Patreon declares itself a crowdfunding platform for creators, as its platform allows creators to draw a steady, continuous income from The Crowd. Patreon’s approach to rewards-based crowdfunding is unique, setting it apart from the likes of Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Whereas the latter two, encourage backers to support creators with one-time pledges in exchange for rewards, Patreon’s model asks backers to subscribe to patrons. Patrons are the content creators or creatives. This funding model makes Patreon particularly well-suited to creators of videos/vloggers, bloggers, online journalists, writers, and musicians.
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Patreon Services
Founded in 2013, in San Francisco, by musician Jack Conte and Sam Yam a developer. Patreon was formed due to a problem faced by Conte. Conte’s portfolio of music videos was getting a million views per month. Despite this, Conte was only making $50/month through ad revenue on YouTube. As a result, he started Patreon with the intent to give artists a sorely needed means of monetizing their work. Describing the reasoning behind his company, Conte said the following in a 2013 article:
I’m releasing new things on a monthly basis. I have friends releasing material weekly,” Conte said. “They’d have to almost invent an excuse to raise money after going on Kickstarter once. We’re saying, ‘No, no. Don’t make up a new endeavor. Keep doing what you do best and let people pay you each time you do that.
When you create an account, you’re asked to self-classify your work into one of the following categories:
- Video & Film
- Writing
- Drawing & Painting
- Podcasts
- Photography
- Science
- Crafts & DIY
- Music
- Comics
- Animation
- Games
- Comedy
- Education
- Dance & Theater
Qualifying for Patreon
Patreon has little in the way of formal content restrictions. Their terms of use forbid users from engaging in especially egregious behaviour, such as racism, fraud, abuse, spam, and intellectual property infringement. Beyond that, projects are free to court controversy.
Try Patreon
Patreon is a crowdfunding site aimed at a particular audience: artists and online personalities in the business of content creation.