly newsletter is the main selling point to subscribe to the club. It is basically a written expanded form of the free weekly podcast - MacStories Unwind, not to be confused with the monthly podcast - MacStories Unplugged. I enjoy the extra content of the newsletter as well as having photos and more in-depth writing from John and Federico. There is also an app debut section that is a great summary of the week's new apps and app updates. Some of the other sections that I enjoy, are interviews and shortcuts corner. In the Unplugged podcast, the MacStories folks go way behind the scenes and discuss more in-depth personal stories. One example that I enjoyed was Federico's trip to Rome's via del Corso Apple Store.

The other perks are some eBook versions of Federico's reviews, wallpapers, shortcut icon discounts, and honestly items that do not warrant a $5 subscription, but are nice little additions. The question for me to subscribe to drop $5/month on all of this content is a no brainer. This is a very easy subscription for me to continue with all the added value I get, not to mention helping keep the site running and supporting two very entertaining and intelligent guys.

Should I upgrade?

First, should I double what I currently pay to get MacStories + and what all will I get for upgrading? The bulleted list has more exclusive stories, but in the FAQ on the plans page, there is more information about what is included. Automation Academy sounds like shortcuts corner on steroids where Federico gives monthly Apple Shortcut lessons where homework is assigned. John will have a Macintosh Desktop Experience that will have in-depth Mac related articles. There will also be exclusive app discounts and who doesn't love a discount?

Discord

Many subscription based add-ons are including Discord community additions. This doesn't seem like the usual "here is a link to our discord, have fun" type of addition. They have created a Code of Conduct and have already assembled a team of moderators. The Discord will be used for town halls with live talks, an A/V club with watch alongs, and beta beat with app developer interviews.

Calliope

Calliope is a web app and content management system that allows MacStories to be broken down into sections. The backlog of weekly and monthly newsletters that were all stored in an archive. When I first subscribed to Club MacStories, I clicked on a few of the back catalogue, but didn't really find much use out of month or year old newsletters that were hard to read to pick and choose what articles to read without endless scrolling. With Calliope I will be able to refine searches on MacStories and with the ease of Safari Reader. Another great feature that I will be diving into is to create custom RSS feeds from MacStories content. This feels like the future and replacements of newsletters. Instead of subscribing to a newsletter and having to read the information from an email client, I will be able to subscribe to certain sections of a newsletter.

AppStories+

AppStories is a free weekly podcast that hosts John and Federico discuss what is happening with apps. This includes interviews, personal stories, etc. and is a great podcast all on its own. With AppStories+ you receive the podcast ad-free, released a day early, and of course extra content. This podcast can be a $5/month or $50/year subscription as well or discounted in the Club Premier subscription.

Club Premier

When the announcement that AppStories+ was made a week before the big announcement of all the different plans, I had hoped there would be a combination plan with AppStories. I thoroughly enjoy both and didn't want so many subscriptions from the same group. Thankfully, my hopes were fulfilled with the Club Premier level subscription. This extra tier adds AppStories+ for just $2/month or $20/year more. With this tier, I do not see why anyone would not pay the extra couple bucks to get the extra content.

Final Thoughts

I love getting behind the scenes content and I am willing to pay for it when I enjoy the content creators. I also am really intrigued by Calliope and diving into each writing (hopefully I will be there someday) as well as the upcoming sections the John and Federico will produce. I had planned to pull all my thoughts together and provide a nice long summary of all the incredible updates from MacStories, but I'm going to go binge on App Debuts instead. Thanks Federico and John!