When NBCUniversal announced in May that it would be shutting down Bluprint, the online video subscription service for crafters (formerly known as Craftsy), many in the crafts community were dismayed. Bluprint’s massive archive of instructional craft courses seemed destined to disappear into the ether. Now, the fate of those course videos has, perhaps, been saved.
TN Marketing, a Minneapolis-based global online video subscription, and streaming business, today announced it has acquired assets of Bluprint from NBCUniversal, effective immediately.
“The acquisition of Bluprint assets establishes TN Marketing as the largest online digital video subscription company focused on instructional how-to content,” said Cal Franklin, CEO and president of TN Marketing. “Bluprint is a natural fit as part of TN Marketing’s portfolio of online communities.”
TN Marketing is perhaps best known in the craft community as the owner of National Sewing Circle and National Quilters Circle, sites that offer how-to video instructional video content. The company is a subsidiary of Trans National Group Services of Boston, which was founded by Steve Belkin more than 46 years ago.
TN Marketing owns a total of 12 online hobby communities including Woodworkers Guild of America, Get Healthy U TV, Outdoor Photography Guide and RV Repair Club among others.
According to the press release, the acquisition of Bluprint assets by TN Marketing “effectively will provide a seamless transition for current Bluprint customers and subscribers, by preserving their access to the Bluprint content.” TN Marketing announced, “it will honor previous customer purchases for classes and subscriptions.”
“Our team is focused on continuing the excitement, enthusiasm, and loyalty that the Bluprint community, instructors, designers, and content creators enjoyed since its Craftsy days,” said Jim Kopp, EVP, and GM of Digital Business.
I wonder what this means for the Bluprint Instructors. Asking for myself, as well as others.
The email I received this morning stated, “The TN Marketing team will be in touch later today or tomorrow to officially welcome you to the TN Marketing family and share more information about next steps.”
How do I access my Bluprint and craftsy classes?
I’ve gotten a flurry of emails about this that my class will continue to be available and royalties would be paid.
Abby, thanks once again for keeping us informed about Bluprint. This is really good news.
Yes, Abby, thank you for letting us know what is going on. Those of us who were Bluprint customers have still been kept in the dark. If I hadn’t discovered your post on the related previous article, I still wouldn’t know what’s going on. Again, thank you for keeping us informed.
I’m just a customer (aka not an instructor) and I got an email yesterday stating that Bluprint would be returning to Craftsy and to stay ;tuned for more details.
Thanks for bringing us up to speed. A quick look at the National Sewing Circle site suggests – certainly for sewers it’s good for beginners but can hardly compete with the courses we had from Craftsy. I certainly won’t want to pay a subscription for what they have on offer right now. It’s to be hoped we’ll not be forced to pay something to retain access to our courses as I’m sure they won’t want to be maintaining Craftsy sites for nothing. Everyone is in it for profit!
I hope my pessimism is unfounded.
I will be looking forward to seeing what the experience will be like as a subscriber on this new site. I do hope that they find a way to give users who do not want to subscribe access to their “Own Forever Classes” as Bluprint did. I am a Bluprint subscriber and I might subscribe to the new site as well after my subscription runs out depending on what kind of new content they add.
All that being said, I am not sorry that I went to the effort to download my Forever course videos and resources. I have them on the drive of my MacBook Pro, and I have saved them to Dropbox. So regardless of what happens I will be covered.
Terri, how did you do the downloads? It looked to me like you had to download each segment individually, and not a whole class at a time. Also, only from an iPhone or iPad, and not from computer.
There is a software called allavsoft. It costs around $20 for a month, one off not subscription. You will need to contact them with your bluprint login – I know that sounds dodgy but it isn’t. Then you can download to your hard drive. Worked for me and many of my friends.
I’ve been using Microsoft Gamebar. It’s built in to Windows 10. I do have to do each episode separately. I just log in to Bluprint on my computer, start the class I want and pause it. Then hit the window key and the letter g to get a popup of controls & click on the capture button. Then click in the video & click play. Check how long it is & set a timer so I come back in time to start the next one. It’s a little confusing at first because the ICONS aren’t labeled but there are instructions if you Google.
