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Serious question but, do people actually pay monthly for this stuff? No hate I am just legitimately curious the reasoning people sub to services like this.
(Edit) Thanks for all the responses, never thought about it that way.
this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2023
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Technology
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I give ~$15/month total to a couple of creators I really enjoy. They put a lot of hard work into their videos for a relatively niche subject, and it's not much to me. It helps them a little so I don't mind doing it.
Not to dunk on you too hard, but this question is on the same level as "Do people actually use OnlyFans" and "Do people actually pay money on scummy gambling sites?"
Of course they do. The reasons vary from charity towards poor creatives to paying for access to exclusive content to simping for your favourite thirst trap to simply wanting to support a creator you like for a month or two.
I don’t fully understand what people get out of it in many cases like supporters of creators who get 50k+ every month but only release a bit of content once per year, but in general it makes a ton of sense.
I really like patreon since it allows creators some independence on the whims of platforms and advertising companies.
It also allows certain content that doesn't (currently) work on e.g. youtube to exist: E.g. (very) long form videos or highly produced documentaries that may take half a year to plan and shoot just cannot exist within youtube due to the limited per-click revenue.
That doesn't mean this system is perfect: E.g. I would like to have an option to put some money into a monthly pot, which gets distributed based on my viewing habits and current interests. E.g. Twitch has "bits" which can be bought in bulk and distributed freely as donations.
Having a monthly system for "tokens" according to which a monthly donation gets divided into (i.e. a person got 25% of my tokens, so he gets 25% of the pot) would be nice (this does have the potential issue of hurting long-form content, but I could still donate the normal way).
I have to support software projects that I was interested in. Usually only for a few months though. The subs can be pretty cheap such that even several months total is cheaper than a typical software purchase so you are not talking a ton of money.
Some Patrons are set up so that you really only need to donate one month so it is almost like a purchase since, up till now, Patron did not support direct purchases.
I'm a patron of two youtuber's because I want to support them.
A lot of people do, you can check out some creator pages and see they make hundreds of thousands a month. I didn’t really understand either until I thought of it as like a twitch subscription for people that don’t stream. Like you can chuck a creator you enjoy a few dollars a month for the entertainment they provide you. Helps with the moral, I hate but like to see people getting paid, thing.
You mean Patreon in general?
Yes.
Of course. The point isn't too "get stuff", it's too support someone. You see someone doing something you like and you want to motivate them to keep doing that thing, join the Patreon. Like a YouTuber far too small to justify dedicating time to making more videos. Think of it as a donation-subscription. Chucking like a coffee worth of money at a YouTuber isn't a large difference individually, but adds up, and it's more than I could generate for them by watching ads.
There are many creators out there that simply couldn't do their thing without Patreon, or would have to cut back on the amount of "stuff" they create. At a certain size it allows people to go "full time", which is very very far away from the number of followers/subscribers a site like YouTube requires for this. It's also more stable compared to ad revenue or changes in "the algorithm". Note that the percentage taken by Patreon is tiny compared to a twitch sub, YouTube 'join' or similar things(essentially a processing fee, not like 50% as it is on twitch).
I support a number of people, mostly cause I love their stuff and want them to continue, or cause I think it's just an important cause. The fact that you might get an occasional goodie or whatever is besides the point.
That's also where the term Patreon comes from: think Renaissance era rich people or just royalty essentially funding artists, so they can focus on their art. Without this in the olden days, we would have a lot less art from those times these days.
Nice to see Patreon finally adding some new features. Honestly it felt like their entire service was completely stagnant for a few years.
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