Well, my friends, the time has come once again for me to beg strangers on the internet for money.
A quick summation of The Midnight Cafe’s years of begging.
I’ve been posting music on this blog for some 15 years. Originally I used a variety of free hosting services – Megaupload, Mediafire, Rapidshare, etc. They each had their pros and cons but every single one of them would periodically delete my files.
Desiring a more permanent solution I searched for something that would meet my needs and landed on Amazon Drive. They were great except that they got really expensive when you started storing multiple terabytes of data. Eventually, I realized I could no longer afford it on my own and thus began the first begging.
That was June of 2017. I have begged three times since then. You all have always generously given when asked.
I’m an old-school trader and so it is distasteful to me to make money off of this music and so I’ve only used it to pay for my storage (and occasionally to pay for the upkeep on the site). I’ve always shut my PayPal links down once I’ve received enough money to reup the cloud storage.
The last time I begged I actually went to bed before I had reached my goal. When I awoke you all had given me way more than needed. I have kept that money in my PayPal account and only used it for the site.
I am amount to reach my 2TB limit on my current Google Drive plan. Google is a little weird with their plans so they jump from 2TBs up to 5TBs with nothing in between. The 5TB plan costs $249.99 per year. I’ve had the 2 TB plan since January of this year.
So, at my current rate of uploading the 5TB plan should last me until I need to renew my yearly contract at the beginning of 2025 (I should have enough left on the 2TB plan to make it to the end of the year). And then somewhere in the middle of 2025, I’ll need to upgrade to more storage.
Google bumps up from 5TB all the way to 10TB and at that point, you have to pay by the month – at $50 per month. I’m not sure what I’ll do then. I may have to beg on a monthly basis.
As I said, I am an old-school trader, I don’t believe in making money off of this music. However, this site has become something more than just me sharing music. I now write a lot of movie reviews, I often have theme months, and I share links and videos, etc.
None of this is amazing, and I wouldn’t dream of trying to charge for my silly scribblings, but it isn’t nothing. Maybe it is worth something to you. I’m thinking I may just leave the PayPal link open instead of shutting it down when I’ve received enough to renew Google Drive. Maybe I’ll put a link over in my sidebar. Or something.
I’m obviously pretty tentative about all of this and I have no delusions of getting rich or even making a living. But people pretty regularly ask me if they can donate and I usually say no (except when I’m begging, of course) but now maybe I’ll say yes.
For now I need money to upgrade my Google Drive. I currently have $93.34 in my PayPal account, so I need another $156.65 to renew it. Anything above that will be gravy.
Me being me even if I get a bunch of money above that I won’t be going out to buy a new pair of fancy sneakers. But maybe I’ll start collecting physical releases of Crystal Cat bootlegs, or maybe I’ll get myself a new hard drive. Probably I’ll just leave it in the PayPal account and wait until I need to renew the drive again.
I do apologize for hitting you up at Christmastime. I know a lot of you have already spent plenty of gifts for friends and family. They are much more deserving than me. But if you have an extra dollar or two I surely would appreciate it.
And now I’ll shut up and post the PayPal link.
Click here if you would like to donate to The Midnight Cafe.
themidnightcafe.org 
PayPal sent. Thanks for all that you do!
Thank you.
Sent PayPal via Friends and Family, my friend!
Thank you, that was incredibly generous.
I’m in – just sent via PayPal.
THANK YOU for so generously organizing and sharing all this music and write-ups, videos and more. You rock sir!
Thank you my friend.
Thank you, thank you Mat for keeping it going!
Thank you.
Hi Mat i can probably donate in January if that is useful, thanks for all you do.
Whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it is good by me. Or if you can’t afford it or don’t want to do it that’s ok too.
Thanks Mat, i will do though. You deserve it frankly, and i have some superb and quite rare stuff from your archives. I have been a follower for several years too, it’s only fair.
Have you ever thought of WeTransfer? It is not very expensive and the Pro version means you can keep your stuff there, unhindered, indefinitely. Pink Robert uses WeTransfer and has permanent links. It is a breeze. Google are just a bunch of crooks who like to complicate your life endlessly so forget them, maybe?
I have thought about WeTransfer. There are a lot of things I liked about them, but ultimately I decided against them.
I actually wrote a blog post about my experience with them:
Hi Mat,
I send a few dollars in the post to http://www.archive.org every year. I’d rather risk the dodgy US and UK postal systems than do any online transactions.
So if you send me your address I’ll do that
Regards
John Alderdice
And if you ever come across a recording of West, Bruce and Laing’s final gig, at Leeds University, please put it on! My ‘Holy Grail’!
Let me think on this.
And if I ever come across that gig I’ll post it here.
Ok, thanks
PayPal just sent. Keep on truckin’!
Thank you.
Hi Mat, just transferred via PayPal, keep up the excellent site, it is brilliant! Tom
Hi Mat,
Just transferred via paypal, excellent site, keep up the brilliant work! Tom
Thanks very much.
Mat, I wonder if this would get even more response if it were the new “pinned to the top” post instead of the current one?
Either way, come on good people, if you have ever DL’ed from here and can give, I hope you donate!
I’ve gotten a good response thus far. I may eventually put a link in the sidebar, or pin something to the top as you suggest. I’m kind of allergic to this whole concept, but then I think about all the time and energy I put into this site and how people sometimes ask me how they can give back, and I figure why not? When I have to bump up to the 10 terabyte plan and Google makes me go to a monthly billing cycle I’ll definitely have to do something more regular.
We are all happy to contribute – it’s the least we can do to support your work here and this fantastic site.
Hi Mat,
Just sent via PayPal. Thanks for everything you do.
Money sent! Thanks for your wonderful blog!
Hey Mat
Thanks for helping me with Dylan requests. Paypal transfer sent. Not much but I hope it’ll help a little.
Will have some more Dylan wants soon.
Hey, thanks so much. That is very kind. Feel free to make more requests. I’ll try to fill every one that I can.