You’d have problems with a tablet or phone. Not enough disk space. Using allavsoft, I downloaded 130+ classes over 2 days. Had to keep offloading the files to a portable hard drive as my C drive filled up. They just zipped right along. Good descriptive names automatically. Well worth the $20 for me.
This is the second on line class Marketer to go away on me. The other was a polymer/metal clay company owned by Donna Kato.
I think that bluprint’s “watch everything for $x per month” was part of their downfall. The other was that they really cut back on high quality classes when they took over. I was very disappointed in That and their sales format. New photo and baking courses just stopped. And I was unimpressed with all the master chief classes. Too bad.
I, too, used allavsoft for myself and my sister, although I found that nearly half of my sister’s classes were the same as some I had. I had many more classes than she did. But the allavsoft worked very well once I got the rhythm of downloading some and putting them on an external drive it all went very smooth.
I wonder if the Roku app will still be supported?
I didn’t receive anything – they refunded by subscription – I hope that doesn’t take me off the list for
Re-subscribing! Please keep those of us in the dark posted on how to re-subscribe!
Linda Wood
none of the course codes I received to allow me to acquire the remainder of my “forever” classes were functional, and my Rick repeated emails for assistance went on answered. Did any of you experience this problem, and if so, how did you resolve it?
I had the same problem and rev only a brief response that said they were working on it. Nothing since that first response
I experienced the failure of anyone responding to my help emails. My “Own Forever” class codes disappeared and after a few weeks they showed up again. The codes seem to work.
I am very happy!! I love this site and have been very satisfied with Craftsy/Bluprint. The quality of products I bought, teachers, and classes have been exceptional. Thank you for continuing.
Oh such good news! I’ve been feverishly watching all the classes I wanted to watch but hadn’t, so I was really, really going to miss the service now! Lol.
I actually got an email yesterday about Bluprint from TN Marketing that it will go back to being Craftsy. Some of that email is pasted below:
“This is Cal Franklin checking in again with great news! You, the Bluprint/Craftsy community, have spoken and we are listening. You want a return to Craftsy, so let’s bring back the Craftsy brand!
…
Craftsy will launch on or around September 1st. At the Craftsy launch, you will have the ability to once again purchase individual classes and subscriptions on the new Craftsy website.
…
Bluprint will continue to receive and process subscription payments on behalf of Craftsy, LLC, a subsidiary of TN Marketing, and we will let you know when that will change. Craftsy LLC will act as the data controller of any information acquired from Bluprint that relates to you and/or constitutes “personal data” under applicable laws. This will enable your continued access to your account and the courses you have come to enjoy over the years.”
So this is exciting news too!
I’m thrilled that someone purchased the platform. I couldn’t wrap my head around downloading 298 forever classes, so I just resigned myself they would go away. I’ll be making sure to support the new venture, in hopes they stay around a long, long time.
Yup, I felt the same. I’m also glad eventually we’ll be able to buy classes again!
Thank you Abby! Yes, I received an email from TN Marketing / My Bluprint / Craftsy what have you, too. I wonder about the patterns. Will we as designers be able to sell patterns for crafters and sewists to purchase and download? Will we be able to receive a royalty? I had hundreds of “customers” who bought my pattern downloads. I don’t mind Craftsy taking a percentage of the sale, I really don’t, like 20% of the sale is ok, as long as it doesn’t take as much as Etsy. I don’t want to pay upfront like Etsy. I really like the model where the site takes a small percent from the sale, before dispersing the designer’s royalty. Of course, I really liked that Craftsy formerly didn’t take anything, but I know that that’s a pipe dream, we all can wish! lol I just liked the ability to sell to such a wide range of people, to sell as many downloads, patterns, & printables as possible. Thanks Abby!
I am reposting my comment from June 01, 2020 which I submitted right after the closing notice from Bluprint. Guess I wasn’t wrong. Good news, however, that Craftsy will continue, I love the products and instruction….
