Change, Don’t Be Left Behind!
Friday, November 7th, 2008Starting Monday, November 10th all lessons three weeks or older will be moved to the Basic subscription section of the site. The first three lessons of every season and every level will remain free forever on the site.
What does this mean for you?
If you’re an active Basic or Premium member, you will be unaffected. Absolutely nothing will change. Furthermore, long-time listeners enjoying the most recent episodes, you are also unaffected. Lessons less than three weeks old will remain absolutely free on the site and on the feed. In addition, the first three lessons of all levels and all season will still be free on the site for you to study from, so continue to enjoy JapanesePod101.com lessons.
Listeners and users focusing on older content will be affected. We understand that this sudden change may disrupt your studies, and that is why we are offering 45% OFF any Basic or Premium subscription through Saturday, November 15th. You can now take advantage and have continued access to JapanesePod101.com, for a fraction of the regular cost. This will put you ahead of the game, as we plan to increase the value of Basic and Premium subscriptions with exciting new features and content in the upcoming months.
Existing Basic and Premium members, you too can take advantage of this offer and extend your subscription for a fraction of the regular price! With our hassle-free extension of your subscription, the steeply discounted subscription will automatically take effect after your current subscription expires.
More Must Know Information
Why are the lessons no longer free?
The lessons are still free! If you’re subscribed to the public feed, you will get every single new audio lesson that JapanesePod101.com puts out. Let us just repeat that, “You will get every single new audio lesson free!” You can download these onto your computer and keep them there locally forever! It is like TV. Watch and enjoy your favorite episodes for free on the day they are released.
In addition, if you are new to JapanesePod101.com you can also access ALL of the lessons and content for 7-Days when you sign up for a Free Lifetime account.
Sign up for a FREE Lifetime account and access every single lesson for 7 full days!
Wait there is still more!
You also get 10 Free Full Lessons with the Sample Feed.
Claim your 10 Free Full Lesson here!
And don’t forget, the first three lessons for all levels and all season remain absolutely free on our website!
What’s changing then?
Audio lessons older than three weeks will become part of the Basic subscription. To access lessons that are older than three weeks, a basic subscription will now be required. Existing Basic and Premium Members will, of course, have continued access to all the lessons.
We know that for users studying with older lessons this can be a bit of a sudden change. That is why we are offering 45% OFF any Basic or Premium subscription through Saturday, November 15th. You can now take advantage and have continued access to JapanesePod101.com, for a fraction of the regular cost. This will put you ahead of the game, as we plan to increase the value of Basic and Premium subscriptions with exciting new features and content in the coming months.
Take advantage of this limited time offer!
When will this change happen?
Monday, November 10th, 2008
Act now and receive 45% OFF any Basic or Premium subscription through Saturday, November 15th,
Coupon expires Saturday November 15th. Act now!
I’m already a Basic or Premium Subscriber… Does this affect me?
Not at all! You can access all audio lessons, new and old. Your subscription will not be affected at all.
Existing Basic and Premium members, you too can take advantage of this offer and extend your subscription for a fraction of the regular price! With our hassle-free extension of your subscription, the steeply discounted subscription will automatically take effect after your current subscription expires.
Click here to extend your access of all existing lessons!
Why are you doing this?
Our supportive community deserves the best and most cutting edge resources for learning Japanese fast. To continually create new content with innovative approaches takes significant amounts of resources. This may be hard to understand now, but when our vision comes to life, the benefits to our supporters will be clear. Our community will be able to enjoy videos, an upgraded learning center, and the newest technologies and learning methodologies.
Taking advantage of the 45% OFF coupon will give you instant access to all the audio, powerful learning tools, and more! It will also put you ahead of the game, as we plan to increase the value of Basic and Premium subscriptions with exciting new features and content in the coming months.
I don’t want to pay… what can I get for free?
