When Patreon was first launched in 2013, it changed the landscape of digital media forever.
The story goes that musician Jack Conte loved making videos online.
But he wanted to make a living off his creative project and he didn’t have very many avenues.
Google AdSense isn’t known for being very lucrative, and personal websites aren’t
very popular.
So, he got an idea, and along with Sam Yam they set off to create a platform where patrons
can pay to support their favorite artists.
Finally, creators would have an easy and simple solution to fund their creative ventures.
And that dream has partly become a reality.
By 2019, Patreon had paid out over one billion dollars to creators.
And the train shows no signs of slowing down.
Patreon has become an essential part of the digital media experience.
Thousands of creators have been able to abandon their day-job and become content creators
all thanks to this tech start-up that revolutionized how we approach art on the internet.
So, what’s there to critique?
The first signs of trouble began in 2017.
Conte put out a blog post laying out the new service fees Patreon would charge for each
transaction.
The fee was 2.9 percent of each pledge plus a flat 35-cent charge, which made $1-$2 pledges
way more expensive.
This backfired bigtime among patrons and creators alike and the company was forced to walk the
decision back.
“Many of you lost patrons, and you lost income.
No apology will make up for that, but nevertheless, I’m sorry.”
This move revealed a gaping hole in the Patreon business model: they weren’t making a profit.
Like the hundreds of other tech start-ups out there, Patreon was funded by venture capitalists
and angel investors.
In short, these are the individuals who front load the cost of starting a business, with
the expectation of making big returns on their investment.
As it was, Patreon was making more than enough to continue providing the same service to
its users.
But, providing good, quality service wasn’t enough, investors wanted to see growth, a
lot of it.
And so while the 2017 fees failed, in 2019 they launched a new tiered account system,
where Patreon’s fees would range from 5% to 12% of a creator’s revenue depending
on their size and level of need.
The reason behind the roll-out of the new plan was clear as day, Patreon needed to get
more money out of creators.
And to do so, it need to expand past its initial vision of being a donation platform.
It couldn’t just be a platform: it needed to be a service.
The Premium plan, for example, promises creators growth via the help of a dedicated Patreon
Manager that connects you to the opportunities and help you need.
By being part of the premium plan, you're paying more but you're also getting a supposed service.
This is a pattern of behavior you see in a lot of tech companies.
A demand in the market is identified and a project is started to meet it.
Venture capital is acquired, and the project is launched successfully.
But success isn’t enough, the capital holders demand growth.
And so, the developers staple all kinds of new features onto the project to suck more
money of the consumer.
And while sometimes these features are loved, a lot of the time this leads to bloated software
that loses sight of its original purpose.
Patreon has now entered the “micro-lending” market with Patreon Capital.
So now if you need a loan, Patreon’s got your back.
Which is just… weird.
And really doesn’t have anything to do with its original purpose of providing artists
and creators a sustainable source of income.
As the years go on, it’s likely Patreon will continue to bloat itself with one auxiliary
service after the other to snag just a few more dollars from creators.
But this isn’t the only issue caused by their business model.
There’s also the issue of censorship.
Patreon isn’t the newest tech startup on the block.
It’s grown up and one of its priorities now is to maintain its squeaky-clean advertiser
friendly brand, because, again, it’s all about pleasing the shareholders.
The website that was once welcoming of a variety of content has cracked down on all kinds of
different genres.
It recently banned a weirdly specific genre of NSFW content, which is kind of funny, but
also part of its slow march towards the prohibition of all types of this kind of content, forcing
these workers out of Patreon altogether.
Patreon also came under a lot of heat, even leading to a lawsuit, over its treatment of
right-wing creators.
And I’m not one to defend any of these guys, I think, generally, banning people like Lauren
Southern from ever having platforms is a good thing.
But like every social media company, when it’s cracked down on right-wingers, it inevitably
“both-sides” the situation and comes down on left-wingers too.
In 2017, Patreon deleted the account of the independent news website It’s Going Down,
right after taking down some right-wing channels almost as a reflexive way to defend themselves
from the accusation that they’re targeting right-wingers.