Carol Habets on June 1, 2020 at 2:53 pm
Just a comment here, but as a corporate H.R. spouse, I know that many company changeover and buyouts can end up in “asset only” agreements, whereby the purchasing company wants nothing to do with payouts of severance, liabilities, accounts payable, assumption of separate contracts with vendors or service providers. They only want client lists or member names, physical inventory and tangible worth. Usually very short notice of closing, leaving people in the dark. I look for the new ownership to come in like big heroes and offer to refresh the coursework we have purchased, perhaps for a nominal fee, or if everyone renews subscriptions, or some such agreement to make it appear that we have been spared the headache of trying to download. Stay tuned, I could be wrong, but it sure sounds like it, especially since there was no liquidation sale. We were only offered a measly 35% discount at the very end.
I’m curious if they will continue to create content or if it will simply be an archive for existing content. Has anyone heard anything about new content creation?
Hopefully that means I can now watch the classes with the patterns (patterns that you can’t get anymore). I started watching the tailoring one and now they seem to be disabled. I noticed any of the classes that were bundled with a pattern were not streamable.
I will be very happy if they go back to the Craftsy platform. I think it was much more user friendly
Heres a Welcome back to Craftsy FAQ that I found https://help.mybluprint.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045785811-Welcome-back-to-Craftsy-FAQ
Thank you Abby. While I’m glad to be able to access the embarrassing number of classes I purchased, I’m still very interested in hearing how this change will impact instructors. I feel blessed to have learned from so many amazing Artists. I want them to keep thriving and to keep teaching online…however wherever ❤️
Martha Wright here…..OH…LORD!!! here we go again….I think I can be everybody’s grandmother and of course I “OWN FOREVER” a lot of classes and a lot more than I have not finished seeing as my old age interferes with my following through from beginning to end even with a mentor/helper. But I am still thinking of finishing all of them. I started with Craftsy from the very beginning and had to stop all crafting activities as I had to fight off THE BIG C. I cameback and it was Bluprint. I flew right through. Then I had another encounter with BIG C and I came out of that alright and here I am getting ready to go and COVID 19 arrives!!! OH…LORD!!! with old age inconveniences and being left like a dinosaur on its way to extinction by technology I am thankful to find out about the takeover by TN Marketing. I hear the river run and I hear Cal Franklin say all will be OK…but I also heard Carol Cabets and with the economy trembling all I can say is HELP!!! I do not want to be dragged downstream by the river of no return. I want to keep on learning.
Unfortunately for me, I haven’t tried to visit Craftsy in months from being too overwhelmed with all that’s going on in this country. This morning I was hit with yet another blow and thought- maybe starting a new class on Craftsy will give me some joy. All this to say that this is the first that I’m learning about Craftsy which is very, very dissapointing because, like many of you, I’m a Craftsy member.
Craftsy will be back next week
Having just tried to login to Craftsy with my former Craftsy, Bluprint login info. I can’t get in and receive a message my login isn’t valid and my email address is unknown. As I have about 6 months subscription on Bluprint I thought we were to have access to Craftsy without paying again. Does anyone have any new information about this?
They haven’t logged the new site yet. Should be this week.
It’s September 27 and attempts to recover my password on the website are unsuccessful. Seems to be a server issue? Curious that I am receiving Craftsy emails… I would like to be able to recover all the classes I purchased through the original Craftsy platform. The cooking classes would be helpful distraction during these turbulent times!
Did you email support or do “forgot my password”? I’m in to my old content just fine
I also was unable to log into my Bluprint/Craftsy account. I did the reset password, and it says ogin isn’t valid and my email address is unknown.
customer Service was unable to find my email also, so I sent them my customer # from an old order.
No word back yet……
Does anyone know if Craftsy will be selling items again? I loved that they had the “kits” for many classes, as well as tools (needles, hooks etc).
No, they will not sell products, kts, fabrics, tools, etc. As of now and per their other comments, they did not acquire that part of the Bluprint business assets. Because of this, I will not be renewing my membership.