As my brother in law is a history teacher with a serious Napoleonics slant, I started downloading the podcast many months ago with a view to listening to it one day.

Well the day came this week when I had a six hour drive up the Queensland coast for work. I had already listened to the TGGP and wanted something to listen to.

Firstly, congratualtions on such an informative podcast. My personal favourite period in military history was the Australians in the pacific during WW2 however your knowledge and enthusiasm for the topic has made me want to learn more about an ERA i had previously never even considered reading about.

Gone are my views that Napoleon was a little cranky man, as after listening to the first five or so podcasts, I know realise that he certainly had the gift for military greatness.

Cheers

George

On DRM/Copying, I’d suggest creating a web site for subscribers with discussion boards and participation by the principals. Podcasts can be copied but the experience of community cannot.

In fact it might be useful to think of the venture as an unsanctioned university course rather then just a series of podcasts. Beyond discussion boards you could have quizzes, “Suggest a thesis” contests, reading groups, all sorts of nonsense. You could bring people beyond listening, and bring them to learning.

My two cents,
BJC

Andrew

Napoleon was not a big fan of La Marsellaise. He preferred to use Veillons Au Salute De L’Empire, though when he came back for the 100 Days I think he went back to La Marsellaise.

As to payment methods, seems to me that Paypal is the best. I’ve never had any problems with it at all. I suppose one could send cash via registered letter. I’m afraid I don’t know much about the other methods mentioned. Anyway, that will be up to Cameron to figure out.

Lots of good suggestions on future topics. I like the idea of doing some topics in a shorter time frame. In truth, I doubt that any of the future topics will take as long as Napoleon has (and is) taking. I think, for example, that Caesar will likely be 12 episodes or so.

As to reaching a select group vs a broader outreach, well, of course, that is the choice one makes when one decides to charge even a small amount for one’s work. Its not an easy decision, but I hope that most people will understand that when one puts in as much time and effort on a project like Cameron and I do, and when one brings that level of expertise to bear, it is reasonable to anticipate some level of compensation eventually.

Thanks to everyone for their ideas and their support!

David

Seriously though, it’d be great no matter what you do.

PS Check on those ipods ;}

Life’s been very busy, after keeping up with episodes 1-21, I’ve just been catching up on all the Russian Campaign podcasts and still loving them…haven’t had much time to post though. Took your survey and would like to say I’d be willing to pay a small monthly fee myself for a subscription, although I really liked the idea someone had about perhaps putting all 40 Napoleon Podcast episodes into a single CD form type of thing. You’d be able to justify charging a pretty fair amount for something like that with all the hours of education and entertainment you have recorded over the past couple of years. Video segments with a tour of David’s personal museum would be great as well.

As far as future subjects go - my favorite will always be the Napoleonic period, but I’d also love to hear something on the French Revolution, or even the late 18th century “Atlantic Revolutions”, combining the Enlightenment with the American War of Independence and the French Revolution/Revolutionary Wars. Before doing anything like this however, I feel the best route for the next couple of podcasts would definitely be Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great in keeping with the “great men of history” theme.
Other figures I’m fascinated by are Caesar Augustus, Constantine, Justinian, Charlemagne, Charles V, Louis XIV, and Frederick the Great. Big fan as well of studying the 19th Century unification movements of Italy and Germany.

Thanks for involving everyone in the input for this!

Vive l’Empereur!

PS - David, I recently found out about an exhibition that will be at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts called “Symbols of Power: Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style 1800-1815″. It opens October 21 and runs through January 27. Have you heard anything about this exhibit or have any personal experience with it elsewhere? Thanks very much.
Red Sox vs. Yankees this weekend here in Boston! Go SOX

First of all congratulations on the NB series, it is fantastic. I would love to see a video version. Could that not be professionally done with commercial or public TV funding?

I am also looking forward to a Julius Caesar series. As for other topics I would suggest other eras in Roman History - wars with Carthage, the decline of the republic, the Julio-Claudian emperors, the ‘good’ emperors from Vespasian to Marcus Aurelius, and the decline and fall. Some of these would be good for some 6 to 12 episode series. Other ideas would be Byzantium and the rise of Islam, the Normans, the Crusades…the list is almost endless.

I’m not a big fan of subscriptions but I would pay for these from you guys, but only because I know how good your content is. My fear would be you would cut yourself off from casual listeners who were curious but not committed.

I think $1 per episode is appropriate and the episodes should become free 3 months after first release, for casual listeners to sample, up to a limit of say 25% of the series total. SO you could listen to the first 3 of 12 but have to pay for the rest.

And of course there won’t be any DRM, as you don’t believe in that business model.

Molly

Re the anthem - my usual answer about why I use La Marseillaise is because I think it symbolizes the French Revolution and Napoleon was the savior of the Revolution. There were some tunes around during his time but nothing quite as evocative or famous.

If earning a living was your (reasonable) concern, then I imagine that $1/podcast with 6000 to 10000 monthly purchases would suffice. However, if you want to reach an audience outside of that smaller group (and I believe that you do), then perhaps you could have an up-front agreement that a paid-for podcast will become free after six months or a year.

I hope there are few Molly’s out there, but perhaps iTunes DRM will give you a good balance between
revenue and user-friendliness.