When these big tech media companies go after the wolves, they always need a sacrificial
lamb.
And as they continue to make it harder and harder to talk about anything remotely political
and controversial, we really need to be asking whether this is where we want to be making
our money.
Thankfully, there *is* an alternative.
In 2015, Liberapay was founded.
It’s a recurring donation platform, just like Patreon except it’s a nonprofit, meaning
there are no shareholders to appease.
It’s got a ton of notable organizations and companies fundraising off of it and despite
its shaky early history, its grown to become a notable player in the crowdfunding market.
The only major difference between Liberapay and Patreon is that patrons cannot receive
anything in exchange for donations.
There are no tiers of support, instead you just put how much you’re willing to donate
per week.
While some might see this as a negative, this is huge.
Since they’re strictly donations, you don’t pay a VAT or taxes.
Patreon is rolling out taxes and VAT payments this summer, which will again mean less money
for creators.
In Liberapay there are no fees, only what the payment processor takes.
So creators get more money, more often.
There’s also an explore feature.
While Patreon has stripped its website of any discovery features, Liberapay makes it
easy for your content to be discovered by wandering patrons
with cash burning a hole in their pockets.
Right now, the biggest thing separating Liberapay from Patreon is growth.
Liberapay is a small nonprofit with a big vision for what it wants to become, not a
fully featured multi-million dollar behemoth.
Eventually, we’ll be able to send updates to donors, customize our donation forms and
see and interact with our patrons.
But because of its size, every new feature is a big effort.
That’s why I want to promote Liberapay.
If you’re a creator, I don’t think shutting down your Patreon and opening a Liberapay
would be a super wise move, since you’d probably lose a lot of money.
But I think it’d be wise to consider a slow shift towards the platform.
Especially for political creators like me.
If you let me get poetic about the entire thing, Patreon began with an admirable goal.
To make funding art easier, essentially democratizing the world of online media so anyone could
live out their dreams.
But with the passing of every year, it seems Patreon has succumbed to the pressures of
its business model, seeking not to help the struggling artists of the world, but to partner
with enterprises to pad its profits.
Patreon game-ifies the act of patronage, users are given unique tiers and titles depending
on their donation level, and given access to an exclusive world of content and art.
Just like Patreon is a private business, so too does it seek to privatize art and lock
access behind a paywall.
Meanwhile, the Liberapay project is founded upon the idea that our work exists in the
commons.
That creators make open and accessible work that shouldn’t exist behind a gated community.
It’s a nonprofit dedicated to the creation of open and free knowledge, software, art
and media.
It’s content for everybody.
And, I think it’s a beautiful goal.
So, I’ve decided to open up my own Liberapay.
I wouldn’t be here without the direct monetary support of a lot of you.
When my laptop died a year ago, you all crowd-funded to help me get a new one.
I recognize a lot of you from my old Patreon that was shut down during my hiatus earlier
this year.
So, by no means feel pressured to give.
To tell you the truth, I already feel deeply indebted to the support I’ve received from
a lot of you.
Especially to my former-Patreons and those who have supported me in the past.
So before anything else, I’d like to say thank you.
This Patreon video is actually the one I promised I’d make way back when for those of you
who remember.
But, I didn’t really like the Patreon experience as a creator, personally.
So this seems like a very solid alternative, and I have high hopes for the future.
We’ve had an awesome past couple of months, and we’ve talked about loads of different
topics and ideas.
And I have a bunch of things I still want to talk about.
And I’m not content with just talking about ideas, I’m working restlessly to building
a working class movement in my community and I’m documenting every step of the way, which
I’ll probably have a video of that very soon.
We’re doing big things here, and if you find yourself able to support, then probably
go donate to causes that actually matter.
And then if you still have money left over, go look up more causes that matter!
And finally, if you still find yourself able to support, then you can go to liberapay.com/torres_asdf
to help me keep making the content you enjoy.
There’s a lot of good things coming, and just like this is still a small channel with
big dreams for the future.
I hope one day we can build Liberapay up to be a viable competitor for Patreon.
Thanks for watching!