• RACHEL R. INCERTIS

    Madrid

Updated Sunday,7May2023-15:49

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Send by email

Comment

  • Photography The photographer who cheated the Sony World Press Award with Artificial Intelligence: "AI is not photography. I do not accept this award"
  • Music The Spanish pop hour: "There is a brutal appetite around the world for singers here"

In 2013, singer-songwriter and YouTuber Jack Conte was looking for a solution to his problem: his music videos had millions of views, but his bank account only reached a few hundred dollars. He came up with the idea of creating a website where his fans could pay him directly to enjoy his content. He sketched out a draft of the project and showed it to a college classmate, Sam Yam. In six weeks, the two students made their dream platform come true. Ten years after its creation, Patreon has solved the same problem that Conte once had for more than 250,000 creators. Together they add up to an income close to 3,200 million euros thanks to the so-called "patrons".

For those to whom the word patronage sounds like a practice from another time, Patreon has taken it to web 3.0. The platform is committed to subscriptions as a formula to boost the talent of thousands of creators: audiovisual artists, podcasters, musicians, designers, writers, journalists and freelance photographers who have found in it a useful way to monetize their work.

Its business proposal, decentralized and focused on the content creators themselves, combines crowdfunding with a kind of paywall that rivals more consolidated websites. "Today, the barriers between content producers and consumers have been blurred. Everyone has access to these platforms, it's just about finding a niche to cover," says Chema Valero, researcher and professor of Journalism at the Miguel Hernández University.

"The platform is really useful when it comes to generating alternative income. Patreon does not help you gain visibility, because you are the one who has to make the effort to generate traffic, but, as an entrepreneur, it allows you to take advantage of the subscription model in a simple and intuitive way, "says Juan Merodio, founder of the TEKDI Institute and one of the leading experts in online business in Spain and Latin America. He himself worked with Patreon for three years, enough time to see how the service is "a revolution for the economy of creators". Valero assures that "to publish content and earn quick money, it is no longer necessary to have large infrastructures".

Find out more

Music.

This is how musicians line themselves with TikTok: "We all take advantage"

  • Writing: CRISTINA LUIS Madrid

This is how musicians line themselves with TikTok: "We all take advantage"

Literature.

From the Internet to the Bookshelf: How Wattpad Revolutionized Young Adult Literature

  • Writing: RAQUEL R. INCERTIS Madrid

From the Internet to the Bookshelf: How Wattpad Revolutionized Young Adult Literature

Back in 2008, Kevin Kelly -founder of the influential magazine Wired-, laid out his theory on how a relatively small, but faithful and committed audience could sustain any creator on the internet. Its concept, that of the "1,000 true fans", serves as the basis for the activity of all those independent professionals who manage to connect with a group of people willing enough to contribute to their project.

The deal is simple: they offer their followers something they can't find elsewhere in exchange for a monthly payment of a token fee. Faced with blockbuster culture, Kelly proposed a particular model, "capable of sustaining a business thanks only to the support of a solid community," according to Valero. "This is viable for any audiovisual production, but it can also be viable in the long run for a media outlet."

Patreon allowed me to create a community in just two clicks and launch the contents to the market in less than three hours

Itziar Oltra, creator of Todo es Marketing

"Patreon seemed to me the simplest tool to validate a business idea, and more being a novice freelancer," explains Itziar Oltra, founder of Todo es Marketing. In 2022 he opted for the platform because it allowed him to "build a community in a couple of clicks, without the need to know how to program, and launch the contents to the market in less than three hours". Four months later he had a base of 380 patrons interested in learning about advertising, whose contributions generated an income of more than 2,000 euros per month.

