Normally I don’t write two consecutive posts about the same subject, but I felt yesterday’s news about Revolution going open source only examined the shocking news of the new Revolution setup.   The other half of the story that I didn’t cover is how this will affect the existing Revolution community.

Here is some more information that will hopefully clarify a few things:

How Will This Change Affect Existing Revolution Theme Owners?

Brian will be updating his current Revolution themes for a full calendar year, meaning if any break in a future version of WordPress released in the next 12 months, he will provide a fixed copy via email to all buyers.  After that you will have to consult the forums for now to update your theme.   Brian will also be transferring all tutorials and support posts/material over to the new site, which will be made available to existing Revolution community members.  In other words, nothing really should change for the next year and now your Revolution themes will be more exclusive because they will go “out of print” by the end of the month.

How Long Until the Existing Revolution Themes Disappear?

The current Revolution themes will be taken down at the end of the day on October 31st, 2008, never to be seen again.   That means if you have been eyeing one of these themes, you’ll want to start budgeting now and make your purchase before the end of the month.   After that date, the current Revolution themes will NOT be available for sale on the new website and they will not be made available for free.  The new open source site will only contain new themes which have not yet been seen.

What Does This Change Mean for Revolution All-Inclusive Package Owners?

For people that have paid a little extra to buy or upgrade to the All-Inclusive Package, they will get all the purchased features on the new website for free AND will get future premium Revolution themes that will never be made available for sale (they will only be sent to All-Inclusive Package owners).   If you plan to buy support on the new website or want these exclusive WordPress themes, you’ll need to buy/upgrade to the All-Inclusive Package before the end of the month.

Special Revolution Clearout Bonus!

There are a lot of people that have been saving for a Revolution theme, but may have trouble getting enough money together by the October 31st, 2008 deadline.   Brian has been proactive and lowered the price of all of his themes by 25% through the end of the month and no discount code is needed.   This means that you can now get single themes for $59.95 or the All-Inclusive Package for $299.95 (or cheaper if you’ve previously purchased a single/developer’s license of a Revolution theme).

Earlier today I posted about the big WordPress Hacks theme giveaway contest.  Only a few hours later Brian Gardner and Jason made a MAJOR announcement, so I decided to clarify a few things with Brian and get this post up for people to discuss.

For those that don’t follow Revolution closely, Brian has been teasing a major project for several weeks now, but I doubt any of us realized just how major it was until today when he announced that Revolution is going open source.   For the few of you that are wondering what open source is, this basically means that all future Revolution source code will be made available for free, making all future Revolution themes completely free.  Also keep in mind that not every detail has been worked out already, so some of the minor details may change a little as the new Revolution gets ready to launch.

According to Brian:

As of 12:00 midnight, Friday October 31st, the themes that are currently available at the Revolution theme site will no longer be available. Ever. This was a decision that I made in order to protect the integrity of the current themes and the conditions under which they were released. Over the past year I have built a community of Revolution users, and to freely offer up those themes would be completely unfair to them. My community matters to me, and this is how I have chosen to handle current themes.

So what does this mean? It means that as of Saturday November 1st, a completely new Revolution site will launch – call it the second coming, or what you will. There will be a new set of themes on that website, which like I said will be made available under the GPL license. There will be an option to purchase packages which include support, tutorials, access to customization and a few other things.

I have to admit that this news shocked me at first, but as I’ve pondered it throughout the day today, the whole business concept seems to be a smart move.   The idea of premium WordPress themes is okay, but I’ve never been 100% convinced that this business model will survive for more than a few years.

Just like ebooks, premium themes can be distributed illegally and the whole concept kind of goes against the spirit of open source and WordPress.  Under this new business model, a bare version of the theme will be available for free to everyone, but services such as theme customizations, support, and tutorials will require either a one-time fee or a monthly/quarterly membership (attempting to get clarification on this still).   This way there is no theft worries, the theme is available for anyone to use for free, and the new business model will likely earn a recurring income instead of the income gained with a one-time purchase, making for a better long term solution.

So, what does this mean for current owners of the Revolution theme?