You can still get all of the newest and up-to-date lessons! Again, our new audio lessons will still be free. You can download these onto your computer and keep them there locally forever! It is like TV. Watch and enjoy your favorite episodes for free on the day they are released.
In addition, you can also access all of the lessons and content for 7 Days when you sign up for a Free Lifetime account.
Access every single lesson for 7 full days!
Wait, there’s more!
You also get 10 Free Full Lessons with the sample feed.
You can download all lessons automatically using our public feeds.
Find out about automatic downloads here.
(To get all the newest lessons, make sure you are downloading every lessons from here on out!)
And don’t forget, the first three lessons for all levels and all season are absolutely free, even after your 7-day free trial is over… but only on the site!
I want to access all the lessons… How much are the subscriptions?
There are many types of subscriptions, and the following numbers provide a good guideline.
* Basic: $8 (USD) for 1 month
* Premium: $25 (USD) for 1 month
* Premium Plus: $199 (USD) for 1 month
However, as our gift to you, receive 45% OFF any Basic or Premium Subscription (offer valid for 1 week) and pay just:
* Basic: as low as $2.75 (USD) for 1 month
* Premium: $8.25 (USD) for 1 month
Pick up a 1-Year Premium Subscription for just $99 USD!
Posted by JapanesePod101.com in General Announcements |
November 11th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I have an active Basic subscription, but I can no longer access the older lesson audio files. It says I must have a premium suscription. But, from reading the above information, I should be unaffected and still be able to access the audio on these lessons with my Basic subscription. Will this be sorted out soon? Thanks for your help.
Dave
November 11th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Hi David,
You should be unaffected. Is this happening for all the lessons or just a certain few?
November 12th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Dave-san,
This was a minor bug that’s been fixed. You should be good to go.
Thanks for your patience and support.
Eran
November 12th, 2008 at 7:40 am
This is BAD!
Friends told me about this site: how much it’s interesting and helpful and so on.
I’ve just signed in for a free account and you cut off old lessons: the ones I need now to start learning!!
I can’t start my course from lesson number “one hundred and X”, don’t you think so?
Sorry but you’ve really disappointed me.
Can you, at least, tell me if you’re planning to restart lessons from the basic?
Thanks.
Ziqu
November 12th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Ziqurrat-san.
The newer lessons will still be free for you to download and listen to. We have lessons written months in ahead. So there won’t be a shortage of lessons that you can study from. You can study from all of our upcoming seasons. All the newest lessons are still free for you to download. In addition to that, the first three lessons of each series are absolutely free for you sample.
If you enjoy what you’ve heard from the first three lessons of an season, and would like to access the older lessons, you can take advantage of our Change Campaign. With this, you can save 45% off and of course have access to all the lessons you would ever need. This is only valid until Saturday, but there won’t be many chances to take advantage of this highly discounted offer.
You can claim 45% off, any basic or Premium subscription here:
http://www.japanesepod101.com/coupon/CHANGE/
November 13th, 2008 at 8:30 am
deleted by admin. profanity will not be tolerated
November 13th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I don’t get it, i could still download and hear the very first lessons made in December 2005
if this is about “Audio only” i could still get the first lessons
I dont see the issue or problem.
audio’s the only important one for me anyway
November 13th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
(first part deleted due to profanity) ….The slogan on your site states “learn Japanese with FREE podcasts” yet it’s a complete lie. You’re just deceiving people, that is.
Just change the slogan already, be honest to your greedy intentions once in a lifetime.
正直が一番ですね。
Response by admin: the newest lessons are still free. Subscribe and update and get the audio podcasts for free. In addition, the first 3 lessons of each Season are free.
*You are entitled to share your opinion, but profanity will not be tolerated. Thank you.
November 14th, 2008 at 5:58 am
Come on guyz, they’ve really been good, with good contents. I was a bit surprised, too from such a sudden change, but I am agree with them they would need more financial resource to make more creative contents. (As they already have hundreds of lessons.) And it is better to keep the newest ones free than the old ones. If you want to use the old ones to start studying japanese, I suggest to subscribe the basic membership for one month. With the basic subscription, you can download ALL THE LESSONS. It’s several dollars and I don’t think it is such a big deal for such good contents.