Itziar Oltra created the community Everything is Marketing on Patreon.MUNDO

In its decades of life, the most striking case of freelance coming out of the Patreon quarry in Spain is that of Matthew Bennet, a journalist of British origin who began to publish original chronicles about the Spanish idiosyncrasy on the platform. After a few months, it had the sustained economic support of more than five hundred people. According to data provided by Patreon, his newspaper articles reported him up to 4,000 euros per month. "You can make a lot of money if you attract the attention of an audience hooked on the exclusive content you upload in hiding," says Merodio, for whom this "privilege-based membership system" is really effective for small content creators. He points out, on the other hand, that it is a model "little used outside the Anglo-Saxon countries," since Hispanics "are used to accessing everything for free."

"It is an advantageous model, since it generates professional opportunities for minority content creators, especially those who provide information that is not covered in such depth by generalist media," says Valero. Giving voice to these communicators, and allowing them to make a living from it, is the priority objective of Acast, the largest independent podcast company in the world.

This service of Swedish origin hosts more than 92,000 different programs, landed in Spain last year and, since 2020, has an integration with Patreon that allows "simplifying the subscription process for listeners who access from any listening app, as well as the upload of public and private sound content for filmmakers", in the words of Megan Davies, director of international business of Acast. "We believe in the open ecosystem, in putting the creator first."

We believe in the open ecosystem, in putting the creator first

Megan Davies, Director of International Business, Acast

Patreon is also attended by those fleeing the tyranny of political correctness. Artists, filmmakers or writers who, due to the subject matter or focus of their content, are usually censored by the algorithm of social networks such as Instagram and Facebook or websites such as YouTube. The migration of feminist activists to the platform is increasingly significant, seeking freedom to address controversial issues such as transsexuality or prostitution. "On Patreon there are channels with sexual content that would be banned on other sites. There is no limitation to freedom of expression as long as you warn of what it is," says Merodio.

Elvire Duvelle-Charles, author of the documentary series Clit Revolution, went to Patreon questioning Instagram's moderation policy after her personal account was shut down. He wanted to maintain a healthier relationship with his content in a safe environment, and he succeeded. For the documentary filmmaker, Patreon is "a place where you feel at home, away from the violence and judgment of the algorithm." "People who don't like what I do won't pay to insult, and that allows me to continue producing quality content for a smaller, but more close-knit community," he says.

On Patreon there are channels with content that in other sites would be banned, freedom is total

Juan Merodio, founder of the TEKDI Institute

The creator, however, does not receive 100% of the income derived from his content on Patreon. The service offers different subscription levels, from the most basic plan to premium, "something similar to Netflix," explains Merodio. It also exercises intermediation functions that involve charging a rate "not very low, but reasonable", in the words of Oltra. "In my case they kept 8%, plus an additional 3% when making the transfer to my account in a single payment. But it is worth it, because they manage the VAT issue themselves and issue invoices to customers; It was much easier than taking care of everything from scratch."

The marketing expert speaks in the past of Patreon because its present is different. Thanks to the platform's momentum, he felt confident enough to launch the project on his own. "Everything is Marketing started as a crazy idea, as a hobby that I have had for years. Now I can make a living from it." Today, 260 subscribers support him on his own website, while fifty people continue to consume Oltra's content on Patreon "residually".

Movements to support independent creators via engaged audience have been spreading like wildfire on platforms such as Twitch or Discord. Part of the merit is the consolidation of a personal brand, valuable enough for people to be interested in what they offer and their projects to obtain resonance. Davies says that Acast has recently launched Acast+, "a subscription system for author profiles similar to Patreon" that allows podcasters to maximize their income in different ways, "mainly through membership and advertising."

According to data from this platform, creators have increased their monthly income by 29%; While the conversion rate from free users to paid listeners is around 2%, the percentage is higher if extra episodes or content are offered. In this sense, Merodio believes that "if you are a creator who generates income of more than 5,000 euros, the most profitable thing is to take your project from Patreon once you have settled in the digital landscape". Completely abandoning social networks is not, in any case, an option: open publications continue to be the main asset to capture the attention of new subscribers. "It is important to continue producing free content and reach a very wide audience, but we also want to be among our own and rely on them," summarizes the activist Duvelle-Charles. It's that simple.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Learn more

  • Social Media