As you can see from Brian’s quote above, not much will change for existing members of the Revolution community.  All existing themes will NOT be made open source so buyers will still have their unique theme they purchased.   The current Revolution URL will redirect to the new website on November 1st, 2008, and the forums and other support tools will have a home on the new website for anyone to use.

As a side note, if you have been eyeing one of the existing Revolution themes, but you’ve been waiting to commit to purchasing one, then you only have until the end of this month.  At that time they will be taken down and no longer available to be purchased.

Over the past year now, the premium WordPress themes market has really grown from nothing to what we see today, with a record number of authors are either offering premium themes, or selling premium versions of their existing popular free themes.   It truly is amazing to me that this wonderful software that we all love so much is able to help so many people to make money to feed their families while at the same time showing off their design skills.

This weekend I noticed something new and got me thinking a bit about where the premium WordPress themes market is headed.   As many people have said in the past, there are concerns that the premium themes we see today are becoming so common that people are missing out on that unique feel that many people buy these themes for.   I would of course argue that these themes were designed to be templates to be customized from rather than as an end-user product.   You could also argue that there are so many authors and designs now that buying a theme could still give you that unique look that people crave.

With that said, there appears to be a new solution.   We’ve seen theme clubs be talked about and eventually surface in a few places, but now it appears that Brian of Revolution has set another trend by offering his first of many exclusive themes:

What is an Exclusive Theme and How Does it Work?

In the screenshot above, Brian has released an incredible new theme, which is variation of his popular Revolution theme.   It is available only for a limited time and only a limited number to be sold (I believe in this case only 10 will be sold).    If you’d like a copy, you can get it for $499.95.

As far as my thoughts on Exclusive themes, I personally am unsure whether this business model will work.   It appears that 10 themes will be sold in total, so it isn’t truly a unique theme to your site, and the price range is getting close to the price that a company like a Unique Blog Designs or Blog Design Studio would charge for a 100% custom theme for your website. If you are going to spend that kind of money on a custom theme, wouldn’t it be better to spend a little extra to get a truly custom theme that you won’t find on 10 other sites?

With that said, I still haven’t made up my mind yet on this and would love to get your thoughts.  What do you think of this new business model?

I’ve always been a huge fan of Brian Gardner’s Revolution themes, but one of my favorite things has been watching Brian grow as a web designer.   While many theme designers release a theme and then move on to the next one (premium or free themes), Brian has always been great about both supporting his themes and regularly releasing updates to his existing themes to add new features, including more control panel options, and whatever else he can find to improve them.  People who have purchased the themes then get a free update.

Today I noticed Brian has taken his Revolution series into a new area that I don’t believe any other designers are operating in, and that is the music genre.   There are a number of great music blogs out there and now there is a new music WordPress theme available for them to use.

So, what do you get with the Revolution music theme?

• Special Featured Content plugin and thumbnail section on the homepage
• Drop-down menu navigation
• All 3 sidebar areas are widget-ready
• Theme options page inside WP dashboard
• Comments section coded for Gravatars
• Google AdSense integration in between posts and comments
• Blog page template

Here are some screenshots, though in my opinion you need to view the actual demo to get a true appreciation for this one because of the new “featured content” section.

Revolution Music Homepage

Revolution Music Post Page

This theme is available at Brian’s standard pricing of $79.95 for the single-use license and $199.95 for a multiple-use license.   Check out the demo of Revolution Music.

Revolution Music Theme Promotion

Brian has also decided to celebrate his new theme release and the one year anniversary of Revolution with a special sale.   From the end of the weekend, you can buy the Music Revolution theme (single-use or multiple-use license) and contact him to get a second Revolution theme of your choice completely free.

For those of you that participate in the Revolution affiliate program, I just wanted to give you a heads up that Brian is currently offering a special promotion.   Basically he is offering a 25% payout bonus for one week on all sales!    See this post for additional details.

As a quick side note, I know some of you have purchased one of Brian’s themes.   If you’ve bought a single license and have thought about upgrading to the All-Inclusive Developer package (get all of his themes, plus future releases), he is temporarily offering an upgrade option for just $200 (instead of the usual $320). This offer ends at 12:00 midnight Friday July 11th CST.