And finally, to Innovative language, please don’t be evil! You have been good and please remain good! Don’t forget thousands of your supporters whether they are paying you or not!
November 14th, 2008 at 10:21 am
News flash, it’s past November 10th and all the first lessons are still up for free.
And no one answered me yet, great, no change !
November 14th, 2008 at 10:22 am
oh nvm
November 14th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Thank god there are still fansub dramas where I can learn japanese from. I can listen and understand the intermediate levels easily. =)
November 14th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
I’ve noticed in the last few days that japanesepod101.com has had some availability issues. I was able to access the site for a small window yesterday but it appears to be down again; any news on when the problems will be resolved? Thanks very much!
November 15th, 2008 at 1:08 am
Actually, this seems like a great deal for those of us just thinking about getting started. However, it’s only the 14th and clicking the links leads to the message: “Sorry. This coupon is expired.” Can this be fixed before the expiration date? Thanks! (Hmm, just previewed the comment and saw that the site things today is Nov 15 @ 10:05 am, oh well, I guess I missed it?)
November 16th, 2008 at 1:02 am
It has been interesting to watch this site grow since Dec. 05. I have been helped by the Jpod Crew so much in my efforts to study Japanese.
November 16th, 2008 at 2:01 am
Amir-san: The first three lessons of every season and every level will remain free forever on the site.
Jong-san: Thank you for your support
Nick-san: I’m sorry to hear about your issues. Are you still experiencing issues connecting? Please email us at contactus@japanesepod101.com and we’ll walk you through basic troubleshooting steps.
Stan-san: I extended the coupon for another 24 hours.
Joey: Thank you for your support
November 16th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Peter, I hope you change your mind about this. If you want to give people incentive to subscribe, you should make the NEW lessons available to subscribers, not the other way around. That way, users with free accounts can still poke around and access most of the content while locked out of the most recent lessons.
No one is going to buy the argument that access to recent lessons for free is useful, because people want to begin from lesson one. You are only going to encourage piracy by going this route.
November 16th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
OK, I extended my current subscription. Thanks for the great deal! But why does my account history show this new subscription period as December 31, 2012 to December 31, 2013?
November 17th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Hi Frank,
Thanks for stopping by and giving us your suggestion. This change is up for review in a few months. We will definitely take your suggestion into account when we review what has happened in a few months. We’ll definitely look into the whole piracy issue as well.
Sue,
We’ll e-mail you soon and see what has happened. Thanks, for extending your subscription!
November 20th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I agree with Frank.
I think that if I were interested in JPod-101, as a potential new student, being able to listen some of the first lessons in each season ( especially for beginner and newbie ) would make be interested in obtaining more.
I would be discouraged from learning ( and subscribing ) if I couldn’t understand the lessons, because they included content which had already been explained in lessons that I did not have access to.
Back in the days when “gag” introductions were common, I made the comment that these had the effect of overwhelming new students who did not understand them. The same thing applies here !!
You don’t start reading a book from the last few chapters to decide if you are going to buy it or not !!
November 30th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Hi Pangur,
Thanks for your feedback. This is the very reason why we decided to make the first 3 lessons of each level and season free.
- Eran
January 6th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
It’s sad… I was studying wtith Lesson 1 but Now I can’t listen the lessons anymore. =p but I’m trying to understand youguys cuz it needs some money to manage this site BUT youguys didn’t have to do this to us :p We can support and donate money for this site cuz Japanesepod101 was GOOD! T.T Anyway, I recommended a lot this site to my friends and others, Now they are complaining because of this (can’t listen old lessons.)… My friends have to start with “Lesson1″ not Newest…but what can I say :p anyway I hope this site will be better like back then. Thank you.