Patreon – putting the power back into the hands of creatives
Patreon is quickly becoming the leading support platform for creatives and musicians, putting the artist in control of their distribution
Patreon connects over 100,000 active monthly creators with over 2 million active monthly patrons, who support creators using a pledge system – allowing them various rewards directly from the creators. Patreon estimates that in 2018 the creator pay-outs will amount to over USD $300 Million! I’m pretty sure that’s more bank than any other independent music platform on the planet.
Patreon was the brainchild of Jack Conte, a YouTube content creator and musician – he recognized the power of YouTube, the world second largest general search engine and largest music search engine. Jack was looking for a solution to a problem that almost all of us creatives face at some point – we have a fan-base, we have a repertoire of works, however the amount we’re taking to the bank doesn’t add up. Somewhere between labels, publishers, agencies and sales portals – there’s pittance left for the creator. In 2013 Jack founded Patreon with Sam Yam (his college roommate) and it’s now become a staple in the independent creator sphere, putting us in contact with our fans and putting food on the table.
Sounds cool! Does it actually work though?
In my own personal experience, Patreon is somewhat of a godsend.
As a long-time YouTube creator (I only recently started buckling down seriously) I’ve always loved sharing my knowledge and tools – but found it hard to put in the time to create compelling content, and once the content was out it was almost impossible for me to troubleshoot issues that my viewers would be having.
Creating my Patreon support platform has allowed me the opportunity to become what I consider to be a “professional content creator”. The support I get affords me the opportunity to put more hours into my content and ultimately keep improving on it.
A large amount of content creators use affiliate programs to earn commission off linking viewers to items on Amazon or eBay for example. Patreon have just announced that they have acquired Kit, a website aimed at making affiliate linking much easier for creators. Kit provides a common storefront for creators to link all their affiliates to in one place.
Patreon aims to put the power back into the creator’s hands one step at a time!
Check out the blog post where they announced the acquisition here.
If you’re a creator, I highly suggest looking at starting yourself a Patreon platform.
If you haven’t seen the videos that I create, check out my YouTube channel and support my Patreon if you’re keen on my content.