Also, have you considered less epic series? Perhaps 3-12 episodes on a subject, wrapping up in six months instead of 2+ years? I’m sure you could name a dozen minor historical characters that would still make for interesting discussions.

cheers,
Andrew

Personally, I don’t like the idea of paying for future episodes or paying per month, but I would be happy to pay $1, through iTunes, per episode, upon its release. If by some Herculean feat you managed to release three a week at your current level of quality I wouldn’t complain about paying the $12 per month that that would result in either (in truth I’d be very pleased). Please, whatever you do, let us pay through iTunes rather than PayPal or some other less-trustworthy system.

On Content:

I always saw Napoleon as a failed dictator, and am glad that your podcasts made him into a multidimensional and interesting historical figure. I have an equal lack of interest in Julius Caesar but look forward with confidence to what you are able to do with his history.

I am not terribly interested in hearing more on Napoleon or from other Napoleonic experts, but would be happy to pay the aforementioned $1/episode for a Julius Caesar series, a French Revolution series, or one covering virtually any other historical figure or time period you two gents care to discuss in your engaging style.

thank you for the work you have thus far released,
Andrew Killam

I have a query about La Marsellaise: I love the anthem, but read on Wikipedia that although it had been adopted by the Convention, it was not used as the anthem during NB’s time in power, only later. We have two questions about this: 1. What was Napoleon’s relationship with La Marsellaise (and why didn’t he use it, if that is indeed the case)?; and 2. If it wasn’t used, was any other piece used in this capacity? And would that be more appropriate for the intro to the show (albeit less well known and probably less stirring)?

PS: The survey doesn’t seem to be working properly - it skipped from question 2 straight through to question 5.

do you see the payment channel being via paypal (or similar)?

And it sounds like you know a fair bit about how porn site subscriptions work…

another vote here for a one-off payment model.

subscriptions are a real problem at so many levels.

what do you do for listeners the month you don’t put out a show for whatever reason? will the subscription cancelation work as expected at the end of the season etc etc.

my suggested model is, ask for a one-off up front payment and subscribers get access as the shows are released. after a period, say 3 months sell them on at a $1 per show in meaningfully large batches (5 for $5, say) with the bundle becoming available when the most recent show reaches the deadline (those who wish to can convert from a ‘bundle buyer’ to a full ‘instant access’ subscription for some pro-rata rate). a year later release them for free.

gives you a solid up front lump of funds (refundable if the initial subscriptions don’t make the show worth doing) and an ongoing income stream for a good period of time with bundle sales and hopefully recruiting more subscribers as people experience the obvious quality of the bundles. Lastly the social good gets satisfied with the free versions once they become ‘archive’ material.

appears more complex but at no time are you using the ongoing subscription model of porn sites which causes no end of trouble and bad feeling when things don’t flow smoothly (and life has a habit of not flowing as we hope), honestly it would be as complex as it sounds here once laid out in a well design site and purchase form.

anyway just throwing it out there.
do recheck the survey logic, still seems ‘broken’.

Randy - Charlemagne is certainly an interesting subject. Not someone we’ve ever talked about though.

Ron - you’re right, that doesn’t make sense. I’ve fixed it (I hope!).

Joshua - you might be right, and that’s why we are asking people. So far the response has been pretty positive though. WWII would be terrific. I would love to do a show on it. I know David is quite knowledgeable about it as well, but I think we’re both attracted to talking about the ancient stuff next.

The only podcasts that can usually get listeners to pay to my knowledge are fitness podcasts and seduction podcasts both which really have the goal of getting you more sex, something a lot of people aspire to and history doesn’t help a lot with; though perhaps Barbara might debate me on that point

As for JC I’ve never really found him all that interesting so I wouldn’t be so bothered about hearing about him. The Napoleonic age has so many interesting figures and quality recording of events you could probably go on about it for a long time.

I suppose if you were really ambitious you could cover WW2, it has been done to death but rarely in a complete form and certainly not in a podcast.

Not that this is a topic either of you are particularly well educated to my knowledge but I find coverage of modern warfare post Vietnam and its anticipated evolutions in the future a fascinating subject. Sure there’s no standout figure like Napoleon but I think its really such fertile uncovered ground too, you can be really hypothetical about it and no one can call you up on it You can even be pretty controversial seeing as the conflicts are more recent. That might attract press coverage? Who knows you might even be able to make money from war buffs. But maybe thats a project for Cameron to work with someone else on.

I just think with the continuing war in Iraq people are probably more interested than ever in what the US military can do, why its superior technology has not saved the lives of thousands of soldiers and what future technology may be able to.

cheers

Ron

A tough choice for me by the way between more on Nap or JC.

If you do video, pls if possible do it so I can still
just listen to the audio side only. To me the benefit of podcasting is that you can enjoy it while being mobile.

I am really looking forward to a Julius Ceaser podcast. I am sure it will be almost as long or longer then the Napoleon Podcasts. Instead of paying a monthly subscription, I think it would be better to pay a one time subscription of $25 or $30 dollars for the whole series. If you are going to put the Napoleon podcast on DVD your max was $30. On the survay some of the shows you also mentioned are a vidoe podcast of the remaining shows. I have an ipod nano that does not support video, so I don’t know who that would work to download. Another option was one on the french revolution. You covered the revolution pretty good, I thought, during this podcast. I think you should do a Julius Ceaser podcast.